To the extent that those lanes ever existed – and I think, if they did, it was solely because someone somewhere convinced us that people didn’t want to know what, say, LeBron James thought about racial inequality in policing. There’s just a single blob of culture – and everyone’s reacting to it based on their own experiences in the world. There isn’t a sports lane or an acting lane or even a reporting lane. (As Walt Whitman once famously said: “Do I contradict myself? Very well then I contradict myself, (I am large, I contain multitudes.)”)Ģ) There are no more “lanes” in modern culture. Simply because you are a good basketball player doesn’t mean that you aren’t also a human being – in James’ case, an African American man – living in our culture, with thoughts on all sorts of things. What that approach overlooked was two key things:ġ) No one is one dimensional. THE POINT - NOW ON YOUTUBE! In each episode of his weekly YouTube show, Chris Cillizza will delve a little deeper into the surreal world of politics. Do the thing you are great at and had made you famous! Other than that, we don’t want to hear from you! That (long-dominant) idea was that everyone – athletes and entertainers, most especially – needed to stay in their respective lanes. Ibra’s comments echo those made by conservative Fox News anchor Laura Ingraham when she told James to “ shut up and dribble.” Or the view expressed by Michael Jordan when asked why he avoided taking a side in any political fights: “Republicans buy sneakers too.” (Jordan has insisted that comment was made in jest.) Or at least misguided in his analysis of our current cultural moment. And Ibra, as he is commonly known among soccer aficionados, is wrong. Because I was a part of my community at one point and saw the things that was going on and I know what’s going on still because I have a group of 300-plus kids at my school that are going through the same thing and they need a voice. “I preach about my people and I preach about equality. To which James quickly responded this way: If I would be a political politician, I would do politics.” I play football because I’m the best at playing football. “He is phenomenal at what he’s doing, but I don’t like when people have some kind of status, they go and do politics at the same time,” Ibrahimovic said in an interview with the Los Angeles Times. In a recent interview, Zlatan Ibrahimovic, a star soccer player at AC Milan and one of the most recognizable figures in world football, offered a direct critique of NBA superstar LeBron James’ social and political activism.
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