During an appearance on 'Armchair Expert With Dax Shepard', the Detroit Pistons star opens up about his experience dealing with 'super f**ked up' racism as a child to a white mother and a black father.
- June 23, 2020
AceShowbiz - Blake Griffin is giving credits to his parents for not letting their children be affected by the acts of discrimination. When making an appearance on the Monday, June 22 episode of "Armchair Expert With Dax Shepard" podcast, the Detroit Pistons player opened up about his experience dealing with racism when growing up.
Speaking to host Dax Shepard, the 31-year-old athlete first noted that his white mother, Gail Griffin, and his black father, Tommy Griffin, "had their fair share of nasty looks, of comments, of remarks" throughout their lives in Oklahoma. He added, "It's still happening today so you can imagine what it was like 30 years ago."
Praising them for doing a "really good job of rising above it," the NBA star admitted that he and his brother were not even aware of it. "There's situations that my brother and I look back [at] now and we're like, 'Oh wow. That was racist,' " he explained. "Because my parents didn't give it the power, it didn't affect us either, which I didn't realize what was happening at the time."
Among those were the times girls in his high school telling him that they would "never date" despite liking him since their fathers would be against their relationship. "Now, I think, 'Man, that's super f**ked up,' " the father of two recalled. "But at the time, I was just like 'Yeah, all right'….which is crazy to me."
Blake went on to share that growing up, he felt like juggling two different worlds. "I'd be playing basketball on the weekend with my travel team, and I would be with all, like, my black friends, and then I would go back to school and I'd be with my white friends and it was two completely different worlds," he spilled.
"And so, I always, like, felt really weird about - not that I was, like, trying to act like one way or the other. It's just, like, who you're around is like sort of who you are," he continued. "Now, I just [say], 'This is who I am. And If you're on this side or this side, cool. But this is who I am.' Obviously, I wish I had that ability when I was 15, 16, 17 years old, but I didn't. And the older I got, the easier it got. But like, it was harder than I thought, especially when I look back on it."
