Alvin Kamara Gets Personal in Twitter Thread About Being Black in America
New Orleans Saints running back Alvin Kamara got real on Thursday. A day after teammate Drew Brees was raked over the coals for his stand against kneeling during the national anthem, Kamara took to Twitter to explain some of his experience of being a black man in America. It was powerful stuff.
The entire thread is below:
Im a 24 year old black man from Atlanta. Mother from africa and an illegal alien for almost 30sum years until 15 months ago. I’ve seen racism and experienced social injustice personally. maybe even on a deeper level because my mother had a foreign accent.
— Alvin Kamara (@A_kamara6) June 4, 2020
I’ve literally been in a bank and had the cops called on me. Not because i was robbing it.. but because i looked like i could have been robbing it. Oh... the teller was the one that called. I only needed like 200 dollars but i pulled out 10k just to play her ass ?
— Alvin Kamara (@A_kamara6) June 4, 2020
I’m saying all of this to say... until you are black in America, you won’t truly understand what it is to be black in america and that’s fine. But don’t act like this doesn’t exist or isn’t real.
— Alvin Kamara (@A_kamara6) June 4, 2020
I’ve been in enough situations where the color of my skin was seen as a big enough threat to cost me my life. And i know there are countless others that that fit my description that could say the same.
— Alvin Kamara (@A_kamara6) June 4, 2020
❤️
— Alvin Kamara (@A_kamara6) June 4, 2020
This is deeply personal insight from Kamara, and he makes some great points. The most important is this quote: "until you are black in America, you won't truly understand what it is to be black in america and that's fine. But don't act like this doesn't exist or isn't real."
I truly don't know how anyone could argue with that. You can't explain what something is like until you have experienced it for yourself.
Kamara also seemed to imply he will be kneeling during the national anthem when the NFL returns this fall.
It's worth noting Brees has apologized for his comments from Wednesday.