Gregg Popovich has been an inspiration to those of us that love sports, a guy who recognizes the detrimental effects that drumpf’s ascension will have on our country, and a white guy who is not afraid to drop a dime on race relations in this culture.
Today he spoke to the issues brought to a head this weekend.
And he laid it out bare:
"Obviously, race is the elephant in the room and we all understand that,” Popovich said. “Unless it is talked about constantly, it's not going to get better. People get bored, ‘Oh, they're talking about that again. They pulled the race card again. Why do we have to talk about that.' Well, because it's uncomfortable. There has to be an uncomfortable element in discourse for anything to change, whether it's LGBT movement, or women's suffrage, race — it doesn't matter. People have to be made to feel uncomfortable.
"And especially white people. Because we are comfortable. We still have no clue what being born white means. And if you read some of the recent literature, you realize there really is no such thing as whiteness. We kind of made it up. That's not my original thought, but it's true.
It's hard to sit down and decide that yes, it's like you're at the 50-meter mark in a 100-meter dash. You've got that kind of lead, yes, because you were born white. You have advantage that are systematically, culturally, psychologically rare. And they've been built up and cemented for hundreds of years. But many people can't look at it that way, because it's too difficult. It can't be something that's on their plate on a daily basis. People want to hold their position, people want their status quo, people don't want to give that up. Until it's given up, it's not going to be fixed."
Here’s the clip of his full remarks, the quoted part starts at 10:47.
Thanks, “Pops” for telling it like it is.
Unfortunately, I fear, the ones who need to hear you most will not be listening.