Chauncey Billups has won an NBA title, been finals MVP and has played for six different NBA teams. He has been married to his wife, Piper, since 2001. The couple have three daughters ages 11, 8 and 2. The two started dating back in high school where Chauncey was the star basketball player and Piper was a cheerleader.
Many black women will mention the "discrimination" black male athletes practice in the dating world. According to them most NBA/NFL players date either black women with light skin and long hair or non black women. According to them, "average-looking" black women don't stand a chance with these men. The truth is, the majority of black NBA players are married to regular looking black women. So why is it that most people (black and white) believe that professional athletes tend to only marry non black women?
On average, the media highlights and shows the black player's wife who is not African-American five times more than showing the African-American wife. This biased or selective coverage gives people the false impression that most black male athletes desire non black women or only consider those women suitable for marriage. A clear example of how the media distorts perceptions were illustrated during the 2000 NBA playoffs. When Shaquille O'Neal announced his engagement to Shaunie, the media did not cover the engagement, however when Kobe Bryant announced his engagement to a non-African-American, the media was abuzz with the story. Interracial relationships, particularly those involving black men and non black women, fascinate many - especially white men.
Detroit Pistons players Rasheed Wallace and Ben Wallace have black wives that the media rarely pans the camera on, they prefer to do features on these stars' mothers for some reason. Ben Wallace's wife decides if he will wear his hair in braids or an Afro before each game. She is such a huge, positive force in his life yet the media treats her like she is invisible. Ben Wallace follows in the tradition of Charles Oakley and graduated from Historically Black, Virginia Union University. Another reason for the myth of black male athletes dating white women is due to the increasing number of biracial athletes and our exposure to their wife selection. Many in the black community identify with the bi-racial athletes (Shane Battier, Jason Kidd) because we realize white people don't accept them as white and since one of their parents is black we figure, "they're with us".
However bi-racial athletes almost never marry black women.
Basically, the number of professional athletes married to non-black women is roughly the same as regular black men married to non-black women.
It is our society's (male and female, black and white) rampant obsession with miscegenation and the products of those unions that fuel the media coverage.
I liked this post, and I agree with everything you've said. Our perceptions are often shaped by the media in ways we or some people couldn't imagine. And as a result, we tend to fall for the same generalizations "they" often throw over us like a blanket.
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I enjoyed your post, and I also agreed with everything you said. Unfortunately many of our african american males are operating under a "big house" mentaltity. They believe that attaching themselves to a non-white woman gives them respect in society.This is an understanding that has been passed down through generations, part of the 'breaking of the black man' was to make him look down on his own and praise the whiteman. Please keep writing, out of knowledge comes understanding then change.
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