The horrible events that resulted in the deaths of two young black men at the hands of police officers and five police officers at the hands of a crazed shooter in Baton Rouge, LA, Falcon Heights, MN and Dallas, TX has divided the nation.
Throughout his career, Carmelo Anthony has been one of the more socially concsious players in the NBA. He has marched on the front lines in Baltimore after Freddie Gray was killed and visited prisoners in Rikers Island. On Friday, Melo took to Instagram to call upon fellow athletes to lead a charge and inspire change in the country. Posting a famous photo of Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Jim Brown, and Muhammad Ali sitting together, Melo asked for his peers to reach out to their local government officials and leaders to start a conversation.
Read his full post below:
First off let me start off by saying ” All Praise Due To The Most High.” Secondly, I’m all about rallying, protesting, fighting for OUR people. Look I’ll even lead the charge, By Any Means Necessary. We have to be smart about what we are doing though. We need to steer our anger in the right direction.
The system is Broken. Point blank period.
It has been this way forever. Martin Luther King marched. Malcolm X rebelled. Muhammad Ali literally fought for US. Our anger should be towards the system. If the system doesn’t change we will continue to turn on the TVs and see the same thing. We have to put the pressure on the people in charge in order to get this thing we call JUSTICE right. A march doesn’t work. We tried that. I’ve tried that. A couple social media post/tweet doesn’t work. We’ve all tried that. That didn’t work. Shooting 11 cops and killing 5 WILL NOT work.
While I don’t have a solution, and I’m pretty sure a lot of people don’t have a solution, we need to come together more than anything at this time. We need each other. These politicians have to step up and fight for change.
I’m calling for all my fellow ATHLETES to step up and take charge.
Go to your local officials, leaders, congressman, assemblymen/assemblywoman and demand change. There’s NO more sitting back and being afraid of tackling and addressing political issues anymore. Those days are long gone. We have to step up and take charge. We can’t worry about what endorsements we gonna lose or whose going to look at us crazy. I need your voices to be heard. We can demand change. We just have to be willing to. THE TIME IS NOW. IM all in. Take Charge. Take Action. DEMAND CHANGE.
Peace7 #StayMe7o
