Kareem Abdul-Jabbar: People of color need to rally vs. Trump, racism
NBA great Kareem Abdul-Jabbar spoke out against President-elect Donald Trump in an editorial for the Washington Post on Thursday.
Abdul-Jabbar wrote about the hopelessness that many within the African-American community have felt since Trump defeated Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton in Tuesday night's presidential election. As part of his recommendations to move past the hopelessness, he says people of color need to “mount a long-term offensive” against some of the racist acts that could come.
“After numerous police shootings of unarmed blacks every year, national Black Lives Matter protests, and unprecedented expressions of support from pro athletes, black Americans saw a glimmer of hope that white Americans were finally acknowledging the overwhelming evidence of institutional racism that had been glaringly obvious to blacks for many years,” Abdul-Jabbar wrote.
“But that hope was misplaced. Instead, a majority of white America chose to swallow the blue pill, preferring to, as Morpheus explains in “The Matrix,” ‘wake up in your bed and believe whatever you want to believe,’‘ he adds. “Unfortunately, black Americans don’t get to wake up and believe what they want to believe, because they have to face another day of lower pay and higher job discrimination, less educational opportunity and greater health problems.”
Abdul-Jabbar endorsed Clinton and spoke at the Democratic National Convention.
