3Peatkb24 wrote:I love LeBron as a player, top 5 ever and I am rooting for him because I love the Lakers. I would love to have an interview with him because he seems to hate white people and will defend every black person no matter if they are a criminal. I wonder if someone white did something bad to him in his past? The last time I looked, the USA has made him rich. He comes off as being a great father to me but his distastes towards white people bothers me. Do the NBA, NFL, and MLB players realize they wouldn't have near the opportunities in another country or make near the money they make if they weren't in the USA. I am just turned off by BLM as well,
I don't dislike it and I am ok with protesting but the looting and rioting has ruined many innocent business owners lively hoods. If a white cop shoots a black person, he is automatically looked at as an evil guy even the black guy has a gun and shoots first. Being a white guy I would turn my badge in tomorrow and take an early retirement because if you are white and in that profession, you are fucked. I work in security and when I have my uniform on out in public, minorities look at me funny. Just getting snacks or gas before I work a long shift. I am scared I might get shot and killed shot over some dumb shit because I look like a cop. I work near downtown Indy in a bad neighborhood and when I come to a stoplight I never pull up to a car equally. I am that cautious thinking some clown will pull out a gun and shoot me. As far as white privilege goes, that is bullshit because I work my ass off, LeBron was saying that Lori Laughlin getting to choose her prison was white privilege, that no blacks would be able to do that. That is complete bullshit too. There have been so many black athletes that have committed crimes and do no prison time. I bet if Denzel Washington did the same crime as Lori did, he would do 0 time so spare me the tears. Get a job, don't stay out late where cops can pull you over, and 99.9% of people will be fine.
Hey LeBron what is your take on Jussie Smollett , he's black so it doesn't matter lmao. My rant for the day. By the way All Lives Matter I will take that to my grave, end of story.
3Peat -- WOW. Not sure what prompted all this
- it looks like LeBron had an opinion about Lori Laughlin being given the opportunity to "choose" in which "low-security prison" she will serve her TWO-MONTH SENTENCE for a HIGHLY SCANDALOUS AND ILLEGAL crime, and his viewpoint left you feeling as if he doesn't appreciate his privilege as a well-paid NBA star.
There are at least 20 different ways I could go in picking apart your soapbox
rant, but since this is a sports blog, I'll keep it as short as possible.
LeBron grew up, as many young Black children do, in a community that had been for generations disenfranchised and economically oppressed by the effects of government redlining and social Jim Crow racism that denied his ancestors, his family and his community some of the basic needs and services that many Americans in non-Black communities have simply taken for granted for decades. Nice grocery stores are largely not in lower-income Black communities. Instead, local property owners and governments allow the presence of several "convenience stores" that sell mainly liquor, cigarettes, junk food and over-priced necessities like bread, milk, butter and juice to people who are already dealing with limited incomes and the stress that comes from having to live in the poorest, least enfranchised communities. Where are most of the high-interest rate check cashing stores? In Black and Brown communities. Why? Because, like vampires, the capitalist powers-that-be know that poorer people struggle to keep bank accounts and access to financial institutions, so they lure them in with easy, "convenient"
check-cashing centers that charge HIGHLY overpriced rates to those who have little to no choice but to use their services.
POVERTY breeds petty crime, not race or criminality. There is crime in every racial community, and even the richest people commit crimes - they just get covered-up and/or helped by our government because they are likely in illegal business together to rob the poorest communities. If you're Black and have at least the minimum amount to, say, get a home loan, what are the odds you'll be given the same opportunity as a non-Black person with the same amount of money?
The statistics say that RACISM from that bank manager or realtor STILL in 2020 blocks tens of thousands of Black people and families from bettering their lives and communities by enfranchising themselves. How about applying for a job? Black people have to worry that the very color of their skin, or their hairstyle, or manner of speaking will automatically make them "unhireable" by the average bigoted American. And remember -- claiming "I'm not r.ac.ist" is a bunch of bullshit because we've ALL been raised in a ra.cis.t country. A sexist country. We ALL see color, we ALL see gender, we ALL judge, whether we want to admit it or not. We ALL make choices about who we feel "comfortable" around and who makes us feel uneasy. It's deeper than the surface, it's subconscious and mostly psychological.
Upper and middle-class White people generally like to play things close to the vest and - outside of the most redneck country bigot - don't even like to discuss their personal political choices, probably out of fear of being judged for being too "liberal", or for secretly preferring a r.ac.ist, sexist white supremacist to whatever other choice. White men with no college experience, though, are 65% more likely to vote for Orange Kool-Aid - just as they did in 2016. And it's funny because most of the Black men I know who support lpmua6 are well-educated conservatives who think they're somehow "wiser" or "better" than the rest of their peers, and think liberals or Democrats are sheep and idiots. It doesn't matter if you don't go around using racial slurs, or half of your "buddies" are Black or Hispanic/Latino or Filipino or whatever.
America's never-ending raci.st practices have created a syndrome wherein Black communities have ALWAYS caught the most HELL. The Tulsa Massacre of 1921 totally destroyed an affluent Black city supporting itself and enfranchising its community. Terrorism. Bombs were dropped from planes, killing hundreds. These are the things they keep out of our school history books. This was also the height of White terrorism against Blacks across the Southeast and Mid-West
as the Klan (local police, firefighters, businessmen and land-owners hiding behind bedsheets) did everything in their power to keep Blacks from simply trying to LIVE, to exist, to raise their families and contribute to the American Dream. After WWII and into the 1950s, after many Black communities across America finally began to rise into middle-class wealth and petition our government to create laws prohibiting the deadly, rac.ist and oppressive Jim Crow social and business practices, suddenly Black communities became "ghettoes" . . and the Black and Brown men who were sent to the deadliest parts of the Vietnam War came "home" to find that their job and housing options were limited. This is also when drugs, alcohol and crime skyrocketed in Black communities, and the basic Family structure began to crumble, as Black men stopped being able to be providers for their household and the Welfare Syndrome was introduced.
Take away a people's ability and right to do for themselves for generation after generation, flood their communities with drugs and mysteriously allow guns to proliferate the streets, deny them the basic respect and right to equal education, housing, food, clothing, shelter and the right to represent and be represented in their own government, and you create a disaster. This is why BLACK LIVES MATTER has become the catch-phrase that so many non-Black people across America have adopted, because they KNOW our country's terrible history when it comes to racism against Black people, and how it has caused so much social unrest and inequality.
Yes, 3peat - - ALL LIVES (should) MATTER. But for the last, oh, 400 years . . BLACK LIVES in America (and across the world) have been systematically destroyed, oppressed, terrorized and ignored. And it doesn't matter if every year LeBron makes $35 million from the NBA (40% of which goes to California taxes) and another $50 million in endorsements (again, taxes - do you know anybody who pays that much tax? Tax which allegedly goes to improvements in schools, roads, all communities, etc?). LeBron has not forgotten where he came from, and who he is representing, and is following in the footsteps of Jackie Robinson, Muhammad Ali, Jim Brown, Bill Russell, Curt Flood, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Arthur Ashe, Mahmoud Abdul-Raouf and Colin Kaepernick. Even the usually quiet Kobe had to join the protest when Eric Garner was choked to death by police over selling cigarettes on the street. All he did was wear a t-shirt and make a couple statements, but it was a good show from a guy who was never totally "embraced" by Black America for various reasons.
Ok, so that wasn't so short
3Peatkb24 wrote:Get a job, don't stay out late where cops can pull you over, and 99.9% of people will be fine.
Do you really believe that quote, 3Peat . . ? Do you really think that's as "easy" as it is? If you do, you have a lot to educate yourself on when it comes to American history and society. Lebron HAS a job. And has created employment for literally THOUSANDS of people - some who he will never meet, many who are White, Mexican, Asian, Indian, etc. He has represented himself proudly both on and off the court and was already told to "just shut up and dribble" by a White news reporter who thought that a rich, professional athlete should not be concerned with the state of his own country's racial and social issues. This is America.