On Tuesday earlier this week, the Golden State Warriors made the trip out east to Washington D.C. where they took a group of elementary school children to the Museum of African American History and Culture. However, they were supposed to be at the White House, celebrating their latest NBA Championship win. It is customary for all championship teams of American sports such as basketball, baseball, and football to visit the White House and spend the day with the president. The team will usually offer the President a gift like a jersey and he in return will speak to the nation about how these various teams came to win their championship. The two sides will send jokes back and forth and everybody is having a great time. This year however, the event will not happen for the 2017 NBA Champion Golden State Warriors. Many players have made statements discussing the action of not going to the White House. NBA superstar Steph Curry was quoted saying that “We [the Golden State Warriors] don’t stand for basically what our president has — the things that he’s said and the things that he hasn’t said in the right times, that we won’t stand for it,” Curry said. “And by acting and not going, hopefully that will inspire some change when it comes to what we tolerate in this country and what is accepted and what we turn a blind eye to.” After Curry made this comment, our current President took to twitter to formally uninvite Steph and the other members of the Warriors. With that burden off of their backs, they had the decision of what to do with their free time. In the end, the team chose to “constructively use [their] trip to the nation’s capital in February to celebrate equality, diversity and inclusion — the values that [they] embrace as an organization.” Is it right for these NBA players to boycott their visit to the White House because they dislike Trump? Please let me know your thoughts. Myself, I totally agree in this situation. No person should be forced to go someplace that they don’t want to go to. With the way things currently are with our President, this article came as no surprise. I like to see more and more athletes using their stage to voice their opinions about what is going on in the world, and more specifically, our country.
A blog dedicated to exploring the civil rights movement in Memphis, TN
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