Uncle Bobbie’s Coffee and Books has built a reputation for spotlighting authors who speak truth to power, like scholar Ta-Nehisi Coates, Supreme Court Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson, and best-selling fiction writer Tayari Jones.
So when Colin Kaepernick’s memoir The Perilous Fight (Hachette, $32.50) hit bookstores this week, of course the former NFL player would make a local appearance courtesy of Uncle Bobbie’s, right?
Kaepernick’s memoir is a coming-of-age story about a Black child who was adopted into a white family and found his identity through sports.
Football didn’t just become Kaepernick’s refuge, it helped him find his voice, ultimately informing his decision to take a knee in 2016 while the national anthem played at the beginning of a game between San Francisco 49ers and the San Diego Chargers. It was an act of protest against the country’s racial inequities.
The truth is, Kaepernick was scheduled to come through Uncle Bobbie’s on his book tour. Hachette asked the Germantown bookstore to reserve a date. And the bookstore did find a venue big enough to hold Kaepernick’s fans at what would likely have been a sold-out event.
But because of an industry kerfuffle, the Philadelphia stop was canceled as were several of Kaepernick’s other tour stops.
The fault, says Justin Moore, Uncle Bobbie’s general manager, lies squarely in the hands of former NBA player and former Sacramento mayor Kevin Johnson’s nonprofit the National Association of Black Bookstores.
Once Kaepernick signed on with NAB2 — which is also working with actress Tisha Campbell on this week’s release of her memoir The A Word: A Mother’s Journey Through Autism and Love (HarperCollins, $29.99) — to manage the book tour, the previous agreement with Uncle Bobbie’s and other bookstores was seemingly null and void.
So, the beef isn’t with Kaepernick, it’s with NAB2.
“Although NAB2 was fully aware of the previous arrangements, they nonetheless chose to undermine our collective efforts, forcing us to cancel previously scheduled dates,” Moore wrote in an Instagram post this week. “As a result, multiple bookstores (including Black-owned stores) lost considerable revenue, and wasted valuable resources planning those events.”
Moore didn’t stop there.
“While these circumstances would be disturbing under any circumstances, it is particularly concerning it was created by Mr. Johnson and NAB2, an organization whose expressed mission is to support and uplift Black-owned bookstores.”
Moore learned of the cancellation months ago but made the post earlier this week after customers began asking him if and when Kaepernick was coming to Philly.
NAB2 did not respond to requests for an interview.
The West Coast nonprofit said in a social media post that it “is deeply saddened by Uncle Bobbie’s assertions that the organization engaged in ‘harmful business practices’ that undermine Black-owned bookstores.”
“NAB2 is honored to be partnering with 17 Black owned book stores on Kaepernick’s tour,” the post said.
“True to our mission, it includes many smaller bookstores that have historically been overlooked and excluded from similar events. Further, NAB2 did not ask or advocate that Uncle Bobbie’s, or any other Black-owned bookstore be excluded from Colin Kaepernick’s book tour or prevented from benefiting from it.”
In the meantime, Kaepernick’s signed memoir is available for sale at Uncle Bobbie’s. Whether the book tour will make a stop in the city is still unknown.
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