LeBron James found himself in the middle of it last night, because he just can’t win. Because we’re in an age where so few can have their minds changed, and will use anything and everything as a means to justify digging in even deeper to what they believe. LeBron could be angry, and people will use that against him and what he stands for. He could be calm, and analytical, which would be labeled dispassionate.
It’s the not being able to win that makes James, and other athletes, and every Black man, and every Black person so angry. It’s not that people aren’t listening, because there certainly are. It’s that not enough new people are listening.
So LeBron can be emotional in the moment, and it’s used as just another ANGRY BLACK MAN that the police have to protect all the saintly white people from. That’s what it is. Why shouldn’t he be angry? In the same hour as one of the very few occasions that a cop was actually held responsible and accountable for murder, another one was gunning down a Black teenage girl. And it could have been worse, as she was in a small crowd.
But everyone seeking to keep things the way they are use it as evidence of what invisible threat is out there from guys like LeBron. Because powerful, motivated Black men with money who can enforce change, and LeBron already has and will, is a real threat to that, and in all the “proper” ways. So they have to invent ways he’s a threat in all the “improper” ways. Meanwhile, Y’all Qaeda can storm the damn Capital and it’s nothing more than just some good ol’ boys, never meanin’ no harm.
There’s going to be a time soon when LeBron and a whole lot of others aren’t going to apologize for their anger. And they aren’t going to hide from it. And maybe we’re already there. And that’s when the real change comes. Because more anger will only motivate more and more people in more and more places. Great changes in our society haven’t come from people being serene.