Basketball legend Kareem Abdul-Jabbar went on the attack against “those who dream of a white America,” for rejecting former NFL player and notorious national anthem protestor Colin Kaepernick, and treating him like a “Black Grinch.”
Abdul-Jabbar kicked off his December 5 screed recounting Kaepernick’s celebration of “Unthanksgiving Day” in a Thanksgiving Day tweet where the former San Francisco 49er was seen supporting Native American groups that claimed America committed genocide and theft against native peoples.
The former L.A. Laker blasted Fox News and The Blaze for “editorializing” about Kaepernick’s tweet and raising the alarm to “Defcon 1,” thereby making sure their “readers don’t have to burden themselves with thinking.”
Abdul-Jabbar slammed The Blaze for saying Kaepernick “bashed America” with his Thanksgiving Day tweet, but went on to insist that facts are facts, and accused whites of hating Kaepernick because he opposes “White Christmas American values.”
Technically, pointing out a fact isn’t “bashing.” America’s forefathers did indeed steal the land from the indigenous people, often over their dead bodies. Just as indigenous people stole land from other tribes. That’s just historical fact. Like pointing out to grandpa that his zipper is open. I’m not bashing him, just stating a truth. So, why the panicky attacks on Kaepernick? Clearly, there’s something much more insidious going on here: the sustained attempt to steal Kaepernick’s political voice by characterizing him as un-American. The Black Grinch who wants to steal White Christmas American values.
Abdul-Jabbar next equated Kaepernick to Civil Rights icon Dr Martin Luther King Jr as some people said mean things about King, too, because Christians are racists.
The irony is that the moral values that determined King’s crusade were rooted in his devotion to Christianity, not communism. Yet, it was mostly Christians who rejected their own supposed beliefs because they were espoused by a black man who literally embodied Jesus’s teaching of turn-the-other-cheek. History has taught us over and over that religious values are quickly abandoned when they conflict with economics or traditional social norms.
These racists, Abdul-Jabbar exclaims, have been trying to “drown out Kaepernick’s voice by shouting unfounded personal insults” at him since he first began protesting against the country in 2016.
The NFL came in for scorn, as well, over its intention to schedule a workout for Kaepernick so he could show the league that he is still in top playing form. The NFL wasn’t serious, the left-wing sports commentator insisted:
Kaepernick’s highly publicized tryout last month did not seem designed to seriously consider him for readmittance into the NFL. Instead, it looked like a media-savvy sham-show to make the NFL look like the good guys while destroying Kaepernick’s credibility as an athlete and therefore as a spokesman for anything, be it social justice or Nike.
Ultimately, Abdul-Jabbar, says, the attacks from whites on Kaepernick are not even about Kaepernick. They are about shutting up other black people.
The attacks on Kaepernick are “about all the other athletes who conservatives are trying to preemptively silence.”
“Fox News, Breitbart, and the other mouthpieces of entitlement and walling-off-the-truth can’t touch them,” Abdul-Jabbar wrote. “But other players, especially young ones working their way up through the ranks, may be stifled by the example of Kaepernick left to twist in the wind of no-change.”
Abdul-Jabbar adds that attacks on blacks are worse than ever under Donald Trump. He also wrote that blacks are routinely told “Shut up or die,” and that “Aggressive efforts have been made to keep African Americans and college students from voting.”
Finally, after recounting several incidents of racism perpetrated decades ago, Abdul-Jabbar concludes accusing whites of telling “truth tellers” to “shut up.”
For much longer than 50 years people have been ordering truth-tellers to shut up and punishing them when they refuse. I’m sure their tactics have silenced some athletes. Not all. They can never silence all because the kind of grit it takes to become an athlete is the same kind it takes to place truth above self-interest. But they sure will keep on trying as long as they get paid to pander to those who wrap themselves in the pretty colors of the flag rather than the bold words of the Constitution.
Abdul-Jabbar is right about one thing. People are trying to force athletes to “shut up” and stop advocating for their political ideals. Just to name a few, ESPN fired Curt Schilling for his conservative tweets. Britt McHenry also says ESPN fired her because she is a conservative. Former pro baseballer Aubrey Huff has been told to shut up because of his support for Trump. NFL rookie Nick Bosa felt the need to delete his pro-Trump tweets because rabid leftists were lining up to destroy his budding NFL career. And they even targeted MLB player Trevor Bauer for his pro-Trump tweets and the fact that he likes to post admittedly childish jokes and taunts on Twitter. And this isn’t even to mention NFL team owner Robert Kraft and his QB Tom Brady who the media has shamed for years because they both dare to support the president. There are dozens more just like this.
Yes, there are a lot of people telling athletes to shut up.
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