During the Super Bowl, an associate of mine, a professor, stated that because Patrick Mahomes has a Black father, he is Black, at which point I challenged that simple criterion.
“Ok, so if he is Black then does that make his children Black, where does it stop? He has just as many white parents as he does Black ones.”
At which point, one of the smartest people I know sat back and realized I might have a point.
Additionally, just like his children, Patrick Mahomes Jr. has a white mother. If the theory about biracial (Black and white) people being more likely to be anti-Black based on the race of their mother has any credence, then his having a Black father would be antithetical. Biracialness is a nuanced experience because so many biracial people who either look completely white, barely Black or are darker than many Black people with two Black parents.
Patrick Mahomes speaks to @KCTV5 about his new haircut.
— VIBE Magazine (@VibeMagazine) April 25, 2025
"I can’t believe all you guys let me keep that nappy hair for so long." pic.twitter.com/gf2HijZdl3
The interaction they have with both sides of the family, and the willingness of their white side of the family to prepare them for how the world will interact with them, makes a difference in how they see themselves in the world and how they interact with the cultures of their parents.
Patrick’s parents divorced when he was 10 years old. While his father grew up in the same area as his son, he was on the road frequently as a professional baseball player. Patrick Jr. has three brothers from his father, one with his mother, and two others who also have white mothers. Not saying this as an indictment on Patrick Jr., but it is likely his father’s preference to have children with white women, was because he wanted his children to have white mothers—for whatever reasoning— and it is doubtful that all, let alone any, were invested in learning about what may be required to raise a child with enough Black heritage that the world would take notice.
Hair seems to be a big factor in how many white parents fail their biracial children, especially those whose hair is more tightly coiled. We’ve all been to Walmart, we’ve seen the children there. Patrick Jr., whose wife is a Trump supporter, finally got a haircut that didn’t look stupid. Yet, somehow, he managed to blame others for his lack of mirrors and used racialized language that ironically wouldn’t even apply to him, by Black people’s standards, saying, “I can’t believe yall let me keep that nappy hair for so long.”
Sigh.
I was unaware that a haircut changed a texture, but the thing about repeating ignorance is that it’s going to always sound dumb. It is hard to imagine that a white mother poured in enough self-confidence, concerning her half-Black child’s hair, that he would get on national television and repeat a word that has such a nasty and racialized connotation attached.
He surely didn’t hear his Black side call HIS hair nappy.
This happened less than a week ago, and three days ago, on the social media app, Threads, user @tljdebra posted a video, by Tiktoker and hairstylist @emerson.juliani, of a white mother taking her biracial (Black mixed) child to a salon to fix her curly hair, even while he talks about not being an expert in curls.
View on Threads
The mother and stylist disparage their girl’s hair together. One of the commenters, @pinupkitchen, who currently makes celebrity cakes in Long Beach, California, “I see a lot of black mothers with little nappy head girls. This isn’t a race thing, it’s a RESPONSIBILITY THING.”
She continued in her statement that her hair was long and thick, and her mother did not manage it, which she touted as a unique experience, as if there was no microaggression there. When confronted by Black women who told her it was racialized language and wildly inappropriate, she pushed back that it meant something different in her country of origin, (she never mentioned where), even after being shown the dictionary definition that stated it was often used in a derogatory manner, she still dug her kitten heels in deeper. She also never mentioned in her original statement that her mother called her that, but later stated she did, and added a screenshot of the secondary definition, which meant a furry or hairy object, like a sweater, not like a little Black girl. She must’ve still lived in a racist-less European country when Don Imus insulted a team of Black female basketball players.
Every Black girl has been haunted by the term—even in our own families—but when it comes to biracial children, their hair is viewed as enviable by Black people, especially elders. Biracial children learning this language can only come directly from the greatest source of anti-Blackness, white supremacy, whether it is the mother or the father.
Nappy is a derogatory term, whether used incorrectly or not, it is never applied with a good connotation and always accompanied by negative sentiments towards other n-words, or their children.
