Nathan Scandella (personal)

When Did Slavery End Again?

So, maybe it's silly to pay any attention at all to what athletes say. I couldn't disagree with you if you argued that. But, something LeBron James said this week came off as kind of disturbing. In an ESPN article, James was talking about Barack Obama's historic election. He talked about the older folks in his family, who broke down in tears. He said,

"I asked them, how does it feel for them having gone through what they went through, going through slavery times and segregation times."

Just how old are LeBron's relatives exactly? It seems to me that they'd have to be about 150 to have experienced slavery, and that would involve pretty crisp childhood memories for someone who's old twice over.

Do a reasonable number of black people think this way? Do they really think they know anyone who was ever a slave? If this is just bad history, then it certainly wouldn't be inconsistent with the rest of the country's ignorance in this area. But, if it's a sign that Black America is still having a hard time looking at their lives objectively, then I think we still have a lot of problems.

Posted at 01:38PM Nov 09, 2008 by Nathan in Sports  |  Comments[0]