Please forgive my lateness. My apologies, but I still have a few words to say about the emasculation of Kyrie Irving. Since I am so tardy and since most of what needed to be said has been said - very ably by very many - I will be brief.
By now you have seen the counter examples of the prominent Jewish entertainers performing in black face who were never called upon to complete a multi-step apology process in order to continue working.
And you’ve probably been reminded of Mike Greenberg leading off a segment on MLK Day on his ESPN radio show by calling it Martin Luther Coon, Jr. Day. Greenberg issued an apology for “talking too fast” then went right back to work.
That is how it rolls for us. Sometimes we get an apology, sometimes we don’t. If you are a white male you can’t call us out of our name but our names and reputations are fair game for everyone else to batter. That is the deal here and we live with it.
Now, on to what I want to say.
LIKE IT OR NOT, KYRIE HAS 1ST AMENDMENT RIGHTS, TOO
I was informed (in a now deleted tweet) by the great Constitutional legal scholar from the University of Michigan, Jalen Rose, that Kyrie didn’t need First Amendment rights because “he makes forty million dollars”. I disagree with Professor Rose. I would go so far as to say that because Kyrie is famous and rich his right to speech should receive extra safeguarding. Kyrie has access to podiums and microphones on international stages. He absolutely should be heard. If you and Kyrie have the same fantastic idea or necessary observation we need Kyrie to be able to voice it. Because, sorry, no one knows you (or me) are.
Kyrie is the type of person (eccentric, thoughtful, influential) whose speech should never be curtailed. One of Kyrie’s more against the grain moments occurred two seasons ago when he was ejected from a game for getting into a scuffle with an opposing player. What started the scuffle? The opponent, Dennis Schroeder, had called Kyrie the N-word. During the broadcast of the game the announcers chalked the incident up as just another weird outburst from a strange and irresponsible player. And that is exactly how it would have been recorded forever if Kyrie had not taken to Twitter to explain his side of the clash.
The press did not surround Kyrie with 30 microphones the next day so he could expand on his tweet, expand on how Nigger is not a term of endearment, and expand on how is it that a guy from Germany thinks it is okay to come to the United States and call American blacks Nigger in public. If we didn’t have such a one-sided press maybe they would have given Kryie the chance to talk about how rappers have internationalized the word Nigger to the detriment of black America. Maybe Kyrie would have discussed who is promoting the rappers who promote the N-word. And maybe that is why you are probably learning about this entire incident from me, just now.
Keep reading with a 7-day free trial
Subscribe to The Talley Sheet to keep reading this post and get 7 days of free access to the full post archives.