Kareem Abdul-Jabbar encourages Black America to dig deep in order to discover the “foundation of courage,” and much need “optimism,” following Donald Trump’s heart wrenching 2016 election victory.
In a recent oped for The Washington Post, the NBA’s all-time leading scorer and former cultural ambassador for the United States shared his thoughts on what it is to be Black during a Trump administration.
“Today, African Americans will have to dig pretty deep to find that foundation because there’s not much optimism in sight. Yes, we’re all supposed to come together after an election, let bygones be bygones, and march forward unified as neither Democrats nor Republicans but patriotic Americans celebrating the triumph of the democratic process. But it’s difficult to link arms when the home of the free embraces the leadership of a racist. Let the other groups denigrated and threatened by Trump speak for themselves. The women, immigrants, Muslims, Jews, the LGBT community and others who now must walk through the streets of their country for the next four years in shame and fear, knowing that their value as human beings has been diminished by their neighbors. I only speak for myself as an African American and I speak with the rage of betrayal,” the 69-year-old opened with a bang.
The author of Writings on the Wall: Searching for a New Equality Beyond Black and White went on to acknowledge our “misplaced hope.” 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,” said Abdul-Jabbar. “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.'”
After outlining Trump’s “history of racism,” including complaints “about the musical performances of Jay Z and Beyoncé at a Hillary Clinton rally,” the New York native urged those standing idly by to act. “What’s important now is to skip the wallowing, finger-pointing, name-calling period and begin an immediate and focused effort on dominating the 2018 midterm elections during which all 435 seats in the House of Representatives and one-third of Senate seats will be in play. People of color cannot merely play defense anymore. They must mount a long-term offensive that includes relentlessly challenging every act of institutional racism in the country,” whether a woman, Latino, immigrant or part of the LGBT community,” he continued.
As for the key to overcoming the “racist” President-elect of the United States, Abdul-Jabbar gave one heck of an endorsement to megastar Beyoncé: “In “’Formation,’ Beyoncé says, “’ dream it, I work hard, I grind till I own it.’ Donald Trump may not appreciate those words, but those words can inspire all African Americans and others who wish to make America America again. Not hope, but action. Not later, but now.”
