When Eric Garner was choked to death by NYPD Officer Daniel Pantaleo this past summer, the nation
saw every horrific detail unfold on YouTube. In the five months since Garner's death, you'd be hard pressed to find anyone with half a heart who'd go on record to say what happened to Garner was anything other than a grave injustice.
So, when a Staten Island grand jury decided it was not going to indict Daniel Pantaleo, the outrage grew immediately and protests spread not only across New York City, but all over the United States. Much like the St. Louis Rams players who walked out with their hands up in solidarity with Ferguson protestors in wake of the death of teenager Mike Brown, several players in the NBA decided to stand in solidarity with protestors of Eric Garner's death.
First, Chicago Bulls guard Derrick Rose wore an #icantbreathe T-shirt in his pre-game warm-up on Saturday. Then several players from the Cleveland Cavaliers and the Brooklyn Nets, including superstar Lebron James, joined in during a marquee matchup with one another on Monday night. While the statement was widely appreciated by protestors, it needs to be stated that it's about as tepid of a statement as a player can make.
Again, what we are saying is that Lebron James wore a T-shirt with a statement on it during pre-game warm-ups.
He didn't insist on wearing it during the game.
He didn't decide to hold a civil disobedience demonstration during the game.
He didn't say he was going to refuse to play basketball again until the laws changed.
Please read below the fold for the response.
Yet, on sports talk radio all across the country, you'd think Lebron did so much more than this. White fans in droves are calling in with outrage and frustration that Lebron, Derrick Rose, Kyrie Irving, and others are "ruining the experience," "abusing the privilege of being the NBA," "making sports political," and serving as a "distraction from what sports is really all about." If Lebron's T-shirt bothers you that much, you are probably a racist.
Does it bother you when players wear pink to raise awareness for breast cancer?
Does it bother you when players wear American flags on their jerseys in tribute to fallen soldiers?
Did it disturb you when Washington Wizard point guard John Wall wrote "RIP Miyah" on his sneakers in honor of a six-year-old girl who recently died of cancer that he had befriended?
These statements are made during and throughout entire games with no mention of how much it frustrates fans and ruins their experience. The truth is this—fans don't sincerely have a problem with players using their uniforms to make a statement; They only have a problem with it when they don't like the statement that is being made. It would seem inhumane to complain about players wearing pink to raise money and awareness for breast cancer research. It would seem outrageously unpatriotic to complain about players wearing anything dedicated to fallen soldiers—even if they disagreed with the war itself.
However, when players stand in solidarity with protestors over a man that SHOULD NOT have been killed by police, it's a nuisance. I call BS. You might not have a KKK hood in your closet, but if a few upstanding NBA players wearing a T-shirt in solidarity with Eric Garner's family and protestors ruffles your feathers, you are probably racist.
