Monday, July 12, 2010

LeBron, Oscar and Twitter.

White Man told me not to ask why.
Black Man told me injustice should make me cry.
Yellow Man told me to dream big and reach the sky.
Brown Man told me that it’s do or die.
Red Man told me that whatever I heard it was a lie.


This is about two Twenty year old black men whose lives crossed paths on July 8th and the microblogging tool that brought them together. Lebron James gave the weirdest press conference of the century on the same night that Oscar Grant’s murderer was given the lightest sentence possible. LeBron and his management team didn’t know that Oscar’s murderer was going to practically skate. Oscar’s family would have probably been watching Lebron’s press conference if Oscar was still alive. But people on twitter were watching it all go down. For those that watched “LeBron-a-thon” their tweets consisted of issues involving Miami, Groupies, LeBron’s mother’s alleged sexual appetite and ESPN. For those that heard about Oscar’s verdict their tweets consisted of issues involving injustice, crooked cops, pleas not to riot and plans to get free stuff if looting did take place. Team Oscar was hard on LeBron because he wasn’t playing the “Jim Brown” role. His former team owner was even harder on him with his spurned love letter. It’s unrealistic to think today’s athletes are going to get caught up with issues involving race. They have too many commercials and sneaker deals to lose out on. Team Oscar was also hard on their twitter followers who didn’t mention Oscar Grant in their tweets.

A word to my fellow Twitterers……….you can’t have it both ways.

The great thing about my Twitter Timeline is the people that are in it. They come from different backgrounds and they have different interests. Some are pro-black, feminists, poets, journalists, nymphomaniacs, pseudo-activists, entrepreneurs, techies, and college students. They all bring something interesting to the table in their own unique way. I don’t always agree with everything they say but I don’t stop them from saying it. I hate BET but a lot of people tweet about it when they watch the BET award shows. I’m pretty sure that everything I say they don’t agree with either. I’m not mad at Team Oscar for being upset over the verdict. I don’t like it either but I’m not surprised. It shouldn’t be a shock because lady justice wears a blindfold. She can’t tell what’s going on with her eyes covered but I digress….. But I’m also not mad at Team LeBron for not mentioning Oscar in their tweets. Our connections on twitter are like any relationship that we might have with our family and friends. We will agree to disagree and disagree to agree.

2 comments:

msladyDeborah said...

I would of tweeted about the capture of the Grim Sleeper. A serial killer that has murdered Black women in L.A. Because I don't care about where LeBron plays and I'm from Ohio.

I find that Tiwtter is cool and it creates an interesting swirl of folks who might not ever come together if it wasn't for that particujlar medium.

Citizen Ojo said...

msladydeborah - see, that is what I love about you. You always bring something that no one else is talking about.