Kareem-Abdul Jabbar defended the protesters that riot against police brutality and racial inequality, after the death of George Floyd in Minnesota.
The Los Angeles Lakers and NBA legend wrote a piece in the Los Angeles Times, addressing the racism that black communities in the United States face every day.
“Yes, protests often are used as an excuse for some to take advantage, just as when fans celebrating a hometown sports team championship burn cars and destroy storefronts,” Abdul-Jabbar wrote. “I don’t want to see stores looted or even buildings burn. But African-Americans have been living in a burning building for many years, choking on the smoke as the flames burn closer and closer.
Racism in America is like dust in the air. It seems invisible – even if you’re choking on it – until you let the sun in. Then you see it’s everywhere,” Jabbar noted, per TheScore.com.
Jabbar continued on what inequality and police brutality looks like in the Donald Trump era claiming that Afro-American communities are living in fear.
“What you should see when you see black protesters in the age of Trump and (the) coronavirus is people pushed to the edge, not because they want bars and nail salons open, but because they want to live. To breathe,” Jabbar wrote.
