When a country doesn't respect Black lives, maybe it doesn't deserve to be entertained by Black athletes.
Jemele HillRead
America hasn't been able to grapple with the uncomfortable reality that police brutality is encoded in this country's DNA.
Interpretation
Police brutality is a deep-rooted issue in America, reflecting systemic problems within society.
Jemele Hill's quote emphasizes the entrenched nature of police brutality in the United States, suggesting that it is not just a recent issue but rather a fundamental part of the country's history and identity. It calls attention to the need for society to confront and address this reality, rather than ignoring or denying its existence.
In practice
During a community meeting on police reform, this quote can highlight the need to address systemic issues.
When a country doesn't respect Black lives, maybe it doesn't deserve to be entertained by Black athletes.
It's something most people of color and most women have been burdened with their whole lives, having to suppress your natural emotion to make everybody else feel comfortable. Repeatedly having to do that takes its toll.
Race impacts 90 percent of our society - and I'm probably undershooting that figure. I find this fascinating and like to address it when pertinent.
Yes, I do realize that men in sports media also face criticism and backlash, but the vitriol that is directed at women, especially women of color, is far more severe.
There's a long history and a pattern of Black athletes - and Black people, period - being told to shut up and accept whatever it is they're given.
The thirst for liberation and equality can never come at the expense of dehumanizing other marginalized groups - especially at a time when hate crimes against Jews have increased significantly.
We have a deeply rooted misconception in our country that unhoused people have done something to deserve their conditions - when the reality is that unhoused people are living the consequences of our government's failure to secure the basic necessities people need to survive.
The appalling racial injustice inherent in the Trayvon Martin tragedy reminds us that there is still much to do.
The United States imprisons a larger percentage of its black population than South Africa did at the height of apartheid. In Washington, D.C., our nationβs capitol, it is estimated that three out of four young black men (and nearly all those in the poorest neighborhoods) can expect to serve time in prison.
We don't have time to waste. Our communities are crumbling; our children are under siege. Failing schools and a for-profit prison-industrial complex are sucking the life out of black homes and communities. We are not going down like this!
I believe it is possible to bring an end to mass incarceration and birth a new moral consensus about how we ought to be responding to poor folks of color and a consensus in support of basic human rights for all. But it is going to take some work.
I think we've become blind in this country to the ways in which we've managed to reinvent a caste-like system here in the United States, one that functions in a manner that is as oppressive, in many respects, as the one that existed in South Africa under apartheid and that existed under Jim Crow here in the United States.
Subscribe for the occasional hand-picked quote. No noise.