Dan Gilbert is really steamed. His employee, Ohio native and basketball superstar Lebron James left the team without notification to play in Miami in hopes of winning a championship sooner than he thought he could with the Cleveland Cavaliers. Gilbert fired off a letter to the people of Cleveland accusing Lebron James of being a coward, narcissistic, and deserting the people of Northeast Ohio. At no place in the missive did he say he owned James, at no place did he say James was his property.
Of course that doesn't stop Jesse Jackson. At a time when Black unemployment is at an all time high, Jackson takes up the cause for the millionaire James. At a time when there is a political movement that wants to turn the clock back on civil rights, Jackson speaks up for a man who was at no time called anything but ungrateful by a really ticked-off employer.
And who joined him in this charade? Washington Post sportswriter and Second City shill Michael Wilbon. He said on his daily ESPN show Pardon the Interruption that he agrees with Jackson, and that others in his circle share his opinion.
Two points: First, don't insult me by saying that because you are an African American you can read points in that letter better than I can. There is NOTHING in it that even comes within a mile of racism. The letter is immature, petty, and spiteful, but racist? Sorry, no. Two, Wilbon will go after fictitious racism, but not a word on his show in the same day about former Knicks coach Isiah Thomas' (from Chicago, naturally) overtly damaging deportment towards his former employee Anucha Browne Sanders. He said (I paraphrase) he won't be too hard on Thomas.
I have interviewed Jesse Jackson, and he is now a ship sailing the globe hoping to drop anchor where bigotry may or may not exist. It matters not, as long as he get can face time on the tube. Sadly, at a time when racism is making official inroads into the body politic, Wilbon walks in lockstep with public appearance addict Reverend Jackson over a made up dynamic. It seems so strange that -- oh! Of course! Jackson calls Chicago home. Racism is a disease, fellas, don't fake the symptoms.