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In response to Donald Sterling’s alleged racist comments and the Los Angeles Clippers players’ reactions, rapper Homeboy Sandman writes a polarizing piece for Gawker calling black people “cowards.”
The Stones Throw artist’s think piece is in direct response to the Los Angeles Clippers team’s silent protest during their playoff game on Sunday (April 28). Before the game, the players gathered at center court, took off their warm-up shirts and left them on the ground. They also wore their warm-up shirts inside out so that it wouldn’t display the Clippers name or logo.
Some were dissatisfied with the Clippers team’s protest and felt they should have done more — primarily, not play the game itself, as Lil Wayne suggested.
In Homeboy Sandman’s passionate essay, he calls the Clippers, and black people in general, complacent and not willing to take a stand against racial oppression.
“I don’t want black people at my events anymore, because black people are cowards,” he writes. “In all the history I’ve ever studied, in all the fiction I’ve ever read, I am hard-pressed to find an example of cowardice to rival the modern day black American, and nobody wants to be surrounded by cowards right?”
In essence, Homeboy Sandman would love to see black folks boycott not just NBA games but also hip-hop clubs, music, television and magazines.
“Let’s step it up. If every NBA player who wanted to stand up against racism vowed not to play until the Clippers’ owner resigned, it would be announced that he resigned before you were finished reading this,” he writes. “If we boycotted every night spot that spins music about how much we love killing each other and taking and selling drugs, every single one of them would have new DJs by next week (don’t even get me started on these new DJs. The new drug dealers. Admitting that they know what they’re giving people is bad for them but caring more about getting paid).”
“Let’s step it up and not buy magazines pushing music designed to glamorize a lifestyle certain to land our youth in prison,” he writes further. “Let’s step it up and take off from work and stay home with our kids until these preposterous tenure rules are revoked from public schools and it’s the kids that can’t be fired, not the teachers.”
“Isn’t the discomfort of oppression enough? There’s plenty of solutions, just no easy ones, but if we can shift to courage instead of cowardice, there’s more than enough solutions to guarantee our success. Guarantee. Next time you’re complaining about how this country was built on us, take a second to think about the fact that it still is. If we want to, we can shut this whole place down,” he finishes.
Reactions on Twitter have been mixed with people believing Homeboy Sandman is trolling the Internet to others supporting his call for action. Read the tweets below.
What do you think? Do you agree with Homeboy Sandman’s viewpoints? Tell us in the comments below.
