Because there can’t be an official arbiter to rule that a once influential cultural figure now so routinely strays from the realm of reason that we as a nation should just go ahead and ignore them until further notice, we have the media paying credence to Rev. Jesse Jackson’s slavery invoking thoughts on the LeBron James free agency theatrics.
Jesse Jackson Makes Jesse Jacksonish Comments About LeBron James Saga
Jackson on Sunday called LeBron a “runaway slave” and said that Cavaliers owner Dan Gilbert personifies “a slave master mentality” in making outraged comments following LeBron’s departure to the Heat. These angry comments, according to Jackson, place LeBron in some sort of nebulous danger. Such is the destructive potential of Comic Sans, it seems.
Jackson, of course, is far from the first to equate the plight of blacks in professional sports to slavery. New York Times columnist William C. Rhoden wrote a book a few years ago that espoused the argument that black athletes, however well compensated some may be, fall victim to a system over which they exercise little control. Jackson’s comments would seem to follow that line of reasoning, in that LeBron was able to upend the traditional free agent process more so than almost any other player possibly could, prompting outright anger from those controlling the purse strings.
Whatever other racial undertones are apparent in this drama are so subtle that only a keen observer of race politics like the Good Reverend could possibly discern them. Or perhaps Jesse saw the media falling all other itself to lavish undue attention on LeBron James and thought, “hey, me too.”
See More:
