Cam Newton was right to be wary of a race-based question

Carolina Panthers quarterback Cam Newton was right to be apprehensive about responding.

Asking a high profile African-American figure how his/her race can color individual perceptions of them is the ultimate "got you" question.

There is no way to respond without generating some degree of negative reaction from somebody – probably more than a few somebodies.

Someone will consider every answer wrong.

Even if Newton said, "no comment," his refusal to respond would be spun in a way that would elicit some kind of reaction.

"I think it's a trick question," Newton said when it came up at a press conference on Wednesday. "If I answer it truthfully, it's going to be, 'Aw, he's this or that.' But I will say it anyway.

"I'm an African-American quarterback that may scare a lot of people because they haven't seen nothing that they can compare me to," he said.

To those who cannot follow this train of thought, it is only because they are not African-American.

All of us that are African-American understand exactly what Newton is saying because almost every one of us has been in the situation to some degree in our lives.

Newton responded to a question than in itself presumes that his race creates the difference. Then, no matter how he answers, the question is flipped to look like it is a proclamation from him.

In too many facets of American culture that still exist, Newton, who is 6-foot-5, 245, is the physical manifestation of the "Big, Black, Boogeyman."

Some consider Newtown's gregarious personality and self-confidence to be those of the "uppity Black man," who has wealth and status beyond his actual place.

Come on, Newton gives touchdown balls to little kids in the stands because … well, honestly, I do not know what people would criticize about that.

The reaction to Newton from some will be how dare someone like him question whether people criticize him because he is African-American.

Newton, however, did not ask the question. A reporter asked of him.

The perception that Newton is criticized more because his race did not get its genesis from anything he complained about or brought up.

This is not a chicken versus the egg situation.

That perception exists because of things others have said about Newton. A reporter believed it was an important enough to solicit Newton's opinion about it.

"People are going to judge and have opinions on things I don't have control over," he said. "I don't think people have seen what I am or what I'm trying to do."

With that, let the criticism of Cam Newton roll on.