christiefan915
Catalyst
This author is a black sports writer. He makes some good points. Hope Ray Lewis reads this.
"There's a popular, alluring and completely mythical theme that surfaces every time an unarmed black person is killed by police, or if there is a spike in murders in poverty-stricken urban areas, or both. It goes something like this: "If Black Lives Matter, then how come they don't matter when it comes to black-on-black crime?"
The latest famous face to push that theme? None other than Ray Lewis, one of the most popular athletes in the history of Baltimore, which is also one of the most crime-ridden cities that also was thrown into turmoil by a death in police custody. Lewis now is starring in a video in which he states this myth in, basically, a sermon that decries the surge in murders in Chicago this year while managing to lay the blame on the Black Lives Matter movement that he insists doesn't care about such things.
Lewis is passionate, intense and sincere. He also is wrong. And, once again, tragically misinformed.
Much the way the Seahawks' Richard Sherman was poorly informed last year when he went on a similar vent that singled out Black Lives Matter, foolishly and inaccurately insisting that it cares only about police brutality and not enough about "black on black crime." That to that group — whose members and supporters they may or may not have ever met, spoken to or even researched — the two are mutually exclusive.
Lewis angrily is walking down a dangerous, counterproductive path, and he's leading a lot of people down there with him — because that's what people do around Ray Lewis. They follow him and heed his every word, because he carries that much cachet in the city. If only they would follow Carmelo Anthony that passionately. Or Adam Jones. Or Muggsy Bogues. Or even Buck Showalter.
It's ironic that Lewis is getting such a heated following for his video just weeks before the anniversary of the unrest in Baltimore surrounding Freddie Gray's death. You'd like to think Lewis is aware of what other iconic Baltimore sports figures got deeply engaged in the protests, the backlash, the violence, arson and state of emergency that shut the city down and drew the nation's eyes toward the massive, system-wide dysfunction that caused it all.
Because that was Anthony, an actual native of the city, marching with protestors in west Baltimore when tensions were highest. The march was not far from the recreation center he opened several years ago, to replace a youth center that had closed because of city-wide budget cuts. Deprived residents have been fighting the closing of recreation centers all over the city for years, to little avail.
That was Jones, the Orioles' All-Star outfielder who played in the game in a stadium closed to fans a year ago because of the state of emergency — and who said before the game that everybody, not just the angry protestors, bore responsibility for the living conditions in the city.
That was Bogues, the former NBA star and a product of the Baltimore projects, who told Sporting News last year that the city's problems were so ingrained and institutionalized that no simple solution — like a famous athlete giving lectures online — was going to fix them.
And then there was Showalter, the Orioles' manager, who said before that same spectator-less game that he was the very last person who should lecture the residents about how they should react to the conditions surrounding them, but that he wanted to be part of the solution.
If Lewis, then, really thinks "nobody" is trying to stop crime in cities like Baltimore and Chicago, somebody has been lying to him. That's not even true about famous Baltimore athletes.
It's also not true about activists who are fighting police brutality and misconduct. In the same time it took him to set up his video camera at his house, he could have looked that up.
If he had, he would have also discovered that the very term "black on black crime," and the time and place it's often used, is an old, not-very-original tactic to change the subject away from the abuse of vulnerable populations by people who are sworn to protect and serve them. You know who explains that quite eloquently? National Book Award winner Ta-Nehesi Coates ... a Baltimore native.
Lewis is sending a powerful message in his video. Next time, he should try sending one based on facts, not fiction.
http://www.sportingnews.com/nfl-new...eo-black-lives-matter-crime-baltimore-chicago
"There's a popular, alluring and completely mythical theme that surfaces every time an unarmed black person is killed by police, or if there is a spike in murders in poverty-stricken urban areas, or both. It goes something like this: "If Black Lives Matter, then how come they don't matter when it comes to black-on-black crime?"
The latest famous face to push that theme? None other than Ray Lewis, one of the most popular athletes in the history of Baltimore, which is also one of the most crime-ridden cities that also was thrown into turmoil by a death in police custody. Lewis now is starring in a video in which he states this myth in, basically, a sermon that decries the surge in murders in Chicago this year while managing to lay the blame on the Black Lives Matter movement that he insists doesn't care about such things.
Lewis is passionate, intense and sincere. He also is wrong. And, once again, tragically misinformed.
Much the way the Seahawks' Richard Sherman was poorly informed last year when he went on a similar vent that singled out Black Lives Matter, foolishly and inaccurately insisting that it cares only about police brutality and not enough about "black on black crime." That to that group — whose members and supporters they may or may not have ever met, spoken to or even researched — the two are mutually exclusive.
Lewis angrily is walking down a dangerous, counterproductive path, and he's leading a lot of people down there with him — because that's what people do around Ray Lewis. They follow him and heed his every word, because he carries that much cachet in the city. If only they would follow Carmelo Anthony that passionately. Or Adam Jones. Or Muggsy Bogues. Or even Buck Showalter.
It's ironic that Lewis is getting such a heated following for his video just weeks before the anniversary of the unrest in Baltimore surrounding Freddie Gray's death. You'd like to think Lewis is aware of what other iconic Baltimore sports figures got deeply engaged in the protests, the backlash, the violence, arson and state of emergency that shut the city down and drew the nation's eyes toward the massive, system-wide dysfunction that caused it all.
Because that was Anthony, an actual native of the city, marching with protestors in west Baltimore when tensions were highest. The march was not far from the recreation center he opened several years ago, to replace a youth center that had closed because of city-wide budget cuts. Deprived residents have been fighting the closing of recreation centers all over the city for years, to little avail.
That was Jones, the Orioles' All-Star outfielder who played in the game in a stadium closed to fans a year ago because of the state of emergency — and who said before the game that everybody, not just the angry protestors, bore responsibility for the living conditions in the city.
That was Bogues, the former NBA star and a product of the Baltimore projects, who told Sporting News last year that the city's problems were so ingrained and institutionalized that no simple solution — like a famous athlete giving lectures online — was going to fix them.
And then there was Showalter, the Orioles' manager, who said before that same spectator-less game that he was the very last person who should lecture the residents about how they should react to the conditions surrounding them, but that he wanted to be part of the solution.
If Lewis, then, really thinks "nobody" is trying to stop crime in cities like Baltimore and Chicago, somebody has been lying to him. That's not even true about famous Baltimore athletes.
It's also not true about activists who are fighting police brutality and misconduct. In the same time it took him to set up his video camera at his house, he could have looked that up.
If he had, he would have also discovered that the very term "black on black crime," and the time and place it's often used, is an old, not-very-original tactic to change the subject away from the abuse of vulnerable populations by people who are sworn to protect and serve them. You know who explains that quite eloquently? National Book Award winner Ta-Nehesi Coates ... a Baltimore native.
Lewis is sending a powerful message in his video. Next time, he should try sending one based on facts, not fiction.
http://www.sportingnews.com/nfl-new...eo-black-lives-matter-crime-baltimore-chicago
