Kareem Abdul-Jabbar used a “Star Trek” metaphor while condemning President Trump’s calls to get NFL players who kneel during the national anthem fired.
In particular he referred to Trump as being similar to the Borg, the “frightening villain” introduced in “The Next Generation” era of the series known for highly advanced technology and appetite for conquering all life forms and assimilating them into their hive-mind-connected collective.
“Sound familiar?”, Abdul-Jabbar, a former NBA star, wrote in a piece for Hollywood Reporter magazine. “The Borg used to tell their enemies, ‘Resistance is futile.”‘Maybe so. But lately, when I look around at those brave, outspoken athletes and entertainers leading the resistance, I think maybe not.”
Trump first riled up controversy on Friday at a rally in Alabama, in which he called on NFL team owners to fire kneelers — a string of demonstrations that began last season with former San Francisco 49ers quarterback Colin Kaepernick, who was protesting the treatment of African Americans and other minorities in the U.S.
In response to Trump’s repeated attacks on kneelers — he has now tweeted dozens of times in the ensuing days about the matter — more than 200 NFL players kneeled or demonstrated in some other form or fashion in an unprecedented show of protest and unity during the NFL’s third week of the season.
Abdul-Jabbar said that Trump supporters defend the president’s comments because they believe the kneelers are being “disrespectful to the country to protest the flag or the national anthem, citing the soldiers who fought and died for our freedoms.”
But, he countered, that these soldiers really fought and died to defend the right to freedom of speech.
“Yet, the president insults that sacrifice by trying to curb that freedom,” Abdul-Jabbar wrote, adding that his Trump “calling for punishment for exercising these rights is the same rationalization used in union busting and breaking up civil rights marches.”
