It turns out that one of the most essential cultural commentators in America today is a 74-year-old retired basketball player. I highly recommend Kareem Abdul-Jabbar’s Substack newsletter, the most recent edition of which contains an excerpt from a long essay that he has published as a Kindle e-book. The excerpt is fine in itself, but the full essay is absolutely fascinating. Here’s the heart of the story: 

For fifty years I’ve been both defending and criticizing the police. I’ve criticized them when their actions reflected the violent systemic racism that resulted in the deaths of unarmed minorities. I’ve defended them when their good works were overlooked. I especially didn’t want all cops lumped together as a monolithic hive-mind, the way so many have done with marginalized people in this country. They, too, have a voice that needs to be heard. This precarious tightrope act has resulted in venomous backlash from both sides. I’ve been accused of being both a Black anti-cop agitator and an apologist for racist police violence. My ability to see both sides isn’t the result of trying to please both sides; my perspective is the result of having been raised by a Black police officer in New York City during the most tumultuous civil rights upheaval the country has ever been through and of the effect both those influences had on me throughout my life. 

Anyone with even the mildest interest in race in America ought to read Kareem’s essay. It’s that good. Yes, it also has some inaccurate statements about the Capitol riot of January 6, errors that should have been discovered and excised in the editing process. And some of his political claims are debatable — as if any political claims aren’t. But don’t let those things distract you from the complex and necessary message of the story as a whole.  

One insignificant point that delighted me: the apartment that Kareem lived in when he was growing up had a window that overlooked The Cloisters.