Cain Velasquez explains “Brown Pride” tattoo

By Eric Kamander

It seems to me that every time Cain Velasquez comes up, someone mentions that he is a racist because of his “Brown Pride” tattoo. The common quip is “He can put ‘Brown Pride’ on his chest, but if I put ‘White Pride’ on mine than I’m a racist.” To me this line of logic ignores the realities and context of history, as unjust as they might be.

I almost asked Cain about this at the pre-UFC 111 Q&A at Radio City Music Hall. I never did, so I’m glad to hear him explain his reasoning behind the tattoo, and I hope we can now put this behind us.

Find more videos like this on BJPENN.COMCain explains the reasoning behind the tattoo and why he feels “Brown Pride” is different from “White Pride”:

“I got this tattoo for two reasons. One, for everything my parents did to come over to this country, all the hardships they had crossing the border. ‘Brown pride’ when we were growing up meant ‘Mexican pride.’ That’s how we would say it. It’s something to say if we’re proud about where we came from. What my Dad did, my Mom did to get over to this country to me means a lot. I’m proud of where I came from. I’m proud of what Mexican people stand for. We’re known as hard working people. We’re known as fighters. We’re known to have a lot of heart. We’re known to never give up in the gym and have a lot of cardio. To always work hard. The work ethic that my Dad, all the Mexican people bring out in the fields and stuff, we bring to the gym and whatever else we do. Another reason why I got is because when I was growing up I didn’t have anybody to look up to. There’s nobody that was my size that was Mexican that looked like me that I could see in the media. I pretty much didn’t have those dreams of ‘Hey, I can do that stuff. I can be in the media, I can play professional sports.’ I didn’t have that. I didn’t have anybody to look up to so now that I’m in that position, I put ‘Brown Pride’ on my chest to let people know ‘Hey, I’m Mexican. I’m proud to be Mexican. I’m doing good things.’ For those people that just don’t know the story behind it, that’s all I can say. The only thing I can do is clear it up by doing interviews like this.”

Number One UFC Heavyweight Championship Contender Cain Cain Velasquez will step in the cage at UFC 121 against UFC Heavyweight Champion Brock Lesnar.

Thanks to S.C. Michaelson and Zak Woods over at Watch Kalib Run for bring this to my attention.