Black men, black women, black kids, we are terrified.” As tired as white people may be of hearing it, black people are even more tired of living it.įor me, what really brought the hearth fire of hope back to life was the instantaneous support of other sports teams and athletes. Major League Soccer, in which only 26% of players are black, postponed five games that day, with players from two teams, Inter Miami and Atlanta United, locking arms and refusing to play. But it wasn’t that great of surprise because 81.1% of the NBA and 88% of the WNBA are black and their families and friends don’t live in a protective bubble.Īs LeBron James explained, “I know people get tired of hearing me say it, but we are scared as black people in America. That both leagues spoke out immediately was courageous, especially given the hundreds of millions of dollars involved and all the expense and effort it took to create their sports bubbles. Other NBA and WNBA teams followed. Games were postponed. THE DYING EMBER HAD BEEN EXTINGUISHED.īut then along came the Milwaukee Bucks, my old team, who announced they would boycott Game 5 of the NBA playoffs, explaining, “Despite the overwhelming plea for change, there has been no action, so our focus today cannot be on basketball.” They demanded that the Wisconsin state legislature, after months of inaction, “take up meaningful measures to address issues of police accountability, brutality and criminal justice reform.” And just like that, the ember of hope was flickering to life again. YEAH, HOPE IN THE BLACK COMMUNITY TOOK A BIG HIT THIS WEEK. Then this week, a black man, Jacob Blake, was shot seven times in the back by police, a 17-year-old was charged with murder after two men were killed at a subsequent protests, and the Republican National Convention featured speakers who, instead of voicing outrage over systemic racism and vowing to end it, complained about the audacity of ungrateful black people protesting that their husbands, sons, daughters, mothers, fathers, sisters, and brothers were being murdered by police while President Trump and the GOP conspired to take away their right to vote. The popularity of the Black Lives Matter movement that swept through America this summer after the killings of Breonna Taylor and George Floyd stoked that hope inside us into a small but powerful sun. Hope that being black wasn’t a crime and the punishment wasn’t death. Then, on their hands and knees, the person tries desperately to fan one dying ember back to life.įor the African American community living in a hostile environment, that dying ember is hope. Hope that America was finally committed to racial equity. Inevitably, some disaster occurs and the fire nearly goes out. Think about Survivor, or Naked and Afraid, or Alone – or any of those wilderness shows in which a person’s survival in a hostile environment depends on keeping that crucial campfire burning bright. Do you want to know what it feels like to be black in America this week?
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