Jeremy Ebobisse has a lot to say, but he chooses his words carefully.

“We’re in a specific job that we love, that we’re lucky – not lucky, I don’t mean that – that we’re super happy to be a part of,” he says of himself and his fellow professional athletes. “But we also have another side of us that we want to share with the world.”

It’s an important distinction, because Ebobisse knows that many Americans think pro athletes, particularly black ones, should “stick to sports”. At just 22, the Portland Timbers striker has already learned to dismiss that notion.

“The idea of sticking to sports is unrealistic,” he says. “In the same way it’s tough to separate rap music from the experience that the rap music is describing. You can appreciate the music, but at what point can you appreciate the fact that a rapper’s talking about poverty, talking about killings going on, talking about ambitions”

Ebobisse, who broke into the Portland Timbers’ starting line-up last season, had already made a name for himself before finding success in Major League Soccer. The striker is known for his unapologetic presence on Twitter, where he speaks candidly about race, immigration, homelessness and a host of other topics. It’s not the attitude one might expect from a kid who grew up in one of DC’s wealthiest suburbs.

“‘Bubble’ is a term that gets thrown out a lot, but there’s no other way to describe Bethesda and Montgomery County,” he said. “Being around comfortable financial situations allowed me to progress on my own track and not worry about a lot of things, but inevitably they all found their way into my life, at different moments.”

One such wake-up call came during his second and final year at Duke, when a noose was discovered hanging on campus. The school’s investigation subsequently blamed the incident on ignorance rather than racism, but the damage was done. Coming as it did amidst a spate of headlines about racism on American campuses and police killings of black Americans, the incident set off a firestorm that taught Ebobisse about the people around him, and about himself.

“You really found where people stood, from ‘Oh, it’s not that big of a deal. He didn’t know what he was doing. It was an accident,’ to the other side, which was like, ‘This is unacceptable,’” he says. “You find yourself in the middle of all that, trying to find your voice, and from there, I think I felt pretty comfortable with who I was, and speaking out.”

His platform grew when he left college to sign an MLS contract, a decision he did not take lightly. In addition to tweeting about criminal justice reform and speaking out against detention of migrants at the border – “What’s going on right now is shocking on a number of levels” – Ebobisse unequivocally supports athletes who prioritize their professional careers over a college degree.

“These guys do everything and bring in a lot of money, and the person selling their jersey at the campus bookstore can make money off of them, the coaches can make millions of dollars, tens of thousands off camps, they can sign autographs and get their own individual endorsement deals, and a player can’t do anything, and they’re actually the ones putting it out there?” he asks.

Ebobisse’s experiences in high school and at Duke shaped his views on education, racial justice and the connections between the two. As a boy, he says, he took offense when people chalked his accomplishments up to affirmative action. As he matured, he started to articulate his response.

Jeremy Ebobisse made his international debut in January. Photograph: Christian Petersen/Getty Images

“We talk about reparations in this country – because that’s been a hot topic recently – I think affirmative action is the bare minimum, when you think about it, because it’s giving us an opportunity to get into these elite institutions that have for so long barred the door,” he argues. “Now, we can say that Brown v Board of Education allowed everything to be equal, took the shackles off, but if you give one group that much of a head start, it’s unrealistic to say, ‘OK, everything’s equal, now catch up.’”

Ebobisee remembers driving on a highway named after Jefferson Davis, the president of the Confederacy, as a child. He believes education policy needs to address the racial history many Americans don’t know, or prefer to ignore.

“I was having an argument about the Civil War with one of my friends who went to school in Texas. He was telling me that the Civil War had little or nothing to do with slavery, and l was lost on that point,” Ebobisse said. “If we don’t even have the same fundamental, basic education where we’re learning the same things, how can we have arguments about larger policies?”

Education reform, he believes, should start “on a very fundamental level, with how education’s funded.” His school in Bethesda was excellent, he says, because American schools are funded by local property taxes. In neighboring counties with lower property values, children didn’t get the same opportunities he enjoyed.

Unsurprisingly, when asked about his role models, Ebobisse immediately names LeBron James. In addition to James’s own interest in education, Ebobisse admires his ability to control his own narrative and refusal to change his personality in response to criticism.

In that respect, the young striker emulates James. Plenty of people have warned him to tone down the political talk, he says, but “there was nothing they could do to change it.” He adds that he’s “never gotten even an ounce of criticism” from anyone in the Timbers organization.

Ebobisse has started the 2019 season well, scoring four goals in 13 appearances. In January, he received his first senior international cap, starting for the United States against Panama.

“I can’t overstate how important that was to me,” he says of his national team call-up. Does playing for the USMNT mean he can’t criticize the US?

“Right now, I’m more critical because of who’s in office and what he’s doing. I don’t see myself as representing him at all,” he says. “Now, him aside, I’m critical of government because I believe in its ability for good. I believe in big government. I think big government can help protect a lot of things that are important, from a social to economic aspect, where an individual might be taken advantage of.”

Just three years into his career, Ebobisse says he’s “constantly thinking about” ways to use his platform to promote social change, with an eye toward the work he will do when his playing days are over. He also hopes more of his fellow soccer players find their voices as he continues to develop his.

“It’d be cool to see more soccer players speaking out more,” he said. “Twitter’s like a microphone, and hopefully that microphone reaches more and more people, but I want to do something more off the field, off the screen, something that’s gonna have a wider impact.”