Posted on 03/29/2014 4:44:35 PM PDT by Uncle Chip
LA Lakers star Kobe Bryant has been heavily criticized after saying that he didn't think he should necessarily have an opinion on Trayvon Martin's shooting just because he is African American.
During an interview for a profile piece in the New Yorker, which will be published on April 4, the 35-year-old said also took the opportunity to pour scorn on Lebron James and the Miami Heat for posting a photo of them wearing hoodies in the aftermath of Martin's death at the hands of George Zimmerman.
Asked about that, Bryant said he took exception to any idea that Africa-Americans should hold opinions based on their race alone.
'I won’t react to something just because I’m supposed to, because I’m an African-American,' Bryant said.
'That argument doesn't make no sense to me. So we want to advance as a society and a culture, but, say, if something happens to an African-American we immediately come to his defense?
'Yet you want to talk about how far we’ve progressed as a society? Well, we’ve progressed as a society, then don’t jump to somebody’s defense just because they’re African-American....
The comments have provoked a huge backlash and debate and led to accusations that Bryant is out of touch with real African-American issues....
Indeed, Bryant, who spent much of his childhood in Italy, where his father was a professional basketball player, has even faced calls for young people to boycott any product he endorses.
Civil rights activist Najee Ali, director of Project Islamic H.O.P.E., called for a boycott of all things Bryant.
'African American youth should no longer buy Bryant’s jerseys or shoes and should boycott all products he endorses,' Ali said in a statement according to Fox News....
(Excerpt) Read more at dailymail.co.uk ...
Oh man, Kobe just had his N card pulled.
How dare he not think what he is told to think !
Everything he said sounded perfectly rational. Basically he said, don’t jump to conclusions without knowing the facts. So, of course, he’s the bad guy.
He’s better off without it.
Preach it Black Mamba.
He’s right no matter who he is.
Kobe SHOULD be fine. Remember Michael Vick?
He should play his next NBA game with “white face”.
That’ll really send them off.
When the SHTF, blacks better not be playing the race card and getting mad at whites for not helping them with things like food, emergency care, and lodging. Whites are angry because blacks have achieved everything they could possibly achieve and its still not enough. They occupy the highest levels of government power and dominate sports, entertainment, and music. They are a protected race. If a white so much as frowns at a black person, he/she gets charged with hate crimes.
Lincoln should have pulled the Central American option and spared us all this crap.
I don’t think any Whites would be offended. We don’t get a Whitey race card.
He still hasn’t walked ten feet in Justice Thomas’s shoes.
That’ll really send them off.
I don't think Kobe or I would live through that game.
Two thoughts:
1) Kobe is still a detestable human being. He paid off a woman he raped. He acts like an entitled hebetudinous twit.
2) Nothing has been more divisive to our society than hyphenated Americanism. African-American, Asian-American, queer-American. We’re Americans, regardless of anything else. We have too much separation to be a nation of cohesive people. As a sidebar, this has happened in the church as well, for those who are believers.
He said, the cries for help coming from Trayvon? C'mon man, you don't cry for help when YOU'RE beating a guy's head into the ground.
He's since quietly told me he's a republican.
Which makes two of us in the office.
But I keep my yapper shut also. The boss is a liberal.
But a very smart guy, who is decent otherwise.
Tell you what, the biggest thing holding black Americans down is other black Americans telling them they’d better tow the party line. Or toe the party line, whichever it is. The peer pressure, the refusal to let any of them make up their own minds about anything.
Black liberals can’t stand it when a black person dares says what is on their mind that doesn’t fit along with their agenda. How dare Kobe have his own opinion!!
Good on Kobe. Sounds rational. But, didn’t Kobe also say that Obama was good enough to make this year’s Lakers team?
as what??? a cheerleader???
Hmmm....and here I thought Kobe was just another scumbag.
Maybe I need to soften my opinion of him.
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