To this day I am infuriated when I see anything that says “stick to sports” in regards to professional athletes talking about politics, or anything other than their respective sport. Do people really expect Derek Jeter to only talk about home runs, stolen bases, and how many world series rings he has for the rest of his life? Eventually, tooting your own horn gets boring. If it’s okay for you to leave your job as a lumberjack and discuss politics in the comfort of your home, surely it will be fine for every and anyone else to do the same.
Naturally, when the pathological and disgraceful Laura Ingraham has the audacity to police what anyone has to say, my blood starts to boil.
Agree with me, disagree with me, I do not give a crap. But I cannot stand by and watch people like Laura Ingraham display hypocritical behavior and tell athletes that they should stick to what they’re physically good at. So I have some things to say.
I’ve put together a personal letter to you, Laura. I hope you listen up cause it’s going to get loud.
Laura,
I have issues with fundamentally everything you said during your now infamous rant on your segment on Fox News, but a few things you wrongfully addressed boiled my blood more than others. But believe me, my body temperature was scolding hot the entire time.
Because you’ve proven that you don’t understand simple analogies and how the world works, I’ve broken it down for you piece by piece. I’ve even italicized and bolded the important words and phrases you should look out for!
Vocabulary means something: The first issue I have with your segment is probably the most trivial to my argument, but nonetheless needs to be addressed. Referring to two of the NBA’s greatest talents as “jocks” is degrading and disrespectful. Your decision to use the word “jock” can only have been a conscious one as it translated to those who were watching as a way to minimalize who they are as people to a stereotypical word that carries a stigma of people being unintelligent, uninformed and only good at physical activities. They’re not members of a high school track team lending out their letterman jackets in the 1950’s. They’re world respected NBA players who have millions of fans who they know feel the same frustrations as them.
In case you lost your dictionary that the rest of us genuine people speak from on a daily basis, you could have used any of the following words to describe James and Durant:
-Athlete
-Professional Athlete
-Basketball Player
-NBA All Star
-Sports Personality
Freedom of Speech: It’s almost sad that a 24 year old with a sports marketing degree has to explain the make up of our nations constitution to someone who has a political show on a news network AND A LAW DEGREE- but you might want to go back and reread it again… The First Amendment does not say: Freedom of Speech (except if you are a professional athlete). EVERYONE is entitled to their own opinion. You do not have to agree with it but you also do not have to go on national television and degrade who they are as humans for speaking their minds about a man who is racist, misogynistic, and pathological – something the majority of our country agrees with. Making the argument that because Lebron James didn’t finish high school (which he did, solid fact checkers you have over there at Fox) he should never speak on behalf of politics is so disgusting I don’t even know how to make sense of it.
Underlying Racism: It is tough to watch this segment and not cringe at the underlying racism that is radiating out of your mouth. You speak about Lebron and KD as if they are unintelligent imposters. You live your life in a way that creates the idea that anyone who is different from you and the people you are used to being around are not worthy of the same privileges as you are. By your standards an engineer should not be allowed to speak on behalf of issues in education, even if they have 3 kids in school. It is hard to not think about the color of their skin while watching the disgusting look on your face as you speak about their interactions with each other. It is hard not to think that you might have very different opinions on the men if one of these them graduated from Harvard and came from an upper class white family.
I am also utterly confused as to how you do not seem to understand the analogy Durant made about Donald Trump being a coach and America being the team and his lack of ability to complete his job of keeping his team united. To me, it’s actually one of the most relatable analogies that simplifies the thoughts and feelings of millions of more Americans than the ones you claim voted for him. Let me remind you Laura, Trump did not get elected by the American people. Hillary won the popular vote. Athletes are allowed to be physically talented as well as intellectuals, there is no rule against it. They are allowed to have opinions on politics and policies that affect the place they live. In fact, I believe that athletes should not be restricted to “dribbling balls” or “hitting homeruns” as they should have just as much responsibility to show they are conscious of life outside of their arenas. It empowers me to see Kevin and Lebron speak out about their distaste for what’s going on in our country because it allows for them to create a voice for those who do not have their same volume.
Legacy: Athletes have platforms and the ability to reach mass amounts of people and greatly affect society and give back for a reason – perhaps they don’t want their legacies to be everything they did on the field, or “dribbling a ball,” as you say.
Jackie Robinson broke boundaries and changed the entire anatomy of baseball by being the first African American baseball player. Even after he died, his legacy remains not only as a leader in African American rights in sports but as well as his legacy within the Jackie Robinson Foundation – an organization that is dedicated to awarding high school athletes with athletic scholarships to college.
Athletes voices are just as important as their talent on any field or court. To say that they should always stay in their lane is disgusting and one of the most degrading human generalizations you can make. Sometimes you have to swerve into someone else’s lane when you feel like there is nothing being done. I don’t know who permitted you to have a segment on Fox News but I do know those same rules and regulations that allow you to whine on national television everyday are the same rules and regulations that allow athletes, and all humans, to speak their minds in their own lives. If you don’t like it, don’t listen – but crying about it on TV is hypocritical and demeaning to just about everything you stand for. At the end of the day it does not matter where you grew up, what college you went to, the color of your skin, of your bank account. It’s about hard work, dedication, adversity and triumph – something all successful athletes go through during their careers.
So I ask this question: If Lebron James was filmed praising Donald Trump, what would you have to say?
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