Kareem Abdul-Jabbar Is Terrible For Black Americans

Few things irritate me more than an entertainer using their celebrity to amplify political opinions. Especially when those opinions differ from mine. Kareem Abdul-Jabbar is a freak who used to be good at basketball, and got paid a lot of money. In the spirit of charity and service, he has given nothing back and mentored nobody. But he wants everybody to know that he truly cares about blacks in America.

There are fewer than five hundred players in the NBA. A young black male has a better statistical chance to be struck by lightning than achieve NBA stardom. Yet our culture worships NBA players and encourages youths to aspire to Kareem's level, without asking them to be realistic about the long odds they face.

In this way, worship of NBA stars is something like worship of rap stars: a form of idolatry that fuels pathological behaviors. Young black people should be encouraged to aspire to the level of morality that makes a career as a brain surgeon possible.

All this is a long-winded way of saying that Kareem should shut his noise-hole about Ben Carson. Kareem wrote an article for Time declaring that a Carson presidency would be bad for black Americans. Why? Because "a president who flounders helplessly in office ... would perpetuate the stereotype that blacks can’t be effective CEOs, quarterbacks and leaders."

Apparently Kareem doesn't keep up with current events! Maybe he missed the story about how three hundred thousand veterans have died while on waiting lists for treatment. That Kareem is unaware of malfeasance and incompetence on this scale is understandable with the media embargo on any stories that reflect badly on President Obama.

Kareem also takes Carson to task for Carson's views on homosexuality, calling them "remarkably unscientific." I don't give a fuck what Carson thinks about homosexuality, because it is irrelevant to whatever executive capacities he may possess. Kareem evidently believes the "science is settled" on the issue, but I don't think so. Besides, Kareem belongs to a religion that hucks gay people off tall buildings, for fuck's sake.

Kareem also questions Carson's scientific judgement about the climate hoax consensus. Kareem says that Carson is feeding into the "black stereotype of someone who’s too confused or frightened by all that complicated science so he or she ignores it, clinging to superstitions or religion." Actually, Carson is practicing a higher form of logic than Kareem's appeal to authority, and it's called skepticism.

Kareem again fails the logic exam when it comes to black poverty. Kareem rides the poverty-is-"perpetuated-by-institutional-racism,"-bandwagon. The single biggest correlations for poverty are the age of the mother when the child is born, and the absence of both parents. That cultural phenomenon is taboo. So is the fact that a black person who even tries is criticized for "acting white."

Kareem cites the United Nations as his authority for declaring the United States is institutionally racist, even more so than in the Jim Crow era. Who did the United Nations ask to testify to this racism? Among others, the Trayvon Martin Foundation.

Kareem's article is just a fancy way of calling Carson an Uncle Tom.