1 Understanding Black Racial Identity
1 Understanding Black Racial Identity As the tragic events surrounding the shooting of Michael Brown in Ferguson, Missouri, unfolded in the fall of 2014, much of the mainstream print and television media’s portrayal of events focused on issues of black and white. In much of this rhetoric was a presentation of the “black” view as a single, unified voice surrounding the tragic, complicated, and often confusing events of the death of Michael Brown and the subsequent protests and riots, followed by the non- indictment by the grand jury, which fostered more protests and riots. When former National Basketball Association (NBA) star and current NBA analyst Charles Barkley spoke out against the protests and riots, it stirred a controversy. In a series of back- and- forth open letters between Barkley and current cohost and former NBA player, Kenny Smith, Barkley said, “Listen man, I know that I’m Black and I’m always going to be. I know anytime I disagree with Black people I’m going to be a sell- out or an Uncle Tom.”1 During the 2012 presidential election, actor Stacey Dash, most notably from the movie Clueless, endorsed Mitt Romney for president. This endorsement by a black celebrity for a white candidate over a very popular black incumbent president set off a firestorm. Comments on social media ranged from calling Dash an “airhead, a “nobody,” and an “indoor slave,” to suggesting she was “no longer Black.” Even Samuel L. Jackson posted on Twitter: “Is Stacey Dash crazy?” There was so much animosity, Dash responded by saying, “The fury, I really don’t under- stand the fury.
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