Much attention has been given to Michael Jordan speaking out Monday, denouncing the brutish violence suffered by Blacks at the hands of police, and the retaliation by those fed up with police abuse.
Carmelo Anthony, Dwayne Wade, Chris Paul and LeBron James made a speech about it to open up this year’s ESPY Awards a few weeks ago. Members of WNBA teams have been recently making a stand. Television commentator Kenny Smith has plans of launching a program to counteract it, and Anthony held a town hall meeting this past Monday in efforts of opening up additional dialogue.
For years, Jordan has been chided for staying silent in regards to social issues regarding people of color. The basketball icon, owner of the Charlotte Hornets, the Christian Louboutin of athletic footwear, is famously noted for saying, “Republicans buy sneakers, too,” in regards to not supporting a Black democratic candidate for mayor in Charlotte, N.C. some years ago.
He’s been accused of gouging the public with high sneaker prices. He’s even been blamed by some for the murders, violence and robberies by those who choose to commit crimes to attain his stylish, popular sneaker.
In an interview last year, basketball Hall of Famer Kareem Abdul Jabbar stated, “You can’t be afraid of losing shoe sales if you’re worried about your civil and human rights. He took commerce over conscience. He’s gotta live with it.”
Jordan also donated $1 million each to the NAACP Legal Defense Fund and the International Association of Chief of Police’s Institute For Community-Police Relations. But can he be fairly criticized, called out for not speaking out, for not taking a stand on social issues without criticizing others?
For example, let’s question why Black-on-Black crime is so high in the president and first lady’s hometown of Chicago, where the president’s former chief of staff, Rahm Emanuel, is now mayor, where Oprah Winfrey, Jessie Jackson and Minister Louis Farrakhan reside. Chicago’s soaring murder rate and shootings continue to dominate their news reports and headlines. Are they speaking out? Is there a call for them to?
Jordan’s father, James Jordan, was murdered 23 years ago this month in a rural town in North Carolina, a month after his son’s Chicago Bulls team won their third straight NBA Championship, the 1992-93 season.
Expected by the basketball community to return to the championship a fourth time, Jordan took a hiatus from pro basketball after his father’s death. A pseudo, abbreviated retirement of sorts.
The murder of Jordan’s father is believed to be credited for that. The murder not only ripped the hearts out of Jordan, his family members and friends but also drastically and dramatically changed the course of NBA basketball.
The OJ Simpson-white Bronco car chase may have preempted the Bulls versus the Houston Rockets game that June night in 1994, instead of the Rockets versus the New York Knicks.
Shaquille O’Neal may have not been in an NBA Finals until he signed with the Los Angeles Lakers after losing the chip with the Orlando Magic to Houston in the 1994-95 season.
As good as Jordan and his teams were, would the Knicks and Magic, also Eastern Conference teams, been in either of those championship games?
“As a proud American, a father who lost his own dad in a senseless act of violence, and a Black man, I have been deeply troubled by the deaths of African-Americans at the hands of law enforcement and angered by the cowardly and hateful targeting and killing of police officers. I grieve with the families who have lost loved ones, as I know their pain all too well,” is how Jordan began his statement.
What Jordan, the president and others who state that the killing of police officers is cowardly and hateful must realize is that the murders of unarmed Black people by the police is equally as cowardly and hateful.
Jordan further states, “I have decided to speak out in the hope that we can come together as Americans, and through peaceful dialogue and education, achieve constructive change.”
There are those who believe that his statement is solely a public relations concern based on selling sneakers. To ensure that those lines continue at retail outlets that sell the Jordan brand whenever they systematically re-market one of the many popular models that are differentiated by style and color.
There are many who aren’t aware of the jobs that he provides and the high-ranking Black executives that he employs.
Though he’s Jordan, and we wear them, and advertising and T-shirts have said to be like him, in some way, the violent, unexpected loss of his father 23 years ago is a reminder that in some ways, Mike is still like us.
