“IT WAS NEVER ABOUT WHAT WE DID, IT’S ABOUT WHO WE ARE!”
That’s what LeBron James captioned a Friday tweet promoting an ad that addresses the double standard that Black people all saw and have not been shy about calling out regarding how police responded to the massive wypipo meltdown at the U.S. Capitol Wednesday.
In June, The Root reported that James joined a host of other prominent athletes and entertainers in launching the More Than a Vote campaign—an initiative aimed at protecting the Black vote in America.
If anything proves that what’s going on right now in this country is damn sure about much more than a vote, it’s the mob of angry white people who stormed the Capitol over imaginary voter fraud without being met with nearly the same show of force and aggression by police that protestors for Black lives saw for much of last year and other years past.
“We took a knee. We were called treasonous.”
“We peacefully protested. We were called dangerous.”
“We organized, we voted and we made history. We were called criminal.”
These statements floated across the screen over footage of Colin Kaepernick and other athletes kneeling during the national anthem and Black people celebrating their participation in the electoral process, before cutting to footage of the mob of delusional Trump supporters storming the Capitol.
All of this led up to a single message: “We will never shut up and dribble.”
Let’s be real about one thing: Every sentiment expressed in this ad is correct.
Donald Trump pretty much kept the National Guard on speed dial in response to civil unrest that happened during Black Lives Matter protests over the summer, yet it was reportedly Vice President Mike Pence who ended up making that call for the riot in D.C.—although Trump appears to deny that, saying that he “immediately deployed the National Guard and federal law enforcement,” according to CNN.
Either way, any reasonable person would recognize that Trump’s response to the lawlessness at the Capitol has been a clear departure from the degree of contempt he’s shown for the Black Lives Matter movement.
The same goes for conservative talking heads like Tucker Carlson whose reporting on the Capitol mob couldn’t possibly be more lenient than the energy he’s given to BLM demonstrations, violent or not.
And I wonder what the Blue Lives Matter crowd has to say now that it turns out a police officer is among those who died from injuries sustained during the D.C. riot.
Sy yeah, these athletes should never just “shut up and dribble” and all of us need to keep our feet on the neck of white supremacy. No ousting of the current administration ends our fight for equality.