Why Be Offended When You Can Rectify It?
In 2019 in seems like everybody’s getting offended on a new level
But my question is: why be offended and seek out an apology instead of using it as an educational stand point.
Lebron James had to apologise to the Jewish community for reciting the lyrics to a rappers song saying “We been getting Jewish money” on his Instagram.
Now if you don’t already know: Lebron James is an extraordinary athlete, not only one of the basketball GOATS but he has THE most squeaky clean record of a child star. He’s a GREAT father, faithful loving husband, there’s no controversy around him outside of sports. And he’s now opened a school, for deprived children, teaching entrepreneurialism.
So it would make sense that he would quote this lyric.
Because FYI a common conversation around black communities all over the world is economic support and growth around each other, this is something that we very much value and admire about Jewish people, Muslims generally and Asians. The support network.
What black people need to take into account is that we are THE most united race, United by colour.
Think of it. “White people” as a race don’t necessarily “stick together” as a community, we’ve all heard of rivalries and even historical hatred between England vs Ireland, Germany, Poland. I would never guess that India and China are part of the same continent. In England these communities don’t seem to mix socially...
And that’s neither good nor bad I’m just saying black people are united, more united than all continents, look at Brexit vs England.
But what is said that Jewish communities don’t like is not the fact that he implied that Jewish people have money per se, but that there is a stigma that Jewish people are greedy and stingy. Which is understandable that that would be a problem, I get it.
And therefore he was forced to apologise.
My thing is The lyric quoted by LBJ was clearly a term of endearment and then rejected (understandably)
But it was clearly a misunderstanding, clearly him having a big platform to recite this lyric was an issue so therefore why not use this same platform as an educational tool to not shame him but to say “hey this is how your video came across, we’re sure you didn’t mean it like this so could you please make a public statement enlightening your followers and the world on this subject and clarify”
That education would ultimately make the world and next generation more aware, better and could bring black and Jewish communities closer together, opening doors to more economic and social growth on both sides.
But the truth is we don’t actually care about solutions and a better world we just like controversy. We like to name and shame, the world seems to want revenge on celebrities right now.
One day my 70 year old, white next door neighbor called me coloured... after seeing my facial expressions as a response to that word he apologised and I was like. “No need” we both get it, you didn’t mean to offend, you know I don’t like it, BISH BASH BOOM! Let’s Move on better than before. Why should he now have to feel bad about what he said comment why should he now have to apologise. Then we sat down, held hands and sung ‘ebony and ivory’ a few times)
But again we don’t wanna get to the route of the problem to find a solution we just want to feel self righteous right now. Whether it’s our attitudes with saving the planet, veganism or gender issues. It seems a lot of us just want to name and shame, with no care of growth.
And that’s why we say things like...
“Oh no You can’t SAY that!” “You can’t SAY, Coloured, N!gger, F@gg0t, Transexual or Brainstorming!”
We never deal with the real issues behind the insults, we don’t use these moments to educate people on why they cannot use these derogative terms against us.
We just say “you can’t say that”
Which really means we can think these things, but we better not say them.
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