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Wednesday, July 27, 2016

Too Little, Too Late?

An excerpt from The Root -

Michael Jordan: A Day Late and a Million Dollars Short
BY: STEPHEN A. CROCKETT JR.

On Monday, Michael Jordan decided to break his Clarence Thomas-like silence on race relations in this country to denounce the killings of unarmed black men, women and children at the hands of police. In a piece for The Undefeated, Jordan also condemned the killings of cops and donated $1 million each to the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund and the International Association of Chiefs of Police’s Institute for Community-Police Relations.

It’s with great thought and all due respect that I say, “F–k Michael Jordan.”

The cause doesn’t need his money, or his statement or his sympathy now; we needed it then, back when his name held weight. Back when he was the largest athlete on the planet. Back in 1990, when African-American U.S. Senate candidate Harvey Gantt was trying to wrestle North Carolina away from the racist control of Sen. Jesse Helms. That’s right, the same Jesse Helms who didn’t want to make Martin Luther King Jr.’s birthday a national holiday. Jordan was asked to endorse Gantt, a request to which he famously replied, “Republicans buy sneakers too.”

http://www.theroot.com/articles/culture/2016/07/michael-jordan-a-day-late-and-a-million-dollars-short/

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