Silence on equality issues not a luxury for Black celebrities

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  • Programming note: "Race in America: A Candid Conversation" airs Friday at 8 p.m. PT on NBC Sports Bay Area and NBC Sports California.

Stephen Curry accepts anything that he says regarding racial or social issues runs the risk of alienating fans. He does it anyway. I asked him about this some years ago, before he was an MVP superstar, and he offered a clarifying reply.

“No matter what you say, there might be some people who don’t like it,” Curry explained as we stood in the sanctum of a North Oakland church. “But the same thing can happen if I don’t say anything. Might be worse. When something is not right, it’s not the best time to stay quiet.”

This is logical and it also conveys, quite unintentionally, the sense of obligation/responsibility that comes with being a non-white celebrity in America. For a member of a minority group, the role of spokesperson is automatic. The luxury of silence is not comfortably afforded to pro athletes, to politicians, musicians and business executives.

Or even a cartoonist. That is the world navigated by Keith Knight, the inspiration and co-creator of “Woke,” a semi-autographical series on Hulu that uses comedy and satire to address serious issues of race, class, culture and more.

A guest on this week’s episode of “Race in America: A Candid Conversation,” Friday night at 8 p.m. PT on NBC Sports Bay Area, NBC Sports California and NBC Sports Northwest, Knight is among the few Black cartoonists able to earn a living at his job.

And even that required hurdling the stereotype barrier.

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“When I first started the business, the only time I got hired was in February, Black History Month,” Knight says. “I was thankful to get hired. I’d make sure I did it on time. I’d get it in. I would invoice. I'd get the check. I’d cash the check. And then I would write to them and say, ‘Thank you, but I just want to let you know that I work the other 11 months of the year, too.’

“It wasn't until I worked the other 11 months ... that was the thing: It was important for me to show that I did more than just, ‘Oh I'm just going to write about race stuff.’ It was important to show that I could do anything. And then, once I got all the work, the whole year, I showed that, “But what I'm really good at is this.’ ” 

Knight, now 54, had to prove he was more than “the black guy,” that he could be “the guy,” while simultaneously being acutely aware that was, indeed, “the black guy.”

This is why it’s incumbent, whether it’s a Warriors superstar or a cartoonist, to speak up. To confront inequality. Is there another route to balancing the scale of fairness and opportunity?

This is not unusual for the Black individual seeking entry into an industry – a fraternity, really – where shot-callers do not look like them. The same often applies to members of the Latinx or Asian communities with such goals as becoming a football coach, a baseball manager or a general manager in any sport.

There is the GM. And there is the Black GM, often is described as such. He or she has to do the job as well or better than white counterparts while also representing race or ethnicity, two elements that lurk in the minds of social judges and juries. 

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Striving for equal treatment while acknowledging racial or ethnic identity creates an awareness beyond that which should be necessary.

“There needs to be people of color in positions in Hollywood where they are gatekeepers, and that not everything that gets approved is through the prism of oppression,” Knight says. “There are more stories to tell. And that's super important.

“I’m very thankful for the show, obviously, to be on the air. But, yeah, it would be great if we could do more than that. And I know we can do more than that.”

Adulthood has been, for Knight, an awakening. Growing up in notoriously segregated Boston, he went from K-through-12 without a single Black teacher. Not until Salem State College, now Salem State University, was he introduced to one, an American Literature professor assigning such authors as Richard Wright, Ralph Ellison, Maya Angelou and James Baldwin.

This was, through appropriate works, the professor’s way of speaking up.

“And then someone said, ‘Why are you giving us all Black writers?’ ” Knight recalls. “He said, ‘I’m giving you all American writers.’ And that blew my mind.”

It caused him to reflect on his pre-college experience, which included books with animals as protagonists but no one of color in such a role. He realized that a lack of diversity can have a direct influence on curriculum. It can result in subconscious biases that could lead some white to believe racism doesn’t exist.

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“If athletes speak up, it’s like ‘You know you should be thankful that you're making the money that you're making,’ That's the way a lot of people react to it,” Knight says.

“It's sick. We are suffering from sickness and right now, it's at a point where it's really boiling over. A lot of decisions that have to be made over the next month, and hopefully be able to sort of start to acknowledge it and move forward and solve these issues.”

That means speaking up, speaking out, being heard. The alternative, staying quiet, invites acceptance of an unacceptable status quo.

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