Colin Kaepernick Says He Found It 'Very Difficult' to Call Out Adoptive Parents Over Racial Issues

The former NFL player opened up about how isolating it felt growing up as a biracial child with adoptive, White parents

Growing up, Colin Kaepernick faced a lot of challenges when it came to opening up to his adoptive parents. And now, he's starting a conversation around those challenges to help others in a similar position.

"It's isolating," Eve L. Ewing said in their conversation of the home life Kaepernick, 35, had to navigate as a biracial adoptee being raised by White parents.

"I've had a lot of responses from other transracial adoptees on that front," Kaepernick said, agreeing with Ewing, with whom he co-wrote his new graphic novel, Change the Game, which explores similar themes.

"Just having similar experiences and having similar family dynamics that they're trying to navigate," he added. "Because it is so unique, it is very difficult for people to have a nuanced conversation around it. Like, yeah, the people that love you and that you love can also perpetuate very problematic elements, and those things can exist at the same time."

The former San Francisco 49ers quarterback continued, "And part of it is like, how do you grapple with that? How do you navigate that? And especially at a young age, where it's like, are you equipped to navigate that, and are your parents equipped to navigate that?"

Related: Colin Kaepernick on His New Graphic Memoir, Change the Game, and Why Telling His Story Helped Him Grow

In Change the Game, which tells his life story from the perspective of his teenage self, Kaepernick revisits difficult moments from his youth, like the painful process of choosing football over baseball, a sport in which he also excelled.

He told PEOPLE last month that he was "meticulous" when it came to both the selection and the delivery of the stories included in the book, which he hopes will help younger audiences who don't often see themselves represented.

"I was inspired to write Change the Game to help young people navigate complex and nuanced situations they may face with respect to identity, family and major life decisions," Kaepernick said.

Navigating complex and nuanced situations is something the athlete and activist is familiar with, as he's continuously revealed while promoting the new book.

During an interview with CBS News last month, Kaepernick revealed some of the pushback he faced from his adoptive parents Rick and Teresa Kaepernick when he was younger.

RELATED VIDEO: Colin Kaepernick Says He Knows His Adoptive Parents "Loved" Him, but Struggled to Embrace His Blackness

"I know my parents loved me, but there were still very problematic things that I went through," Kaepernick said of his mother and father, Teresa and Rick Kaepernick.

He mentioned a time when he wanted to get cornrows, and his mom pushed back, calling the hairstyle "unprofessional" and that he would look like "a little thug."

"I think it was important to show, 'No, this can happen in your own home,' " he continued. "And how do we move forward collectively while addressing the racism that is being perpetuated?"

Even later in life, Kaepernick continued facing tough conversations surrounding his race.

In 2016, he became a household name when he began kneeling during the National Anthem before NFL games in silent protest of police brutality, and later went unsigned in 2017. He has not played football professionally since.

Related: Colin Kaepernick's New True Crime Series Killing County Takes a Look Inside a Calif. Police Department

Change the Game is the second book the former NFL player has released.

In 2022, he wrote a book for younger children, I Color Myself Different, inspired by a transformative moment he had when he was 5 years old and asked to draw a family picture.

"I drew my white adoptive family with a yellow crayon and then picked up a brown crayon to draw myself," Kaepernick told PEOPLE in a statement at the time.

"This revelatory moment taught me an important lesson about embracing my Black identity through the power of self-love and eventually helped me to understand how my brown skin was connected to my Blackness" he added.

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Related: Colin Kaepernick Says He's "Absolutely" Ready and "Prepared" for Potential NFL Return

Writing for an older audience for his latest project presented different challenges, Kaepernick said.

"This book is intended for a slightly older audience and deals with more complex issues than I Color Myself Different," he told PEOPLE in a statement. "The common thread, however, is creating books that give power and agency to the reader, specifically Black and Brown youths."

Both books address a need Kaepernick remembers facing himself when he was younger: "I wish I had more books with lead characters that looked like me and spoke to the situations that I was dealing with and going through."

Change the Game is out now and can be purchased by clicking here.

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