When it comes to professional sports, the NBA has been at the forefront of the recent surge in social consciousness. Carmelo Anthony has been perhaps the most outspoken representative of the league, joining friends Chris Paul, Dwyane Wade, and LeBron James onstage at the ESPYs earlier this summer to deliver a powerful call for peace and setting up a panel discussion in Los Angeles for the public and community leaders to talk about what can be done to combat the recent violence.
Now, DeMarcus Cousins is reportedly hosting a similar forum in his hometown of Mobile, Alabama. Via SI.com:
The Kings center and recent Olympic gold medalist will return home Sept. 3 with an eye toward the community, helping hold a discussion labeled “Break the Silence, Build the Trust.”
The discussion is free to attend [and] will involve members of the Mobile police department and other community figures, to “center on strengthening relations” between law enforcement and locals.
ESPN’s The Undefeated also recently put together a forum in Chicago that featured Rajon Rondo, Isiah Thomas, Wade and his mother Jolinda, and many more. Just days after the event, Wade’s cousin Nykea Aldridge was shot dead in the South Side area.
More and more athletes continue to enter the political arena this year as tensions between the police and the black community have reached a boiling point. Forums like the ones hosted by Cousins and others are a good start to repairing that fractured relationship.
(SI.com)
