Knee to the Grindstone: How Colin Kaepernick Overcame a Privileged Upbringing and Found Success as a Professional Activist

Colin Kaepernick, the former NFL quarterback who protested during the national anthem, has become a celebrated activist, brand ambassador, and media tycoon since claiming he was a victim of racism. Kaepernick’s career took off after Donald Trump was elected president. He signed a multimillion-dollar endorsement deal with Nike and produced an autobiographical Netflix series. Kaepernick’s latest book, “Colin Kaepernick: Change the Game” is a graphic novel memoir about his efforts to “find himself” as a gifted high-school athlete cursed with an abundance of scholarship offers for a sport he considered too “white.” He portrays his white adoptive parents as “racist” and hinders his “privileges” with woke sensibilities. He complains about his dad who always wanted to talk or listen to country music when he drove to Kaepernick’s practices or camps. Several pages later, he is annoyed when pundits talked about absent black fathers and complained about his adoptive dad who wanted to have awkward conversations about girls.

Kaepernick’s slogan “Believe in something. Even if it means sacrificing everything” is what he claims to have done for kneeling during national anthem. His privileged upbringing enabled him to overcome his parents’ microaggressions, and he narrowly avoided a career in professional baseball rather than football. The book is available for purchase.

Colin Kaepernick: Change the Game by Colin Kaepernick
Graphix, 144 pp., $14.99