Steve Kerr's DNC speech shows why he's one of the great activists of our time
Steve Kerr knew it was coming. He predicted it. Called it like a shot.
"I can see the ‘shut up and whistle’ tweets being fired off as we speak," Kerr said. "But I also knew as soon as I was asked that it was too important as an American citizen not to speak up in an election of this magnitude."
Kerr made these remarks at the Democratic National Convention on Monday. He was one of the most powerful speakers of the night.
We won't mention the people or groups attacking Kerr. You can go look online. It's the usual goons and weirdos.
The attacks on Kerr are more aggressive than usual (which is saying something) because Kerr spoke at the convention and, as he always is, was extremely effective. But the reason for the increased attacks goes beyond what he said at the DNC.
It goes back to a truism about Kerr and the right that's been a thing for years: the right wing is scared of Kerr.
Actually, they are terrified of him. They have been for a long time. The right hates all progressive sports figures. That is true. But they especially dislike Kerr. Why?
Kerr's the worst nightmare of someone like Donald Trump and entities like Fox News because Kerr is an ally to Black and brown Americans. Trump's entire game plan is to pit white people against people of color. Typical us-versus-them stuff. But that goal becomes more difficult when white allies like Kerr supports Americans the right views as enemies.
Kerr is kryptonite to this entire phenomenon. Because you can't have us-versus-them when one of them looks like one of us.
Kerr is one of the great political activists of our time. But like Gregg Popovich he's one of the great white activists. That makes Kerr far more difficult to demonize than, say, Colin Kaepernick. So Kerr draws an extreme amount of ire because he refuses to believe what they think he should believe. To them, Kerr is supposed to back Trump, not Communist/Marxist/Socialist/Not Really Black/Kamala Harris.
There's another reason why Kerr terrifies the right. He's an incredibly impactful speaker. Kerr is just really good at this.
He long has been. Kerr spoke out against Trump after the former president in 2017 used disgraceful language to describe NFL protestors and Kaepernick.
“This is another reason why all of us on our team have a tough time with the president, because instead of unifying and trying to calm the storm, he’s creating it, over and over again,” Kerr told CNN’s David Axelrod. “We see it with his tweets every day. He used the words ‘sons of b------' to talk about NFL players who have made it clear they’re protesting racial inequality and police brutality. Those are sons of b------?
"Really? You’re the President of the United States and you’re going to call them sons of b------? And you’re going to call Kaepernick out for non-violent protests, a staple of American democracy? That’s really hard to deal with. And for me that was probably the hardest one to deal with. The personal slights that we’ve seen from Trump, you sort of get used to it after a while, you get numb to it, but that one really stung, because it was so divisive and it was so angry and it just didn’t make sense.”
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Kerr has also been one of the biggest advocates for gun control. He was irate after the massacre at a school in Texas.
“Since we left shootaround, 14 children were killed 400 miles from here. And a teacher. And in the last 10 days we’ve had elderly Black people killed in a supermarket in Buffalo, we’ve had Asian churchgoers killed in Southern California, and now we have children murdered at school.”
“When are we going to do something?” Kerr added, pounding a table. “I’m tired, I’m so tired of getting up here and offering condolences to the devastated families that are out there."
This is Kerr. A brilliant, rational and introspective person who refuses to shut up and whistle.
And who terrifies the right wing.