And neither is Donovan McNabb. Know this.
What's that? You think you're pretty black? I'm here to tell you, you're not.
Do you think Dwyane is a perfectly good spelling of Dwayne/Duane/Don/Dan/Kevin?
Can you quote lines from Dolomite the way white nerds can quote entire stanzas of Monty Python?
Are you, in fact, actually black?
Doesn't matter. Bernard thinks your blackness lack-ness.
Bernard "The Executioner" Hopkins, the craftiest counterpunching pugilist of our lifetime, the 46 year old medical marvel who can still sleep men half his age, a man brave enough to stomp on a Puerto Rican flag in front of a room of Puerto Ricans, will be defining blackness from now on. Consider this your notification.
You're welcome.
Bernard was kind enough to share a list of other things Not Black Enough.
Not Black Enough for Bernard Hopkins
Donovan McNabb
Norway
Paul Bettany
Tipping
Mini-Coopers
The white Olsen twin
Goths
Donovan McNabb again
Greg Gumbel
Anyone in roller skates
Any Cosby kid, even the black ones
Lennox Lewis
Kid, from Kid & Play
Play, from Kid & Play
Grady from Sanford and Son
The entire cast of Good Times
Cornel West
Black Ops
Black boxes
Blackmail
Black markets
Men In Black II
The Apollo Theater
Chicken and waffles
Rastafari
Howard University
Muslim Bakeries
Jack Johnson
George Washington Carver
Senegal
Jim Brown
Malcolm X, after 1964
Shaft
Angela Davis
Surprised me too.
The color black
Isaac Hayes
Black N Decker
Christian Okoye
Motown
The surface of Pluto
Any absence of visible light
Just Black Enough
Bernard Hopkins
Michael Vick (before he pussed)
Terrell Owens
**
In his public statements, Bernard has only released the names of three people or things Black Enough. I expect that list to expand to five, possibly six (Meryl Streep?), when Bernard has a chance to get around to it.
Stay tuned.