What is Steph Curry's race? A look at Warriors star's ancestral background

June 2024 · 5 minute read

Steph Curry's race has been a topic ever since the second-generation hooper was tearing it up at Davidson. Although there's no situation where a person's race or nationality should make an impact in how their skills are viewed, the question has followed Curry.

His father, Dell Curry, was born in Fort Defiance, Virginia. While not much is known about his parents, he is African American. On the flip side of things, 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 firsthand as a child. One of the most disgusting was when a young Sonya Curry saw a member of the Ku Klux Klan, a white supremacist group, light a cross on fire.

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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.

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 used against him in the NBA

Steph Curry's race has been used against him 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.

Steph Curry of the Golden State Warriors

(Suggested Reading: What's going wrong for Steph Curry and the Warriors this season?)

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."

While he may have mixed nationality thanks to his grandma being from Haiti, it's clear that Steph Curry's race is African American.

(Suggested Reading: Shannon Sharpe thinks Wariors' 'fear factor' is nonexistent)

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