Podcast #49: Charles Blow on His Unexpected Childhood Hero
Charles Blow is a visual op-ed columnist for The New York Times and the author of the memoir Fire Shut Up in My Bones. He has also acted as a commentator for CNN and as art director of National Geographic. In this week's podcast, the journalist speaks with Schomburg Center director Khalil Muhammad about his middle name, how he was nearly baptized twice, and his unexpected childhood hero.
Fans of Charles Blow may know that his middle initial is M, but what they may not know is that he was in part named after the great Ray Charles:
"My middle name is McRay. This was a compromise with my mom, who, our last name is Blow, so she was trying to figure out the most standard first names possible. And my oldest brother is begging her to name me Ray Charles. And so her compromise is, 'I will make him Charles McRay.' Yes, I am named after Ray Charles."
Blow discussed one of the public figures he emulated as a child, and it may not be who you think. In fact, that person was Prince Charles:
"I had always looked up to Martin Luther King the way other kids looked up to basketball stars or rockstars or something. And so, that way he became a role model. He was erudite. He had ambition. He was noble. He was incredibly well-educated. He was well-spoken. And then around the same time, Prince Charles marries Diana! I didn't even know there was a Prince Charles. But all of a sudden, Prince Charles is all over the television and you can't get away from this 'Prince Charles marries this woman and now there's a princess.' I wasn't even sophisticated in my logic. It was just like, 'There's a Prince. His name is Charles. I could be a Prince!' So I just start to watch him every time he's on television. And watch the way he holds his body. Does his hand fall in front or behind? He actually would do this waistcoat thing, where he put one hand here. I didn't like that. But everything else... Everything he did; I did it."
Although he is somewhat ambivalent on the topic of religion and spirituality, Blow recounted why he was nearly baptized twice:
"So the first time I get up to volunteer to be baptized, which in my church, you did it when you were very young. And so I say, okay I'm going to go and give my life over to the Lord. The preacher would huff and puff and carry on, and then he would come down, wipe sweat, and say, 'Does anybody want to come? You come.' So he did that, and he came down to the front. And I went down to the front. So he starts the whole routine... and he says, 'Do you want to be baptized?' And this is a big, greasy man. And everytime I have ever seen him baptize somebody, it looks like you could die. And so, he says, 'Do you want to be baptized?' And I'm thinking, I'm looking up at this man, and I say, 'You know what, I don't know about that.' And the whole church burst into laughter, and my mother slinks down in her seat, and so, I just go back to my seat. I'm like, 'You're not killing me.' So, I wait until he leaves. So now I'm older. Like it's years. It took me years to get to the Lord because that man was standing in the way!"
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