I went to college in Omaha for 3 years and also made my way to Des Moines to play a G league game a couple years back. Wish I would’ve been connected with this site sooner so that we could’ve met up and got better acquainted.

Anyways, I appreciate your input, Shap. And I really enjoy the podcast as well.

thank you cole for another great piece, ive loved reading your work so far and im so glad we have your voice on our site.

Over the years I think we’ve all encountered at least a few outright racists, but I think what’s frustrated me more than those people (at least they’re easy to spot and not super common) is the number of people who are so unwilling to do even the most basic, easy stuff to help better society.

It’s not like we can reasonably expect everyone to actually be on the frontlines of these protests and to get beaten and sprayed with pepper spray. Nobody is asking a suburban mom with 4 young kids to sacrifice her children’s safety by getting wailed on by police/federal agents. But maybe it wouldn’t be too much trouble to…I dunno, vote for someone who takes these issues seriously and genuinely has empathy for those who have experienced the worst parts of society instead of someone who you (probably mistakenly) think will raise the value of your 401(k) by 1%? Or, how about instead of recoiling in horror, averting your gaze, and walking away when approached by a minority with a clipboard at a grocery store, you look them in the eyes, talk to them, or at least politely say “sorry, I can’t help today,” and treat them like a human being? Maybe get involved in your community and/or neighborhood, and actually talk/listen to some of your neighbors who don’t look/think like you? If you have friends who are in the police force, talk to them about their work, try to understand where they’re coming from, and maybe try to help them understand what their actions look/feel like to the rest of us?

Not everyone is able/willing to become MLK or Gandhi, but that doesn’t mean that there aren’t little things *ALL* of us can do. It’s 2020, we need to be better than this.

These situations are already sad and frustrating enough with how brutally these black men are treated, but even more infuriating how minimally the consequences are for the cops. It’s disgusting.

Anyways, thanks for sharing. I too hope we get better.

I’m glad that you found a bit of relatability in this piece. It will always be a challenge for minorites to be treated as equals, but we can only hope for improvement.

Thanks for standing in solidarity.

I will never understand why people ask suck questions as “What is it like to be Jewish?” It seems pretty rude, and says a lot about them.

I stand in solidarity with all those who defend Black life and our humanity as one people. I am glad the players took a stand. They set the standard – it is the people who make society run: Not the owners and the people who profit from the mistreatment of others. I see the problem is that the racist police and their unions are set up to defend the interests of the uber rich, and nothing will change until we force it to. I think many players have spoken to this and the message is spreading. We cannot separate the game that we love from the reality of what is going on in the larger society. We have learned from history that any advance that Black people make in society towards and end to racism and inequality helps lift us all towards a higher moral and ethical society.

Or is it that people just need someone else to blame for whatever their problems are; and as a Jew I’ve seen plenty of that of course.

Ten years ago I worked for a company based in the Midwest, and when I travelled from L.A. to the Home Office I was always shocked by how ethnically undiverse they were at the management level. They also made racist comments that they didn’t even know were racist.