Last Friday a interesting conversation took place in Vince’s Redeem Team column. He was making the point that the NBA was a league of special interest to Black America and several intriguing comments followed. Most were fair, some negative but overall it was as compelling a convo you’ll get on a Friday afternoon. I promised several people on the site that i would re post my questions from Friday. When i got to work today i was little hesitant, only because I don’t want to be pigeon-holed as the guy who discusses racial issues all the time. As someone who has always been fair and friendly to all kinds of people, regardless of category, i don’t want my actions to be misinterpreted. I don’t play the race card and i don’t complain about non-sensical race-based policies and you’ll never hear me talking about reperations. I’m not that dude. But i will tell the truth when it needs to be told and in a year of craziness like we’re having right now, there are so many falsehoods and so much hatred in the air that i feel obligated to stay focused on this topic even if I would rather talk about other things. Otherwise the information will be spread by people who don’t know what the hell they’re talking about. I just can’t have that. Yeah i know, we’re a basketball mag but we deal with the culture of basketball as well. Might as well embrace that too.
Below are the questions i asked on Friday. Please indulge.
—– I’m trying to understand your thought process. Identify one of these names or terms and explain their significance–1. Gabriel Prosser, Marcus Garvey or the term Octoroon. 2. In your opinion, what was worse—American Slavery or Jim Crow 3. What is the difference between the terms legacy and quotas. 4. During and immediately after WW2 many of the American Black men who served for the US were treated worse than the captured Germans. Why do you think things happened that way? 5. Do you think my name is an advantage for me or an disadvantage?…..answer but please don’t use wiki or google.
