Carmelo Anthony discusses social activism, police brutality
By Joe Tacosik
In a recent edition of “Face to Face” with ESPN’s Hannah Storm, New York Knicks and Team USA forward Carmelo Anthony spoke about his recent stand for social justice.
Related Story: Rio 2016: 30 athletes who would dominate other events
In July, NBA superstars Carmelo Anthony, LeBron James, Dwyane Wade and Chris Paul opened ESPN’s annual ESPY Awards with a solemn and heartfelt statement about the need to address the problems of gun violence and police brutality in the United States.
“We’ve got to get our community feeling back, and we need police to do that.”
Anthony recently sat down with Hannah Storm of ESPN to discuss his recent stand, one in which Storm says has made Anthony “the face of social activism for the summer.”
“I didn’t plan it to be like that,” Anthony said in the interview with Storm. “It’s very authentic, very genuine. I could’ve spoken out plenty of times … but a lot of times you just want to wait and see what comes naturally.”
Anthony’s stand started with an Instagram post in July that depicted former African American athletes who were also revered social activists. In the post, Anthony called for activists to “steer our anger in the right direction.”
“I just got tired of seeing it,” Anthony told Storm. “So I just started typing, and typing, and typing … and before you know it, the Instagram post went up.”
When asked about a public forum that was held in Los Angeles in late July that included members of both the men’s and women’s USA Olympic basketball teams, local police officers, children from the local Boys and Girls Club and more, Anthony said it was all about “repairing the relationships.”
“It was more about a conversation with the youth, putting these two…the youth and police officers, together and letting them hear each other out,” Anthony said. “A lot of times that’s where the disconnect comes in.”
“We’ve got to get our youth back,” Anthony called for in his closing statements of the interview. “We’ve got to get our community feeling back, and we need police to do that. We need them to protect and serve, but we also need them to help build these bonds back.”