FFBlitzace wrote:I'm white and I'm a man, so by some people's rules, that means I'm so privileged that my opinion does not count and literally COULD NOT count, because it's impossible for me to relate to any kind of struggle. But yet, NBA players, some of the most privileged people on the planet, don't get hit with that same penalty? I work full time for a modest living and my opinion is invalid due to privilege, but millionaires who have been recruited since as young as middle school age somehow pass some kind of privilege test which allows them to be taken seriously but not me. Give me a break.
Actually an interesting post, Blitz. It made me consider a few things I haven't previously though of. I do think you're missing the mark a little with one thing in particular when it comes to like NBA privilege. If you're considering talent as a privilege, then yes, these guys hit the jackpot. But it's talent they honed and worked on for years and years. It's not as if (at least in most cases) they saw a player and just molded him into the perfect NBA player because they knew he was going to grow to 6'6" and be able to score with ease. It's a self-serving business for scouts and agents to pick up on players that may have enough talent to play in the NBA.
This has nothing to do with being a human being and is strictly talent based. Now, not everybody has the privilege of being scouted for talent to be pipe-lined into the NBA. Some people have to play in JuCo, overseas, etc before they even get a chance so on a micro level, I get what you're saying, but I'm not sure if that has anything to do with having a voice or opinion on politics. They do have the privilege of having a bigger audience and platform to do things which gives them more of a chance to be taken seriously, but let's get real. Anybody on either side of the aisle politically that has a platform and an internet connection can be "taken seriously" nowadays if they have the audience for it. Sterling Brown did have a direct experience with cops wrongfully tasered and tackled him, so we can't even say "they don't have to worry about this because they're rich athletes".
Also your post brought to me how important having a "'voice" is, or feeling like you have one. I've seen a lot of white men (as you described yourself, not putting words in your mouth
) echo similar feelings and I know in today's climate it's met with "Well, how does it feel?" because historically, black people, gay people, etc, etc, did not have the voice that they have today or are starting to have today, and obviously feeling voiceless sucks. Things have come to a crossroads now because historically, yes, rich or influential white men have had the most powerful/listened to voice in America for centuries and centuries but it's not like that applies to the large majority of white people. So now some white people feel the same feelings other people felt and now the people who felt voiceless for so long feel powerful while people who didn't have a stake in anything really feel slighted. The actual truth is that everybody has a voice now, but we're all just screaming over each other saying how the other person is wrong or shouldn't have a voice and nobody is actually taking each other seriously.I laughed at the Education Reform message for some players but I understand why that's so important. This is just as much a class thing (or even more so) than a race thing in America, we have a lot of poverty issues and education issues that everybody likes to gloss over when it's probably the single most important thing for our future. The amount of people in poverty that are disproportionately black compared to their population in the U.S. is staggering, and that leads to different sort of schooling, being policed different, more prone to avenues to get into drugs/violence which perpetuates a cycle that is hard to get out of. Reminds me of the whole "crabs in a bucket" saying because it's hard to get out for anybody that's poor and doesn't have easily identifiable avenues to better resources.
