Basketball Hall of Famer Michael Jordan is opening up about his past struggles with racism in his most recent biography released Tuesday.
In the book titled "Michael Jordan: The Life" by author Roland Lazenby, the six-time NBA champion recalls being "against all white people" and reflects on how growing up in the 1970s in North Carolina, a state known for its Ku Klux Klan activity, impacted his views on race.
According to the New York Daily News, Jordan began to understand the differences in race after watching the miniseries "Roots" and studying his African-American ancestors. In the book he recalled being called the n-word by a girl in school in 1977.
"So I threw a soda at her," Jordan said in the book. "I was really rebelling. I considered myself a racist at the time. Basically, I was against all white people."
The former Chicago Bulls basketball player said his mother urged him not go through life consumed by hatred. Lazenby told Sports Illustrated that Jordan's "black power story" of exploring racism molded him into the man he is today, now known for his incredible athletic ability.
"I've been to North Carolina hundreds of times and enjoy it tremendously, but North Carolina was a state that had more Klan members than the rest of the Southern states combined," Lazenby said. "As I started looking at newspapers back in this era when I was putting together Dawson Jordan's [Michael's great-grandfather] life, the Klan was like a chamber of commerce. It bought the uniforms for ball teams, it put bibles in all the schools."
Lazenby added: "It may well have ended up being a chamber of commerce if not for all the violence it was perpetrating, too. A lot of the context just wasn't possible to put it in a basketball book. A lot of it ended up being cut. It's a black power story. It doesn't come from politics or protests, it comes right off the Coastal Plain of North Carolina and out of the African-American experience."
Jordan spoke of his outrage following the online release of remarks made by L.A. Clippers owner Donald Sterling. In an audio tape recording Sterling tells girlfriend V. Stiviano that he does not want her posting pictures of herself with black people.
"I'm obviously disgusted that a fellow team owner could hold such sickening and offensive views," Jordan said about Sterling. "As a former player, I'm completely outraged. There is no room in the NBA - or anywhere else - for the kind of racism and hatred that Mr. Sterling allegedly expressed. I am appalled that this type of ignorance still exists within our country and at the highest levels of our sport. In a league where the majority of players are African American, we cannot and must not tolerate discrimination at any level."
