Moving Forward As One

When I wrote about Colin Kaepernick approximately 6 weeks back, I posed the following:

Colin Kaepernick, you have a platform: the mic is yours. You have achieved part one. We are talking about the problem. Now it’s time for part two. We need to keep our collective eye on the ball here. So what are your solutions?

Apparently, part of Kaepernick’s solution was not voting. I am by no means blaming our nation’s electing Trump to the highest office on Kaepernick, nor do I dismiss any of the work Kaepernick is and has been doing in the community. However, suffice it to say that ignoring the election, especially one this meaningful, was not a productive use of the platform that he created for himself.

That said, we have seen an extremely positive ripple effect come out of Mr. Kaepernick’s movement. Athletes like Brandon Marshall (the Broncos player) and Doug Baldwin, to name a couple, are and have been using their platforms to voice powerful opinions, start necessary conversations, and plant the seeds of change.

Something telling has been happening too. Caucasian male voices have begun speaking out against racial injustice, against sexism, against institutional oppression. The media may have spent a ton of time singling out Bill Belichick’s letter to Trump because Trump referenced it in a speech. Rather than focus on Belichick, put that Google to work. Enter the terms “Steve Kerr” or “Stan Van Gundy” with “Trump” and see what pops up. Now listen to what these two NBA coaches, in a league where approximately 75% of the players are African-American and 15 out of 15 of the players on the three All-NBA teams last year were African American, had to say. They are aghast at the election results.

What Coaches Kerr and Van Gundy did not get into in those sound bites was how to move our country forward. If I may be so bold as to offer an idea, I would propose that the coaches, and any other like-minded coaches join forces with the already politically outspoken NBA All-Stars (e.g. LeBron, CP3, Carmelo, Wade), and launch an organization. That organization should have well-defined goals be they the re-institution of the Voting Rights Act, equal pay for women, prison reform, and/or any goals they see fit.

The image of famous, accomplished, and bright African-Americans and Caucasians functioning as one with the spotlight on them will do much more for the movement than Mitch McConnell telling us to unite. After all, who’s going to listen to Republican Senators talk about unity after they spent 8 years telling the country that their goal was to obstruct and/or unseat our first African American President?

Our nation does need to heal and we need good people with powerful voices to lead us forward, not just in Washington, but all over our country. Caucasian people need to see the Steve Kerr’s and Stan Van Gundy’s up on that stage alongside their African American counterparts in unison. It clearly has not been enough to merely see African Americans demanding the rights to which they, and all people, are entitled. It also hasn’t been enough to see a woman running for President championing the issue of women’s rights.

There are many Caucasian males in this nation who, for a myriad of reasons, including racist upbringings, absolutely need to see people who look like them supporting the most important tenet of our nation – that all people are created equal – before they feel the need to do it themselves. That does not make it remotely right, but societal change is not going to happen overnight. It isn’t going to happen without the largest segment of society changing its tune. And those people are not going to change their tune without hearing it from people who look and sound like them. If closed-minded people need some coaxing, so be it. I don’t want to be the one chopping off my nose to spite my face.

In sum, I was befuddled by Kaepernick’s choice not to vote but ecstatic to see Coach Kerr and Coach Van Gundy piggy back off of what he started and stand up not just for their own beliefs but for people who constitute what too many people see as “the other.” As much as I would look forward to the rematch with Steve Kerr’s Warriors taking on LeBron James’ Cavs in June, I’d far rather see them on stage together espousing their shared beliefs and ideas to our nation on how to move us forward. It may not seem like much, but the picture of Steve Kerr locking arms with LeBron would say much more than 1,000 words.