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Cain Velasquez Explains His “Brown Pride” Tattoo
By Ricardo | July 19, 2010
Cain on MMA Live answering the question whether he’s heard people talking about his tattoo and the controversy behind it (i.e. people say it’s racist).
Well, that pretty much sums it up. It’s really hard to explain the concept to white people and/or people that didn’t grow up in an urban environment. By “urban environment” I mean being exposed to society as a minority in this country and not necessarily the ghetto. When I see this being argued online it always comes down to “well if Brock came out with a ‘White Pride’ or ‘White Power’ tattoo then everyone would call him racist, stupid double standards.” Well, unfortunately it’s not the same shit. This is what I think it is at it’s most simplest: It has nothing to do with any other race, culture, people, etc. Why does having pride in your culture have to mean that you think it’s better than all the others? It doesn’t, it just means you appreciate all different facets of your culture, people, and customs.
Unfortunately such feelings cannot be conveyed with language, this is just another example of how language is so limited in conveying human thoughts and emotions. Really think about that, two words: ‘Brown. Pride.’ We think we know why he tattooed that on his chest but it’s two fucking words. Why did he tattoo it? What does it mean to him? Is it something special to him? Is it a message of hate? Gang affiliation? All these questions are brought up because they’re just words. That’s fine and all, but like the guy said – that’s why you ask questions to clarify.
As for the superiority thing, the reason there is a ‘double standard’ with “Brown Pride” and to an extent “Black Power” is because these are terms used by often oppressed minority groups to empower themselves and let eachother know that they’re worth a shit. It’s empowerment in a sense of self-esteem. White people don’t go through this because they grow up seeing themselves on TV. It’s like that Chris Rock joke about how black moms always say “listen son… you can be anything you want to be okay? You can grow up to be president of the United states, you understand?” and the kid just looks down and nods. Then he talks about the white mom giving the same speech to her kid, “…you can be president of the United States” and the kid is like “…yeah, I know 
” hahaha. There’s no need for that talk because white people are already in control and are not likely to face discrimination or prejudice.
Like I said, it’s all language. If it said “Mexican Pride” then supposedly it’d be more accepted but I don’t think so. You’d have people say “well you’re in the US motherfucker” or something like that. If Akiyama had Asian Pride across his chest then I doubt it’d be of much concern. Who gives a shit about all of it, really. Just let it go.
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Topics: Cultura, mma | 5 Comments »
5 Responses to “Cain Velasquez Explains His “Brown Pride” Tattoo”
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dcap
Posted: Jul 23rd, 2010 at 5:47 pm1 -
RubyRed415
Posted: Jul 26th, 2010 at 7:41 pm2No offense to any caucasian people who might read this but I think white folks are the scariest sometimes. It depends though of course. But a tattoo of “brown pride” or “black pride” wouldn’t intimidate me as much as one that says “white pride” would.
There’s just something about the words “white pride” that sounds scary to me. but “Irish pride” seems normal. Anyway i’m glad to see Cain proud of his culture so I say F the haters.
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Ricardo
Posted: Jul 28th, 2010 at 5:22 pm3Funny you say that because that’s what a lot of people say about the double standard, that ‘white pride’ brings up mental images of ‘white supremacy’, kkk, and all that stuff. There’s an ugly history to it which gives it a really negative image. It’s whatever I guess.
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dcap
Posted: Aug 1st, 2010 at 2:39 pm4It’s all about history.
Nazis killed over 5 million jews, Britain & other white nations used slavery for a long time. So when people say ‘white power/pride’, it’s gonna carry some stigma. Typically it’s taken as ‘im better than you’ instead of just having pride in their heritage.
The symbol used by the nazis was the swastika, it doesnt mean anything bad & it was used long before but now it’s synonomous with racism. I agree there is a double standard, but it exists for a reason…kinda like stereotypes
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RubyRed415
Posted: Aug 1st, 2010 at 4:59 pm5