LeBron James/Oscar Grant

As I sat in a bar tonight celebrating a friend's birthday the TV on the wall was broadcasting live the spectacle otherwise know as LeBron James announcing he will play for the Miami Heat. At about the same time my Twitter feed was lighting up with news of the insane injustice otherwise known as the cop who shot and killed Oscar Grant and got convicted of involuntary manslaughter.

Baratunde Thurston, aka Jack Turner at Jack and Jill Politics says it far better than I could, so here you go:

Oscar Grant will not be playing for Miami cause he was murdered by a cop

Excerpt:

In July 2010 America came to a standstill and watched television as Lebron James held a much-hyped press conference to announce he would be leaving Cleveland to play for the Miami Heat.  In January 2009 America came to a standstill and watched YouTube as BART transit officer Johannes Mehserle pulled out his gun, pointed it at an unarmed, pinned down Oscar Grant, and shot him in the back. Today, Cleveland wept as it lost a star basketball player. Today, Oakland wept as a Los Angeles jury returned a guilty verdict of involuntary manslaughter in Mehserle’s trial.

We have seen this movie before, and it’s genre is Horror, but it also goes by the labels Absurdity, Farce and Injustice...

...Two black men dominated the news this evening. Lebron James was honored with national attention as he announced his plans for future success. Oscar Grant was dishonored as his death was treated like a nuissance. Maybe Grant should have been a better basketball player.

 

I got nothing more for you but outrage.

And if you are not outraged then you have truly not been paying attention.

At all.

7/9 Update -- Read this fierce poem by outraged poet Christy NaMee Ericksen: My Son Runs in Riots