This is interesting.
Kobe Bryant, who has long commented on his position as an outsider in the African-American community due to his early upbringing in Europe, made some stirring and questionable comments about the death of Trayvon Martin in the March 31 edition of the New Yorker.
In the profile, Ben McGrath brings up Trayvon and the support his death garnered, namely by LeBron James and the rest of The Heat players in a photo that circulated of the team wearing hoodies in a show of solidarity.
Bryant’s take on that show of support?
“I won’t react to something just because I’m supposed to, because I’m an African-American,” he said. “That argument doesn’t make any sense to me. So we want to advance as a society and a culture, but, say, if something happens to an African-American we immediately come to his defense? Yet you want to talk about how far we’ve progressed as a society? Well, we’ve progressed as a society, then don’t jump to somebody’s defense just because they’re African-American. You sit and you listen to the facts just like you would in any other situation, right? So I won’t assert myself.”
Interestingly enough, there are those who will give Bryant a pass for being confused about African-American culture in America, but there’s something off-putting about a black man in America who attributes outrage over an unarmed teenager’s death to his skin color — not the systematic racism that continues to allow black teenagers to die without consequence.
There’s a difference. And something in us thinks he should know that.
What do you think about Bryant’s comments? Sound off below…
SOURCE: New Yorker | PHOTO CREDIT: Getty
