The NBA lockout over the past few months has had me wondering. Is the NBA a modern day plantation or a fair and balanced medium that helps lots of would be lower and middle class black men become multi-millionaires?
On one hand; I’d like to believe that it has helped 1000’s of black men become wealthy
individuals over the past 50+ years, which it has done, but is it a case of them selling their souls to become rich? Young black men across the nation have been afforded an opportunity to go from a position in the permanent underclass to a position of wealth and prosperity by learning how to shoot a ball through a hoop. It sounds easy when being said, but it’s actually a very impressive feat when you take into account the fact that only 64 job openings become available each year. Then you will see why being a professional NBA player is a coveted position. 64 young mostly Black men vie for these positions every year and some go on to be multi-millionaires and national names. They get a chance to provide for their families, children, and friends for generations sometimes, unless they mess the money up, which a few have done recently. So at a glance, you can’t beat it. You get a chance to become rich, famous and sought after but the price becomes evident when you decide to buck the system.
One the other hand I can’t help but notice that every criteria used to evaluate a
potential NBA player is the exact same as the criteria used to evaluate the
slave when being sold at auction. I can still remember the remarks from the Bulls Continue reading
Chapter from PSC
This a chapter from Philosophical Street Chronic, my second installment in a 3 book series about the state of the 21st Century Black Man, Woman, Child and Community.
Home Economics
As a child you only know what’s inside the home or within the close proximity of your home. This is where your environmental education begins. You imitate what you see your parents do, so if those things are good, then you will imitate good, and if they are bad, you will imitate bad.
So what happens when things that are really bad, are not perceived as being bad by your parent/s? I will use parent in its singular form sometimes for this book because studies have shown that children who grow up in single parent households are more prone to negative societal behaviors, than children who grow up with both parents in the home. This is in no way saying that single parent households can’t develop good children, as I am the product of a single parent home and I am a positive influence on society.