Former NBA Player Royce White spoke out to raise awareness about the millions of Uyghurs suffering oppression in Chinese concentration camps.
The one-time Scramento Kings player spoke out on camera during a recent Big 3 basketball game when the floor reporter asked White what his t-shirt meant.
“Free the Uyghurs,” Royce responded, “two million ethnic minorities in East Turkistan, China, in concentration camps. It’s something we gotta talk about, you know I’m always going to talk about the real thing.”
White later told fans more on his Twitter feed:
“When you know a moment like this should be going viral but instead you get crickets from media outlets… that’s when you know you’re doing it the right way. When it doesn’t suit anybody to talk about justice and freedom, that’s when you should talk about it. #FreeTheUyghurs,” he wrote on Sunday.
White also posted the clip to his Instagram page:
White’s NBA career was short lived, but his stand against the NBA’s billion-dollar Chinese business partners for their oppression and enslavement of the Uyghur minorities is worthy of immense praise.
The plight of the Uyghurs is a topic the NBA steadfastly ignores in favor of raking in billions of dollars in broadcast and endorsement deals with the Chinese government. Indeed, NBA Commissioner Adam Silver has explained away the league’s relationship with the world’s leading oppressor by defending the relationship as good for “international relations.”
Silver even recently expanded his league’s dealings with China despite the accusations of hypocrisy.
Meanwhile, individual NBA players who claim to be civil rights activists at home in the U.S.A. also ignore the slave labor camps that make their jerseys and shoes. For instance, LeBron James constantly attacks Americans, but studiously remains silent about his oppressive Chinese business partners.
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