Race Jones
gangster. grace. alchemy
The Racist Obsession With NBA Vaccinations Versus Hollywood
Why has there been so much focus on a small number of NBA players going unvaccinated against COVID-19 when outbreaks on Hollywood sets are a regular occurrence?
www.thedailybeast.com
Within this heavy scrutiny of the NBA is a desire to make role models out of basketball players. You can see it in the way Hall of Fame legend Kareem Abdul-Jabbar discusses race, the virus, and accountability in Sullivan’s piece: “They are failing to live up to the responsibilities that come with celebrity… By not encouraging their people to get the vaccine, they’re contributing to their deaths.”
But the idea of celebrity has shifted since Abdul-Jabbar was pushing for his own version of player empowerment. These days, celebs are only accountable to their stans—who will likely stick with them regardless of their decisions—and to their sponsors, who they can circumvent pretty easily. Black celebrities, especially athletes, are no more accountable for viewers’ health than white ones are, largely because the racial discrepancies in Black and white vaccination rates are due more to “access and logistical barriers” than anything else. If people are really taking their health cues from how a basketball player like Kyrie Irving or Andrew Wiggins decides to move, it speaks more to the corrosive nature of standom and celebrity culture than what those players do. Black NBA stars—as much as they are peppered with questions about race, class, gender, presidential candidates, sexuality, every single thing under the sun—aren’t standard-bearers for American health; they aren’t even standard-bearers for the entertainment industry. No one is bellowing about Major League Baseball players’ vaccine skepticism. No one gives a damn about the battles service workers are waging against major corporations who aren’t paying them living wages. No one is calling on Hollywood to halt production on the latest Batman film because Robert Pattinson tested positive. But Batman ain’t ever been Black either.
