Maybe You Should Shut Up and Dribble.

I tried to give NBA players and athletes in general the benefit of the doubt. I certainly didn’t believe every athlete truly cared about the fight for true equality or pushing the message that Black Lives Matter, but I did hope for an uprising. An uprising from people who got tired of being told they couldn’t say anything because it would make some of their fans uncomfortable and with a loss of fans may come the loss of sponsorships. An uprising from people who are told they are too rich to be victims of racism and bigotry in general so they shouldn’t speak up about it because again, it’ll rub people the wrong way. There are numerous situations where a rich black athlete/famous person was a victim of racism. Some of those situations happening in their own neighborhood. Lastly, I was hoping to see a true uprising from people who got tired of being treated like nothing less than breathing billboards but from what I see now I don’t think those breathing billboards care too much about how they are being perceived as long as they get their percentage for being the walking, talking, breathing advertisement that they are.

What I see is grown men and women who say they are moving on free will but just aren’t. There’s a saying that goes “make that money. Don’t let it make you.” NBA players and other athletes might think they are “making that money” when deciding to play after saying they didn’t want to play but that’s not what is happening here. These are people willing to give up or compromise their moral compass for money. Before the 21 Century’s commodification of civil rights these were people who were not saying anything because of the money. That is not somebody who makes money. That is someone being made by the money. Sure it doesn’t matter in the literal sense because that person still is gaining something financially and depending on what you deem valuable or not financial gains may or may not be the only thing that matters in life. That subject alone is worthy of its own piece so I’ll save my thoughts on that for the future.

You can point out all of the performative gestures both professional sports leagues and others are doing as “proof” that they care and want change, but what exactly is wearing Breonna Taylor’s name going to change in reality? Auctioning off sneakers and giving the proceeds to organizations that are actually putting in the work is nice but it’s also a nice fat juicy tax break. The main concern players in both basketball leagues had before they started was “what if we’re distracting from this pivotal time in history?” They then stopped playing games for a couple of days because they decided that playing was a distraction just for them to return and use the same already tired ass excuse of “we’ll use our platform to keep this pivotal moment alive.” I’m here to tell you players right now that the only thing you’re keeping alive is streams of income for yourself and for owners. You cannot tell me people like Maya Moore and Colin Kaepernick are not making real change being years removed from the sport that they love. You cannot argue that in order for you to spread the word of social justice you need to be seen on TV saying somebodies name or holding a civil rights activists’ book. Kyrie Irving made headlines simply saying he was going to donate money to the WNBA for the players and suggesting a players only league where they run shit. He wasn’t playing then so save your excuses because I’m sick of them.

I’d rather athletes come out and admit that they are too scared to truly take a stand, they don’t care or that they do care but not enough for them to make any real sacrifices. I know, it’s “always the nobodies asking celebrities to sacrifice something” you’ll say. My response to that is if you decide to take a stand for something no matter who you are, be mindful of the possible sacrifices you may have to make in order to catapolt the change you want. Sacrifices are not mandatory but if it comes down to it, you may have to make a decision that’ll result in you losing something if that meant you continued on the path you chose to be on. Simply put, if you’re not really about it, don’t be about it. If you’re not going to admit that the risk does not outweigh the reward in your mind then don’t say or do anything at all. Might as well just shut up and dribble. “But what if the media asks them?” the media has been nothing but complicate with the performative acts. The media there in the Bubble/Wubble is there to dog whistle just like the black ruling class is used to pacify us poor and angry black folks. The powers that be know we look to our celebrities as people not only aspire to but to follow and they use that to their advantage in order to keep us from demanding more and doing more. You may not be included in the “us.” I’m for certain not, but I’m saying us because this is truly how those in power see all of us and just like Joe Biden’s stance on black voters not being black if they don’t vote for the Democrat, he’s right. Idol worship is a mothafucka.

With that being said, we should stop looking at these athletes/celebrities in general as our voices and leaders and instead of asking “who will lead us?” you should be asking “how will I lead myself?” Leadership doesn’t have a specific look. It has a specific mindset. That mindset is “what can I do?” and you don’t need to have a million followers or dollars to have that mindset.