On Monday’s edition of ESPN’s “Around the Horn,” sports journalist and educator Kevin Blackistone calls out Michael Jordan for his $2 million donation to the NAACP and a national police organization to stop violence in Black communities.
Atlanta Black Star reported yesterday that the NBA Hall of Famer is donating $1 million each to the International Association of Chief of Police’s newly established Institute for Community-Police Relations and the NAACP Legal Defense Fund as a response to recent incidents of police brutality.
In the clip, Blackistone minces no words and says that Jordan’s donations would not help as much as he thinks.
“I’m hard-pressed to believe that you are emotionally moved by the extra-judicial killing of Black men in this country and then cut a check to the police,” Blackistone concludes. “The police are not in need of funding … The city of Baltimore has paid out nearly $12 million in settlements for police brutality lawsuits between 2010-14 …”
Blackistone also says that money could be better put to use by the Black Lives Matter movement to create a legal arm.
The commentator points out that Jordan has real influence and can change things if he wants to.
According to Blackistone, the NBA great should convince Hanes underwear company to reopen factories in urban areas that prevent the next Eric Garner from selling loose cigarettes in the first place.
