Thursday, February 7, 2008

Quick Question

OK

You're a muli-millionaire under 30. You're probably going to retire from your day job before 35 and have the rest of your life to live off of the earnings you've made.


Do you think it's important for you to be registered to vote?


Answer: Not if you're the typical NFl or NBA player.

No Bullshit

That is effing sad. I mean, seriously, you're a multi-millionaire and you don't think it's important for you to be involved in the politcal process?

I now pronounce you a dumbass.

See, if you were poor, that sort of apathy would be understandable. I wouldn't agree with it, but I could understand it. After all, poverty tends to create a situation where people are less likely to be concerned about nebulous concepts like freedom and justice, and more concerned with things like rent and light bills. At the bottom of the barrel you tend to believe less in the American Dream, which means you often don't see the point in voting.

I get that.

But, if you make millions of dollars playing a child's game you have no excuse for not being politically active and involved. You have the disposable income and time to learn about the political process. You are benefiting from the American capitalist system.

Most importantly, as a rich person you have political clout.

And you're not even registered to vote?

Dumbass

I like athletes. I used to be one in high school. Typically, I defend them and shy away from making sweeping comments about them. But, damn, this is off the charts.

I can't fathom having access to the same sort of resources they can access and then completely divorcing myself from the process that can provide access to those resources to others. That's a complete betrayal of the communities many athletes grew up in.

It's not enough to roll with the homies, to fund a youth team or go read at the neighborhood school. Sweeping change in this country only occurs when the political system is pushed into it. And, money is what does the pushing these days.

And millionaire athletes aren't even registered to vote.

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

What is the basis for this post? You never stated why you jumped to athletes in answering the multi-millionare under 30 question.

Anonymous said...

You gotta fix your link bruh. You link back to yourself instead of to the source material.

It aint just them though.


You got high paid professionals who just cash their checks and dont look into what their professional organizations are doing with their dues in their name.


Folk working for Big Telephone while Big Telephone is spying on us for the government and screwing our wireless technology to the point that we are BEHIND places like Ghana in terms of wireless infrastructure AFTER piling up BILLIONS of dollars for the purpose of BUILDING said infrastructure. Thats YOUR money at work.

Its the same thing.

I feel you though. Nice blog.

Big Man said...

Thanks for the tip on the link

vicdamonejr said...

The problem is that these - by these I mean political and social issues - are NOT the things being thrown around by the athletes in these locker rooms as LZ says.

If they were, Black America wouldn't be where it is now. The majority of these young men are coddled, shaped and fashioned to think, act and do things a certain way. Politics and social commentary aren't often a part of the process.

In the world I see, they make up a significant portion of The Talented Tenth DuBois often spoke of. But at this point, they don't pull their weight.

Thing is, I'm not sure their bosses want them to either.

Anonymous said...

My comment doesnt quite respond to the question but reacts to your idea psychology behind the poor mans lack of interest in polotics.
My how the "revolution" has been halted in Black America. Have we not noticed a direct connection between the Black Community's interest in polotics and Americas response to our needs.
Poor people really need to stop making excuses for being defeated before they even enter the race.
I am poor by American Economic standards and one of the only things that will ensure a chance at my child not being poor is me being interested and staying interested in decisions being made about my life the opportunities that are are availible for me.
Get real dude. Stop making excuses for ignorance.




Raving Black Lunatic