We refused to listen when Colin Kaepernick took a knee, and got enraged when other players did the same. So maybe people will pay attention to the point when athletes decide to stay in the locker room and not play at all.
Or maybe you just don't care when Black people die.
The Milwaukee Bucks' decision to skip their NBA playoff game in the NBA bubble against the Orlando Magic set off a historic wave of cancellations across four major sports leagues on Wednesday.
The NBA agreed to cancel its three playoff games scheduled for Wednesday afternoon and night. The Milwaukee Brewers chose not to take the field against the Cincinnati Reds. The Seattle Mariners _ the MLB team with the most Black players in the league _ refused to play the San Diego Padres. The Los Angeles Dodgers and the San Francisco Giants postponed their game. The WNBA postponed its three games; five MLS games were also called off.
Whatever you think of their views, you have to respect the stones it takes to follow their convictions.
Someone has to try.
The Bucks boycotted the game as part of the continued protest started by former San Francisco 49ers quarterback Colin Kaepernick in what now feels like 45 years ago.
The most recent incident involves Jacob Blake, a Black man who was shot in the back seven times by a police officer in Kenosha, Wis. Milwaukee is about 40 miles from Kenosha.
The video of Blake being shot is as bad as the others we've seen, from George Floyd to Eric Garner and the rest.
Whatever the specifics of the incident, all of these victims simply did not need to die. If they were white, they'd be alive today.
These pro teams skipping these games is not an effort to get a day off. This is not a duck, or some lame hustle.
They're doing it because we are not listening to their point.
The point remains the point: In the United States, a disparity exists between the way police officers engage with Blacks when compared to other Americans.
To my closested bigot friends, don't bother wasting your time showing me some statistics that say more white people are hurt by cops in America than Blacks. Of course they are; we are talking about the percentages within the percentages, which are nauseating, and don't compare.
Quit looking to our nationally elected officials to solve a problem down your street. The priority of our nationally elected leaders, regardless of political affiliation, is themselves, not you.
We have to solve it. White people. Black people. Cops. Kids. Parents. Americans.
What are we doing to correct this specific problem? By "we" I mean "we," but before we get there know that your response is often tied to your zip code.
Here's something else. Police profile the citizens, and the citizens profile the police.
The concept of defunding the police is one of the dumbest narratives ever conceived. The last thing our communities need is a police department that is defunded.
No rational person, no matter how angry, wants a local police force disbanded and shut down.
Our communities need them to do a job that presents challenges most citizens can't conceive. These are not fun jobs.
Now if you say "reform" the police, well, that's a verb most people can agree on.
None of this is going to be solved by a President, whether he's Democrat or Republican.
The only solution is through us, and that starts by acknowledging there exists a major problem in this country.
The Bucks skipped the game not for fun, but to make us stop.
We didn't care when Colin Kaepernick took a knee, and refused to listen to his point.
Maybe we'll listen now because rather than take a knee, the players just won't play at all.
Or maybe you just don't care when Black people die.
