Last week LeBron James caught considerable flak from the Right and the Left for condemning Houston Rockets general manager Daryl Morey, who on Oct. 4, tweeted support for the freedom protesters in Hong Kong. Coming to James' defense on ESPN's The Undefeated blog is David Dennis Jr., an adjunct professor of Journalism at Morehouse College, who says attacks on James are actually attempts to undermine the social justice efforts of black athletes in America.
USA Today called James (seen above in file photo wearing an "I can't breathe" shirt) turning on Morey instead of the oppressive Chinese government infringing on Hong Kong's freedom the "most disgraceful moment" of his career. Dennis disputes that and says we're shortchanging athletes’ activism by using sound bites to define their legacies.
Dennis says there's a dirty little secret at play over the strong reactions to James' comments made last week in a press conference prior to a Los Angeles Lakers preseason exhibition game:
"Most of the people outraged at James not taking a definitive stance on China’s handling of protesters in Hong Kong don’t care about the protesters themselves. The outrage isn’t about the plight of the protesters. The performative outrage is creating a new 'what aboutism' to hold up next time the athletes speak out about a cause."
James has come full circle since 2015, when media asked him to comment on the police shooting death of Tamir Rice, a 12-year-old African American boy. He passed on a comment, stating he was not familiar enough with the case to discuss it with media. The boy's mother was disappointed with James.
Since 2015, James has been a vocal advocate for social justice, Dennis writes, "calling out President Donald Trump and the NFL while building a school for at-risk kids in Akron, Ohio. He’s not the safe athlete anymore. He’s rubbing people the wrong way. His actions have even prompted Fox News host Laura Ingraham to tell him and other athletes to 'stick to sports.'"
Dennis says the NBA and China situation is a “gotcha” moment for people who want to silence NBA players:
"The premise of the criticism is clear: If these athletes won’t stand up for the rights of the citizens of Hong Kong, then they don’t really care about equality and human rights.
"It’s a veiled 'don’t all lives matter?' form of reshaping the narrative to negate the actions of speaking up for black folks in America. After all, how can they really care about police brutality in America if they don’t care about it in China? See how that narrative manipulation works?"
Now, Dennis predicts, James won't be able to tweet about cops killing a black person without someone bringing up his silence on China. "Because silencing black folks is all about false equivalencies and bogus narratives. In short, 'you didn’t speak about Hong Kong' is the newfangled 'what about Chicago?'”
It's ironic that people want athletes to speak out on China's oppression, but if social justice warrior athletes compare that with the way protesters in Ferguson, Missouri, were treated, "then we’d be back at square one asking them to be silent," Dennis complains. "We want these athletes to speak out against foreign regimes but not about police abuse of innocent black folks."
Dennis recommends that media interviewing athletes follow up questions about China with comparisons to police killings in the U.S. "Then we’ll see how much you want athletes to speak up," he concludes.
