Charles Barkley explores race in new book
CVK
The Philadelphia Inquirer interviews former NBA star Charles Barkley, who is promoting his new book, Who’s Afraid of a Large Black Man? in which he interviews 13 influential Americans - from Bill Clinton and Barack Obama to Tiger Woods and George Lopez - who speak frankly about race and racism:
Barkley’s complexity enhances his controversial nature. He’s a guy who refuses “to have my blackness disrespected,” but has been happily married to a white woman for 15 years. A man who voted for John Kerry but supported Clarence Thomas…
He’s warming up. “My daughter is biracial but she looks black and she is black,” he adds. “I want my daughter to understand her heritage and carry it on. I don’t want her to think that braiding her hair and wearing a throw-back jersey makes her black…”
[Tiger] Woods also tells about his historic win at the 1997 Masters, and how, after he was given the customary green jacket during the traditional ceremony, the entire black service staff came out to applaud him.
“I start getting choked up just thinking about it,” Woods says. “I started thinking about everything these people had faced in life, all the ugliness and all the prejudice and all the obstacles they had to deal with… . I was thinking that they could have a lot of bitterness and feel, ‘Why him? Why not me?’ But they didn’t. They don’t.”
Sara Polk wrote:
I disagree with Charles Barkley calling his daughter black. I will call my kids bi-racial so they can understand that they are black and white.
Posted 15 Apr 2005 at 12:54 pm ¶
Ruth Bryant White wrote:
My husband Steven Alan White are Authors of “Life Through The Eyes Of An Interracial Couple”, and we totally disagree with Charles Barkley’s statement that his daughter is Black. he is teaching his daughter another form of racism and that how she can deny the white part of your ethnicity.
We hope to talk to Mr. Barkley about this in the future. Please have your readers go to http://www.aplaceforusnational.com
Posted 19 Apr 2005 at 6:43 pm ¶
SDJ wrote:
Black and white are not ethnicities. But the entire premise of calling oneself biracial or multiracial is still an implicit endorsement of racial thinking. The only way out of the impasse is to stop using terms like white and black as reference points.
Black and white are not absolute categories, but are based on degrees of belonging–degrees which are put upon us by others as much as we may claim them as part of our identities.
Children who don’t grow up feeling respected, or who lack a clear respect and understanding of the many cultures in the world–not just the ones that they “belong to”–all too often wind up uncritically endorsing the status quo.
Posted 23 Apr 2005 at 2:54 am ¶
Rita Frazier wrote:
I also disagree with Mr. Barkley’s comment concerning his daughter. No part of a persons background and ethnicity should be downplayed or favored. It takes all of our heritage to make us who we are. Especially when you are multiracial (which most of us are). Regardless of what “people” say a child has to have 1 mother and 1 father. How can you act as if the mother (especially the one who carried the child 9 months in her white body) had nothing to do with the make-up of a child?
I understand “society’s” view is still narrow-minded, but do those of us in multiracial families have to accept “soceity’s” labels still? I don’t!
For more balance on multiracial issues please check-out the book “Life Through the Eyes of an Interracial Couple”. Steve & Ruth White speak from over 20 years of work with multiracial families and the media.
http://aplaceforusnational.com
Posted 23 Apr 2005 at 9:48 am ¶
Keya wrote:
The fact is in this country if you look black, you are black regardless of what your mixed with.
Posted 04 Jun 2005 at 9:51 am ¶
janessa wrote:
i so agree that he is favoring the black side his daughter should not have 2 choose this happens in america why can’t he call her a mulatto thats the right term and another point is that halley berry isn’t full black she is doing the samething and should never have the title that say shes the first african american to win an oscar the right term is mulatto
Posted 10 Aug 2005 at 2:24 am ¶
janessa wrote:
i think america needs to change its views it shouldn’t be just cause someone has a mix family you shouldn’t have 2 choose if you look black your black thats so wrong they should used the term that mix people from the caribbean island, central america and south america use mulatto for mix people
Posted 10 Aug 2005 at 2:28 am ¶
greg presley wrote:
Almost everyone in this forum is missing the main points that Charles and others like him are trying to make. That comment was just one exerpt out of an entire book. When most people refer to a mixed-race individual as black, it’s usually based on the fact that the D.N.A. of anyone with African ancestry is superior to that of caucasians. We all know - unless you’ve been living under a rock all your life - that two dark-skinned African Americans can produce a white-skinned, blonde, blue-eyed child. But it is biologically impossible for two blonde, blue-eyed caucasians to produce a dark-skinned, nappy-headed child. However, if a white-skinned individual who passes for caucasian, pro-creates with someone who IS actually caucasian, they CAN produce a dark-skinned, nappy-headed child. That’s the main reason for segregation laws in the past. Our blood line CANNOT be diluted, white people’s can. So as you can see, there’s really nothing derogatory about what Charles Barkley made a reference to. I’m sure he and his wife both would make certain that their children know their caucasian heritage as well.
Posted 11 Aug 2005 at 3:15 am ¶
Sharron Robinson wrote:
I am A Bi-racial AFRICAN-AMERICAN. I Totally agree with Mr. Barkley and Mr. Presley. Genitically I am BLACK. That is my race. Period. I don’t deny my European Ansistry, I know a lot about where I come from on both sides of the totem pole. Why is this a big issue anway?
Posted 08 Sep 2006 at 8:49 pm ¶