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Michael Jordan: I Can No Longer Stay Silent

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Please don't speak with sound knowledge in areas you know little about.

Every Jordan release is not marred with violence or gun violence.
 
Fair! But the point I was making is that MJ is not really even going for a both sides stance. His money is being used to help the community, just through 2 different channels.


I think there are multiple approaches that must be tackled in tandem to solve this problem. There is room for both police reform and strengthening relations. While I agree the reform is the more important (and more difficult) issue to solve, it doesn't mean we should turn away help for the other issues.
Reas his quotes in the link. Bringing up police being targeted in the same breath as the killings of unarmed black people is but a part of what's disconcerting here.

Let's be clear here, Jordan is 100 percent off base where he's treating this as an equal problem. It's not.
Yeah, this.
 
Please don't speak with sound knowledge in areas you know little about.

Every Jordan release is not marred with violence or gun violence.
People get fucked up for their shoes sometimes, just like people get robbed for anything else sometimes. Yeah it happens, but the last time I heard of it of being a big wide spread issue was in the 90's.
 
"Both sides" stance, huh

Donating $1 million to a newly created institute for community-related policing isn't a both sides stance. It gives badly needed money to help combat the very thing BLM supporters say is the issue.

...the Institute will provide law enforcement agencies with the tools, resources, and guidance to help build community trust and engagement, foster transparency and accountability, and safeguard officer well-being, while reducing crime and increasing public safety.

You know damn well no municipal or state level governments will want to donate money to things like this. It is not a zero sum game man.
 
What the hell? For a pair of shoes? Just how much are they worth?

I haven't write them since I was a kid, because my family would buy them based on their popular. But they can sell for over a $100+ easily and that's before the scalpers get to them. Along with the limited time releases.
 
Reas his quotes in the link. Bringing up police being targeted in the same breath as the killings of unarmed black people is but a part of what's disconcerting here.
I did read the whole article. Yeah, I disagree with putting police killings on the same level as black killings, but actions speak louder than platitudes and his actions show me that his main focus is on the black community.

We can agree to disagree there. It's not like we can invite him to gaf to elaborate, haha.
 
Please don't speak with sound knowledge in areas you know little about.

Every Jordan release is not marred with violence or gun violence.

It's a pretty big trend. We aren't talking about Curry's sneakers here.

I do think that is a separate issue entirely along with how those shoes were made. The OJ: Made in America kind of highlighted the athlete Jordan is publicly. Which is fine and his own prerogative, unless he kills someone then starts showing up in black churches the next week.
 
Donating $1 to a newly created institute for community-related policing isn't a both sides stance. It gives badly needed money to help combat the very thing BLM supporters say is the issue.



You know damn well no municipal or state level governments will want to donate money to things like this. It is not a zero sum game man.

You are incorrect, as the IACP commonly receives grants from local governments, and some states have grants specifically for the purpose. Example: http://publicsafety.ohio.gov/links/ocjs_FY2016-OCPRG-RFP.pdf

Ohio Community-Police Relations Grant program aims to encourage, improve, and enhance the important relationship between communities and law enforcement agencies serving those communities.
 
For people who don't follow Michael Jordan, he's been criticized by civil rights proponents for staying silent his entire career on issues of race.

He famously declined to endorse a black, civil rights activists running for a political office, telling his former coach Dean Smith (who requested MJ make the endorsement) "Republicans buy sneakers too." Don't get me wrong, I'm glad that he's deciding to financially support the NAACP, but Jordan has been criticized for trying to avoid questions of race relations in favor of his Nike endorsements.

Well look at Kareem. The way the league, media and fans shunned/treated him for his activism on race and religion is shameful, I am aware Kareem's attitude did not help either he pretty much did not like the media in general and was not friendly with NBA ownership iirc.

The way Kareem is remembered and treated around the NBA probably stopped a lot of black athletes from taking a hard stance on social issues.

It seems like its a recent thing for the leagues, media, endorsements and fans to be neutral or supportive of pro athlete activism.

Its still not an excuse for the years of silence by Jordan, but hopefully this is a sign for more athletes to come out more and lend a voice to more social issues
 
There is no big trend. Are you into popular sneakers?

You know new Jays come out practically weekly, right?

Not anymore. I got a pair of New Balance and got out of the game!

I'm not suggesting every release has problems, but the brand is linked to a lot of weird second market shenanigans. That's no secret.
 
Not anymore. I got a pair of New Balance and got out of the game!

I'm not suggesting every release has problems, but the brand is linked to a lot of weird second market shenanigans. That's no secret.

Violence isn't one of them. Have to stop painting that narrative.

If the culture was ripe with violence, Sneaker Con wouldn't be at the level it's raising too.
 
*shakes head*
i think im out. some of you have turned to bitter to even think straight. :(

i leave with saying this:
a guy is beeing shat on here because he suggests that building up relations between people to better the stance to each other is misguided.
hes seems the to be the reason people kill each other (not the people that do the killing)
and he tried to stay out of politics (which is understandebal)

police needs reform. reform takes time. why not lower the racist mentality first so we can reach change faster?


i repeat. turning bitter won't further any cause. it ends in a circle of hatred and eats you up without changing anything.
 
Violence isn't one of them. Have to stop painting that narrative.

If the culture was ripe with violence, Sneaker Con wouldn't be at the level it's raising too.

Again, I'm just referring to the association. When I hear "Air Jordans", child labor comes to mind before anything else.

I'm not suggesting that is still a practice either.
 
*shakes head*
i think im out. some of you have turned to bitter to even think straight. :(

i leave with saying this:
a guy is beeing shat on here because he suggests that building up relations between people to better the stance to each other is misguided.
hes seems the to be the reason people kill each other (not the people that do the killing)
and he tried to stay out of politics (which is understandebal)

police needs reform. reform takes time. why not lower the racist mentality first so we can reach change faster?


i repeat. turning bitter won't further any cause. it ends in a circle of hatred and eats you up without changing anything.
Wha...what?

Stop the racist mentality? Can you tell that to all black people and see how they feel about that? The fuck???

Also Jordan's VERY shaky history absolutely gives reason to question this move and the way he has worded it. It's great he's being active but it shouldn't just be an automatic reason to consider him a good person.
 
*shakes head*
i think im out. some of you have turned to bitter to even think straight. :(

i leave with saying this:
a guy is beeing shat on here because he suggests that building up relations between people to better the stance to each other is misguided.
hes seems the to be the reason people kill each other (not the people that do the killing)
and he tried to stay out of politics (which is understandebal)

police needs reform. reform takes time. why not lower the racist mentality first so we can reach change faster?


i repeat. turning bitter won't further any cause. it ends in a circle of hatred and eats you up without changing anything.
Like 90% of the thread is "both sides is a bullshit narrative, but I'm glad he's doing something good." Okay.
 
"Both sides" stance, huh

All this reminds me of his stance on the All Star game. It was basically "I can understand, i'm sad it didn't work out, hope to make it work in 2019". Ok bruh.

He cares about black people now ? Awesome good for him. Even though he donated to the cops too, at least he's doing shit to help. Meanwhile popular athletes like Lebron James, Steph Curry, Cam Newton, OBJ, and etc are silent.

-d0hv

LBJ used to sport that "I Can't Breathe" shirt so he hasn't exactly been silent.
 
Why does he need to do anything? My man was good at basketball, doesn't mean he needs to be a political activist he can do whatever the fuck he wants let the man live his life.
 
Good statement, especially seeing how he isn't forced to make one. And great donation as an effort to fund the proper resources.

I still won't buy your shoes unless some good OGs drop.

But I'm glad that he did something other than being silent.

Silence is an action.
 
"Both sides" stance, huh

It's a stance that isn't equivocal about the fact that policing practices are flawed, and have resulted in the unjust killings of black Americans, but that is also passionate about the unjust killings of police officers. And there's plenty of reason to direct passion in that direction, as well: collective punishment is almost never the appropriate path to take, human beings were killed in cold blood, and such actions are counterproductive to the cause of social justice in almost every conceivable way.

I can see how someone would label it a "both sides" stance, but that isn't inherently bad, and I'd say it's relatively appropriate and productive in this particular context.
 
Why does he need to do anything? My man was good at basketball, doesn't mean he needs to be a political activist he can do whatever the fuck he wants let the man live his life.
He is a human that has other sides to him besides being one of the best basketball players of all time. And those other sides are pretty ugly. We wouldn't react like this if he was just a stand up person.
 
Im kinda cynical on the issue. But it's not a bad thing he's trying to do. It's ok to be reasonable and try to "see all sides".

But I feel that's sorta disingenuous given the context of history.
 
Who does this guy think he is saying both sides need to improve and look at things from both perspectives? He must be a witch! You take one side and go all extreme against the other, that's the way things should be.

Good for him though. Every bit these establishments get helps.

LOL about shoe violence being brought up too. Once again another flaw with how people think anymore is exposed. Blaming a shoe, loosely blaming targeted marketing. Come the fuck on. It's the god damned people who rob and murder over these things which are the problem.

For a place with people that like to say everyone's important, everyone's special and valuable, why can't these people see that some people are unique that they don't give zero fucks about other humans. Those are bad people, and a pair of shoes didn't make them that way. Every single human is not perfect, and probably never ever will be. Damn.
 
Who does this guy think he is saying both sides need to improve and look at things from both perspectives? He must be a witch! You take one side and go all extreme against the other, that's the way things should be.

Good for him though. Every bit these establishments get helps.
His actions in the past is why people are reacting this way.
 
Who does this guy think he is saying both sides need to improve and look at things from both perspectives? He must be a witch! You take one side and go all extreme against the other, that's the way things should be.

I defintely learned that after reading some of the posts here. But this is just another example of how neogaf is in a nutshell.
 
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