Tag: Cain Velasquez

Cain’s “Brown Pride” Tattoo

With the rematch between Junior Dos Santos (JDS) and Cain Velasquez (CV) set for tonight where they will battle for the UFC heavyweight championship, the inevitable story of CV’s “brown pride” tattoo has come up again. He claims the tattoo signifies the struggle and hardship his parents went through in order to provide him with a good life. It honours them and their sacrifices.

Detractors and critics will say that brown pride has the same connotations as white pride and that disallowing one type of bigotry should mean you disallow all types of bigotry.

Personally, I’m very much on the fence about this one. On the one hand, the term “white pride” has been hijacked been hijacked by racist and fascist groups and while I truly cannot comprehend taking pride in a coincidence, or in a concept you had very little to do with overall, it’s true that white pride no longer means the same thing as brown pride does. So if he’s proud about being brown, fine.

On the other hand, brown pride, like white pride or Irish pride or gay pride or Jewish pride, does claim a superiority by one people over another. On top of that, there’s a special intensity of that conviction that comes with applying a permanent mark on your body in the form of a tattoo to signify your pride. I immediately distrust people who so narrowly represent themselves.

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