LeBron James, President Donald Trump, and Happiness
I want to speak on what President Trump said about LeBron James this Friday, August 3. Here’s the quote:
“Lebron James was just interviewed by the dumbest man on television, Don Lemon. He made Lebron look smart, which isn’t easy to do. I like Mike!”
I am a very big fan of LeBron James, and I’ll leave the Don Lemon stuff for another time. What I want to say is that when President Trump says something like this, you couldn’t go to court and prove that this shows racial animus. However, there is no way to read this without at least factoring in the racial dynamic here. I’ve always thought that President Trump is perhaps the most effective and skilled dog-whistler since Lee Atwater.
What upsets me so much about this comment is that LeBron James is this powerful black man who plays basketball. Many, many kids — including young black boys — and also me, by the way, look up to him. When he opened the I Promise school, he’s showing everyone that you don’t have to be defined by the category people put you into.
It’s for this same reason that everyone got excited when Goldman Sachs picked David Solomon as CEO because we all think it’s cool that you could be CEO of Goldman and also a part-time EDM DJ. Like, I think this is cool, and I don’t even understand EDM.
Neither leader has let other people’s expectations define them.
Anyway, it is very important for people, and especially young black boys, to see LeBron in that gray suit, with those nerdy glasses, talking business and social empowerment.
And then we have President Trump come in and basically disparage it. It is incredibly disappointing, but I will say this:
I have long thought this, and I’ve been surprised that so few people have said it:
President Trump is wealthy, he’s had some success in real estate, he’s very powerful, and he’s traveled all over the world, but for some reason he isn’t happy.
No one who is happy would send that tweet.
So it’s interesting because, in a way, it shows you that money and power aren’t everything, because President Trump is simply not happy. I have to make it plain.
And ultimately when LeBron James sees those kids achieving futures that, without that school, they would not be able to achieve, he will be very happy to know that his skill helped make this possible with God’s help. And he will, at the end of the day, be a very happy person, and I think that’s the goal for all of us.
George John Jordan Thomas Aquinas Hayward, Optimist
August 5, 2018