Cain Velasquez and the BP that Empowers

By Guest Contributor Ninoy Brown, cross-posted from FOBBdeep

Listening to podcasts alleviates the pain and mundane experience working as a temp office monkey. A daily dose of Fresh Air, How Stuff Works, Marathon Training Academy, Talk of the Nation, Ring Theory and Sherdog provides a decent mixture of current affairs, useless knowledge, health, and some sense of masculine validation.

With the drama surrounding the racially charged elements of Arizona’s SB 1070, it was without coincidence that a caller into Sherdog’s Savage Dog Show would have made a comment pertaining to a certain tattoo on the chest of the next contender for UFC’s heavyweight title. The caller took on a typical “reverse racism” angle by saying that the “Brown Pride” tat on Cain Velasquez would never fly if were it a Caucasian fighter with a “White Pride” tat.

Interestingly enough, “Hawaiian Sovereignty” shirt-wearing BJ Penn’s site has a video with Cain discussing the importance of La Raza as a Mexican-American living in Califaztlan.

“For everything my parents did to come over to this country, all the hardships they had to take, crossing the border. Brown pride when we were growing up man, Mexican pride it’s just something we would say to feel proud about where we came from, ” Cain says. “Another reason I got it was because growing up I had no one to look up to, there was nobody that was my size, that was Mexican, that looked like me, that I could see in the media … Now I’m in that position I put “Brown Pride” on my chest to let people know I’m Mexican, I’m proud to be Mexican, I’m doing good things.”

Having parents who came to America undocumented and having earned his college wrestling chops in Arizona, Cain’s voice would be great to hear in the immigration discourse. Searching the internet for any sign of the Salinas, CA native discussing SB 1070 turns up nothing. With the middle America audience that Dana White tries to reach through UFC, one is tempted to question whether or not Cain’s political voice has been silenced so as not to attract “controversy.” With a strong personal connection to issues of immigration, I hope this isn’t the case.

Here’s the video:

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