Someone painted the n-word onto the fence of a house LeBron James owns in Los Angeles.
LeBron:My family is safe. At the end of they day, they’re safe, and that’s the most important.
But it just goes to show that racism will always be part of the world, a part of America. And hate in America, especially for African-Americans, is living every day. And even though that it’s concealed most of the time, even though people hide their faces and will say things about you, and when they see you, they smile in your face, it’s alive every single day.
And I think back to Emmett Till’s mom, actually. It’s kind of one of the first things I thought of. And the reason she had an open casket is because she wanted to show the world what she went through as far as a hate crime and being black in America.
No matter how much money you have, no matter how famous you are, no matter how many people admire you, being black in America is tough. And we’ve got a long way to go for us as a society and for us as African-Americans until we feel equal in America.
This is spot on.
The problem isn’t classism. It isn’t respectability. It isn’t economic anxiety.
It’s racism, and until we confront that reality, the problem will persist.