Carmelo Anthony Organizing Town Hall Meeting In Los Angeles
New York Knicks star Carmelo Anthony and his Team USA teammates are organizing a town hall meeting in Los Angeles.
New York Knicks star Carmelo Anthony has embraced a leadership role in the pursuit of social and political reform. Through both social media and a now famous speech at the 2016 ESPY Awards, Anthony has encouraged athletes to utilize their influence to facilitate progress.
Anthony and his Team USA teammates plan to do exactly that once camp breaks in Las Vegas.
Following the deaths of Philando Castile and Alton Sterling, Anthony took to Instagram to challenge athletes to speak out on social injustices. He referenced socially active athletes such as Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Muhammad Ali, and Jim Brown as men whose footsteps should be followed.
According to Marc Berman of The New York Post, Anthony and his Team USA teammates plan to host a town hall meeting in Los Angeles to discuss the need for social change.
"The Olympic team, after it breaks camp here, will head to Los Angeles next week and events are being planned there, Anthony said.“We’re going to try to host a town hall in L.A. to get some people out there,’’ he said. “What I put out on Instagram sparked something, so now we have to follow through with it.”"
Regardless of how you may feel about what Anthony does on the court, he deserves nothing but respect off of it.
Anthony marched for Freddie Gray in Baltimore, Maryland after Gray died from spinal injuries that he sustained while in police custody. He followed up by expressing his frustration with the rulings in the Gray cases, and commented on the march through his VICE Sports series Stay Melo.
For those who missed it, CBS Baltimore provided video of Anthony attending the peaceful protest and marching for the city that raised him.
Unfortunately, these tragedies continue to occur—reason enough for people of all races to demand justice, equality, and accountability.
Injustices continue to be done against citizens of the United States of America. A shining example is how the judicial system imprisons black people at an inexplicably higher rate than it does white people.
Those numbers, as well as the recent increase in awareness of police brutality, have sparked the recent social outcry.
According to the Federal Bureau of Prisons, 58.8 percent of prisoners—115,046 total—in the United States of America are white. 37.6 percent—73,557 total—are black.
That may seem normal on the surface, but a deeper investigation of the numbers imply that it isn’t.
According to the United States Census Bureau, there are 321,418,820 people in the Unitd States of America. 77.1 percent of the population is white—roughly 247,813,910 people—and 13.3 percent of the population is black—roughly 42,748,703 people.
Using that data, one in every 581 black people are in prison (as of April of 2016). That’s a massive difference from the one in every 2,154 white people who are in prison (as of April of 2016).
Anthony recognizes this obvious issue and hopes to see athletes continue to make their voices heard.
"“At the end of the day, the tragedies that have happened, it affects people,” Anthony said. “We’re athletes, but we’re human beings at the end of the day. We’re affected by all of that. We have family in some of those cities. … We’re affected. Just because we’re out here playing basketball as athletes doesn’t mean we’re not affected.”"
Anthony also weighed in on the tragic murders of three police officers in Baton Rouge, Louisiana on Sunday, July 17.
"Regarding Sunday’s cop-killing in Baton Rouge, Anthony said: “It’s unfortunate, sad. Can’t put it into words. Not just what’s going on there but throughout the whole country and world. Everything is happening at once. For us as a country we have to stand united and come together. It shouldn’t be us against them. It should be about all of us.’’"
The message is simple: the violence needs to end and social equality needs to be achieved—right now.
Whether or not you’re in the Los Angeles area, this is a time to take action and unite. There are opportunities to link up with the leaders in your community and fight for change, and Anthony is encouraging everyone to do so.
Anthony and his Team USA teammates will be doing exactly that in the near future.
must read: Carmelo Anthony expresses his frustration with the Freddie Gray ruling
Thank you for representing the Knicks with such honor and dignity, Carmelo Anthony.