Stephen Curry's father, Dell Curry, was born in Fort Defiance, Virginia. While not much is known about his parents, he is African American. Curry's mother, Sonya Curry, was born in Radford, Virginia. Her mother, Candy Adams, was born in Haiti in the 1940s. Sonya's father, Cleive Ester Adams, is African American, just like Dell Curry.
While Sonya's mixed heritage gives her fairer skin compared to her husband, growing up in Virginia, she saw racism first-hand as a child. One of the most disturbing was when a young Sonya Curry saw a member of the Ku Klux Klan, a white supremacist group, light a cross on fire.
In addition, she said that growing up in segregated schools made it so she had to be the best when it came to sports if she wanted other kids to play with her. However, the racism didn't end after she met Dell Curry. Given that Sonya's skin is fairer than Dell's, she experienced racism after the two married during Dell's career.
On one occasion, another player on the Charlotte Hornets was told that Dell was married to a white woman, and the organization wasn't sure how fans would react. When Dell and his wife found out, they were dumbfounded that she was labeled as Caucasian simply because she's a fair-skinned African American woman.
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Steph Curry has also faced similar racism and stereotyping in the NBA as the result of being a fair-skinned African American man.
Steph Curry's race has been a much-discussed topic in the NBA
Steph Curry's race has been frequently brought up in the NBA when discussing his abilities as a player. While it may sound hard to believe, there are people who view Curry differently because of his light-skinned complexion.
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In 2017, Curry's longtime teammate and friend, Draymond Green, spoke about how the elite shooter has to deal with quips and comments about his race. He spoke on his podcast years ago about some of the things Curry has endured:
"People just automatically think that, ‘Man, this guy ain’t from the 'hood. He ain’t cut like that. He ain’t cut from a different cloth. He’s supposed to be soft, and this, that.’ And of course, Steph is light-skinned, so they want to make him out to be soft.
"So, everybody just wanted to make him out to be this soft, jump-shooting guy, and he continued to get better and better and better."
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