Reject your Heroes, reject the NBA’s False Message!
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The NBA continues to trudge its season along in its Orlando resort bubble, in the hopes to crown a champion. Perhaps it will be “comrade” Xi’s esteemed ambassador, LeBron James! In any case, while all the dribbling has gone on, the NBA has also made a concerted effort to show how they are the sports league of the people. Yes, the multibillion dollar sports and media entity with ties to the great capitalist powers (10 percent of revenue from China!) want you, the black American that makes up the majority of its audience, to know that they stand with #BlackLivesMatter.
And just like #BlackLivesMatter, the NBA wants you to fight by not fighting.
In the wake of the Jacob Blake shooting in Kenosha, Wisconsin, the NBA players in the bubble boycotted their playoff games for two days. There were no real demands, and any “concessions” made were vague at best. The “results,” as it has now been spun, are that the players were able to get the people “pay attention” to the issues. Of course, seeing as how America is in an election year, the people have been bombarded nonstop with “the issues,” including from the NBA, which has slathered sanitized social justice all over their branding in the wake of this summer’s #BlackLivesMatter protests.
The action that people have been called upon to take has been as predictable as ever: vote. Vote, vote, vote. The wheelers and dealers of the NBA have made several pleas to their viewership to vote in November, and are creating organizations to get people registered (gotta brand as much cattle as you can!)
The proletariat, let alone the black proletariat, cannot find words of liberation in their hero figures. Their heroes will only ask that they consent to the system that continues to kill them, for it is that system that gives these heroes their platform, their status, and most importantly, their money.
Workers of America and the world, reject the pleas of your heroes. Build your own organs of power, and don’t be led like cattle to the ballot box!