Tourney expels player based on race
Josiah Wilson a member of Heiltsuk First Nation, but adopted from Haiti as baby
Tattooed on Josiah Wilson’s chest is a fine line of writing that combines two significant dates: his birth and the death of his biological mother four days after he was born.
The 20-year-old, who was adopted as a baby from Haiti, also carries a status Indian card.
He is African by race — but legally, culturally and ethnically he identifies as a member of the Heiltsuk First Nation.
The mix is not common, but Wilson says he’s “never really had a problem with it” until earlier this week, when he was expelled from a popular First Nations basketball competition in northern British Columbia.
His father says the tournament committee claims he lacks sufficient aboriginal bloodlines to participate in the All Native Basketball Tournament. It’s a decision that has not only upset Wilson, his family and community, but has raised questions about what parameters are used to define identity.
“There’s no shame in having multiple identities,” said Don Wilson, Josiah’s father, a Calgary- based doctor born to an aboriginal father and Caucasian mother, raised in Bella Bella, B.C.
He said his son is proud of his fusion as Haitian, Heiltsuk and his adoptee status.
“Josiah’s never thought anything of it — being black and having a First Nations grandfather, a mixed-race father and a white grandmother. He’s got a rainbow family,” he said.
Josiah Wilson, who said he’s never really had to think about these issues before, agreed: “That’s been pretty cool, having all these multiple identities.”
But he’s surprised by the spotlight thrown on who he is. Wilson was apparently excluded on the basis of race, a controversial choice over ethnicity, said associate professor Wendy Roth of the sociology department at UBC.
Roth said in the complex web of issues surrounding identity, she has a hunch he may have been sidelined for another reason.
An “inappropriate assumption” might have been made that Wilson has an unfair advantage as a basketball player, based on the disproportionate number of African-Americans who play professionally in the United States, she said.
“My guess is somebody wants to exclude him because he’s good. And it has absolutely nothing to do with how he was raised or his ethnicity,” she said. “Some team wants to press their advantage.”