(ThyBlackMan.com) While scrolling through Instagram many weeks ago, a photo of the popular fragment design x Air Jordan 1 Retro Hi caught my attention. As I routinely do, I jumped straight to the comments to see what people were saying about Hiroshi Fujiwara’s rendition of the retro basketball sneaker. After sifting through all the emojis, I came across one that nearly sucked the life out of me: “Only Nike Lab release. Extra hard to get. Good luck kids. Someone will lose their life for this unfortunately.” It’s ludicrous that there is this stigma of expected violence around Air Jordan sneakers. It’s time for Michael Jordan to say something.
Over the course of Jordan’s professional career, there was no doubt that he was the greatest basketball player ever. But over the duration of his time as a professional athlete, one of the biggest knocks Jordan faced was his unwillingness to take a stand on important political and social issues such as the 1992
Los Angeles riots and the growing impoverishment of Chicago’s inner cities. Though it wasn’t necessarily in Jordan’s job description for him to be a social warrior, many could not comprehend why he continued to avoid controversy when it came to issues that were directly affecting his community and the ones his brand appealed to.
In today’s NBA, we see megastars like Derrick Rose and LeBron James use their stage to support the “Black Lives Matter” movement by wearing “I CAN’T BREATHE” T-shirts in solidarity of the protests against the non-indictment of officers involved in the deaths of Eric Garner and Michael Brown. We also saw Dwyane Wade and Carmelo Anthony publicly express their sympathy and support for Trayvon Martin’s family after his death. These athletes expressing their opinion about the current state of affairs influenced people across the country, and also encouraged other entertainers and celebrities to speak up.
Acts of violence that COME WITH obtaining a pair of Air Jordans ARE not new.
Could you imagine if Jordan used his platform to do the same?
As one of the NBA’s most prolific businessmen ever, Jordan is, and has always been, a highly regarded public figure. He has the power to influence and brings awareness to communities worldwide. He’s the first former player to ever become the primary owner of an NBA franchise and, most importantly, the only black majority owner. As of last year Jordan Brand, a subsidiary of Nike, had a 55-percent market share in basketball in the U.S. while raking in $2.25 billion alone in 2013.
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