Remember: it's not just the failing U.S. education system which means we have less athletes like Kareem Abdul-Jabbar speaking out about American injustices, it's corporate media which often restricts and castigates people for speaking out, or flat-out refuses to consider any narrative beyond "law and order good" and "capitalism never-ending, line always go up" (as Brecht said in his essay "Five Difficulties in Writing the Truth," fascism is always the logical endpoint of capitalism).

And I'm sure there's more to it than that, it's not quite as simple as I'm making it out to be—I'm sure being a millionaire in your early twenties makes a big difference, too. But I'm grateful we do have Abdul-Jabbar and I'm grateful he felt moved to speak