By JENEÉ OSTERHELDT
The Kansas City Star
The Kansas City Star
Updated: 2012-12-14T16:30:45Z
Matthew Hinton
Washington quarterback Robert Griffin III (10) posed for a photo with filmmaker Spike Lee (center) after a game against the Saints earlier this season in New Orleans. Washington won 40-32.
Robert Griffin III doesn’t want to be the best black quarterback. He wants to be the best quarterback.
That’s what the Washington rookie said in a recent interview. Although he understands how important it is for African American fans to see him as an African American doing well, he doesn’t want to be defined by color. Who does? We all want to be more than our skin. I think it’s a great answer, but some see it as a way to distance himself from the black community. People like ESPN’s Rob Parker. On Thursday, during an episode of “First Take,” the sports channel’s debate show, Parker pondered whether RGIII was authentically black, asking, “Is he a brother or a cornball brother?”“He’s black …but he’s not really down with the cause, he’s not one of us,” Parker explained. Parker supported his ignorance by pointing out that RGIII has a white fiancée and repeating rumors that the quarterback is a Republican. Then again, RGIII’s braids do make him a brother, Parker added.The backlash against Parker was swift. During the show, fellow panelist Stephen A. Smith expressed his discomfort with trying to break down blackness into an itemized list. “RGIII, the ethnicity, the color of his fiancée, is none of our business. It’s irrelevant. He can live his life any way he chooses,” Smith said. “The braids that he has in his hair, that’s his business, that’s his life. I don’t judge someone’s blackness based on those kind of things. I just don’t do that. I’m not that kind of guy.”The blogosphere isn’t buying the typecasting either. There was plenty of uproar online about Parker’s misstep, but it’s important not to shrug this off as an isolated event. People on all sides of the fence like to stereotype. This is why President Obama is consistently at the center of a black debate.He is biracial, but marks “African-American” on his Census form. He considers himself both mixed and a black man. But there are people who don’t feel that he is genuinely black — or black enough. And there are people offended that he identifies himself as a black man at all.Race and being ethnic enough is a never-ending conversation in this country, and one I run into often. Apparently, there is a checkbox of what does and does not make you black. I have been accused of being not black enough, too black and not white enough all my life. I have a white friend who couldn’t believe I liked Reba McEntire. “That doesn’t seem like your kind of music,” she said. I have black friends who said I acted white. This identity struggle is not one I face alone. Anyone who doesn’t fit in these tiny little boxes often faces scrutiny. Sarah Romero, 29, a recent graduate of the University of Kansas, says because her mother is half-white and most of her family is Hispanic, that she has faced a lot of criticism over not looking “Hispanic enough.” Her freckles and light skin make her too different. An aunt called Sarah and her brother “coyotes” because they are so different from the rest of the kids in the family.“People are uncomfortable when you buck the stereotypes and don’t fit into how they indentify something,” she says. “They don’t know how to respond when they see someone like RGIII with braids and he plays football, but he’s also eloquent and has a white fiance. They don’t know how to reconcile that with their definitions of what it means to be African-American.” The thing is, no one can identify you but you. Identity is personal. And who you date has nothing to do with your racial identity any more than how you wear your hair, who you vote for or things you like.My parents shatter stereotypes. My dad, a black man, listens to Rick James, Tupac, Guns N’ Roses and the Eagles. He eats his chicken baked, not fried. And he doesn’t like watermelon. He dated a white woman, my mama. And she listens to bluegrass and gospel. She watches any movie starring Eddie Murphy, Ice Cube or Tyler Perry. Fried chicken is her favorite.Me? I like a little bit of everything. For a long time, I tried my best to fit in to the stereotypes people pushed on me until I finally found comfort in being myself, a multidimensional human being who happens to be both mixed and a black woman. I’m sure Rob Parker would call me a cornball sista, my dad a cornball brotha and my mom a wannabe. But Rob Parker is not the keeper of blackness or the mouthpiece for the black community.When Rob Parker says RGIII is not “one of us,” he’s right. RGIII is not a member of this small-minded group Parker represents. Neither am I. Parker is simply pushing old racist stereotypes disguised as pro-blackness. People who try to degrade others because they don’t share every one of their choices or mannerisms are scared of change and threatened by diversity. And they are part of the reason our states aren’t truly united.
Jeneé Osterheldt’s column runs in FYI on Monday, Wednesday and Saturday. To reach her, call 816-234-4380 or email josterheldt@kcstar.com. “Like” her on Facebook at facebook.com/jeneeinkc or follow her on Twitter at twitter.com/jeneeinkc.
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