Joe Tsai Pays for his anti-Black racism

We all have heard the news by now that Kyrie Irving and Kevin Durant are leaving the Nets. Nets owner, Joe Tsai, quickly tweeted a follow-up to Kyrie Irving’s tweet without discussing the issue and getting a full understanding of the situation with him. Many of us saw this as pandering to the white racist media and rightfully so. He apologized and still the owner gave him a list of things to do before returning to the team. I mean, this is a case study in trying to buck break Irving as if he was in elementary school, and before he’s able to join the other kids he must complete some things. Tsai shows that some of the most blatant anti-Black racists are non-white.

Tsai was performing for the white supremacist media apparatus when he continued to double down on Kyrie with a list of demands he needed to do before he was able to return. This was blatant in your face attempt to infantilize Kyrie. The interesting part is that Amazon or Jeff Bezos did not take any responsibility for having the movie cataloged on the platform. The media just ignored that fact and went full steam ahead with their attack on Kyrie. He was an easy target for character assassination – a Black NBA player who did not make an anti-Semitic statement, he simply shared a link to an Amazon documentary on his Twitter account. In his handling of the situation, Tsai decided to not deal with the issue from a position of strength, but by performing for the media.

As a result of this decision, Tsai’s franchise has lost value. Kevin Durant asked to be traded and is leaving as well. It’s hard to make racist movies work when you are dealing with people on the receiving end of that racism that is organized and on code. Kyrie Irving had the support of the people and the grassroots. This, coupled with courage, and the value of self, is the most formidable defense against white supremacist tactics. The guys at ESPN and other media outlets are levied. They are using all the stereotypical Black athlete code words “Kyrie tricked us”, “narcissist”, and similar racist language. Big ups to Kyrie for leaving the big apple. These racist sports owners and media guys will never learn. Since the days of Jack Johnson, they have been spewing their anti-black hatred using sports commentary and journalism proxies to attack us.

Say what you want about Jim Brown and this is not an endorsement, but he did show these white supremacist team owners that performing for the media doesn’t pay. Brown had played in the NFL for nine years and also had a movie career he was pursuing during his football career. He was with the Browns and at the time the owner was Art Modell. Brown was filming a movie that ran over and he had to miss a portion of training camp to finish it. Modell decided to fine Brown each day he was absent. Shortly after this move, Brown announced his retirement from the NFL on the set of the movie. Just like that, Modell had lost the best player in the league and his franchise took a hit. Brown, on the other hand, continued to make movies, reserved his overall health, and kept it moving. Modell would years later say it was a mistake to do what he did.

We can learn from these scenarios as Black people. Be competent, stick to your guns when things get tough, stay true to the people who brought you to the show – your community, and only make moves that are in your interest. It is important what we do, regardless of what the white supremacist world order does.