NBA star Chris Paul has been making headlines as of late with his potential trade to the Washington Wizards after spending three seasons with the Phoenix Suns. But during today’s episode of The View, the conversation veered away from basketball as the accomplished point guard discussed how he talks about racism in America with his young children.
Paul sat down with co-hosts Whoopi Goldberg, Sara Haines, Joy Behar, Sunny Hostin and Alyssa Farah Griffin to promote his memoir, Sixty-One: Life Lessons from Papa, On and Off the Court — which is inspired by his grandfather, who was tragically murdered the day Paul signed his letter of intent to play college basketball.
During his interview, Haines asked the athlete about the conversations he had with his late grandpa, as well as his own children, about racism in our country.
“I think I had some of them with my grandad when I was growing up,” Paul said. “But a lot of times, I was working. If I wanted new shoes or anything like that, my grandad — even though he had this wad of money in his front pocket — he’d be like, ‘If you want them shoes, you’re coming to work here for a week.’”
Despite having the first Black-owned service station in North Carolina, Paul said his grandfather still found himself on the receiving end of bigotry.
“The racism that I saw growing up was my grandfather wanted to own the land that his service station was on, but the man that owned it said he wasn’t going to sell it to a Black man,” he revealed.
Read Related Also: Jetstar, Qantas flights cancelled and delayed amid major problem
As for how he tackles the difficult subject with his 14-year-old son and 10-year-old daughter, Paul said he and his wife try to “communicate” with them as much as they can.
“When the George Floyd situation happened, instead of sheltering them from it and not talking to them about it, we showed them and talked to them about it. So they could see what was going on. And it was a very difficult time for us,” he explained, referring to Floyd — whose murder at the hands of a white police officer in 2020 kickstarted Black Lives Matter protests across the country.
When the family was discussing the concept of “being Black but especially being a Black male,” Paul recalled his daughter’s emotional reaction — which stemmed from fear for her older brother.
“My daughter — rightfully so, I remember being in our bathroom at home, showing them and talking to them — she cried,” he said. “Because she was like, ‘Is this going to happen to Chris?’”
Paul added, “I think it’s very important to make sure that we communicate as much as possible with our kids because we want to protect them and shelter them but we also can’t make them oblivious.”
The View airs on weekdays at 11/10c on ABC.
(function(d, s, id) {
var js, fjs = d.getElementsByTagName(s)[0];
if (d.getElementById(id)) return;
js = d.createElement(s); js.id = id;
js.src = “//connect.facebook.net/en_US/sdk.js#xfbml=1&appId=823934954307605&version=v2.8”;
fjs.parentNode.insertBefore(js, fjs);
}(document, ‘script’, ‘facebook-jssdk’));
