In light of the police violence that has rattled black communities in the United States, a problem that has most recently taken the lives of Alton Sterling and Philando Castile, NBA star Carmelo Anthony is using his platform to advocate for change. Issuing a call to action, the current New York Knick and two-time gold medal Olympian has established himself as an activist.
In a message that appeared in The New York Daily News (a shorter version is available on his Instagram account), Anthony wrote about putting fear aside to tackle political issues. He argued that different tactics need to be used in order to get results, and he states that the system is broken. Anthony argues that athletes should forget about how people will look at them and about the possibility of losing endorsements for their activism, considering how lucrative those deals can be. Sometimes athletes earn more from endorsements than the contracts they sign with professional teams. In this case, he argued that money is not what’s most important.
This is different from the oft-apolitical stance other athletes take in difficult times, Michael Jordan being the most prominent example. Jordan allegedly said that he wouldn’t speak against Republicans because “Republicans buy sneakers too.” In response, fellow NBA legend Kareem Abdul-Jabbar replied that Jordan was choosing “commerce over conscience.”
Because of Anthony’s history of addressing social issues, it doesn’t come as a complete surprise that he would suggest sacrificing dollar signs to do the right thing.
Anthony previously participated in a series of PSAs against gun violence featuring multiple basketball stars. He’s also been involved with his charity in Puerto Rico by building or rebuilding basketball courts for children in La Perla, San Juan, Luquillo, Bayamón, and Trujillo Alto. Anthony has also given back by gifting basketball courts to the cities where he was born and raised: Brooklyn, New York, and Baltimore, Maryland.
As the son of Puerto Rican Carmelo Iriarte, who was an activist himself and a member of the Young Lords, a passion for social justice runs in the family. The grassroots group tackled social inequality by utilizing confrontational tactics in 60s and 70s New York City. Among their initiatives, the Young Lords operated a free breakfast program for children, seized and distributed hospital equipment to the needy, and cleared neighborhoods of garbage. At the time, the state of city sanitation was a major problem. Anthony is working on a documentary about the group.
As history shows and Anthony notes in his post, social issues regarding race and violence aren’t new. Change isn’t easy, but nothing will improve without action, so kudos to Anthony for taking a stand and disregarding the potential backlash. It takes courage to do what’s right, and hopefully other powerful figures from the sports world will echo Anthony to advocate for a more just society, like activist-athletes Muhammad Ali and Kareem Abdul-Jabbar have in the past.