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Sacramento Kings announce a “Pledge to Our Black Community” commitment to combat injustice

The organization continues to do its part in the community with this pledge.
By | 14 Comments | Jun 9, 2020

Credit: Sacramento Kings

The Sacramento Kings developed a new pledge that will commit to combating social and racial injustice, the organization announced Tuesday.

The pledge commenced with the Minnesota Timberwolves and Lynx announcing a partnership with the Milwaukee Bucks and Sacramento to host the third Team Up for Change summit. Sacramento and Milwaukee started the initiative in February of 2019 after the tragic death of Stephon Clark and when Milwaukee police tased and arrested player Sterling Brown over a parking violation in 2018.

Members of the Kings, Wolves, Lynx and Sacramento Area Youth Speaks came together to create a public service announcement spanning two minutes and featured prominent members of all organizations. 

https://twitter.com/SacramentoKings/status/1270415363499593732?s=20

 

€œBeing Black in America can’t be a death sentence,€ Sacramento head coach Luke Walton said in the PSA.

The PSA also featured members of the Kings such as General Manager Vlade Divac, Assistant Coach Jesse Murmuys, De’Aaron Fox, Bogdan Bogdanovic, Marvin Bagley and more. 

The pledge outlines several other actions the team will be taking immediately such as:

  •  €œInvesting in effective violence prevention, intervention and interruption strategies to benefit local Black youth by donating $75,000 to collaborate on a series of youth and young adult-led Kings and Queens Rise workshops, launch a virtual summer Kings and Queens Rise Co-ed Youth NBA2K League in partnership with Build.Black., and support the Black Child Legacy Campaign Youth Violence Prevention Program.
  • €œFostering economic equity in Sacramento by committing to highlight and partner with small and large regional Black-owned businesses.€
  • Promoting civic engagement by hosting voter registration workshops, providing employees a paid day off for election days and continuing to lead and relaunch Rally the Vote, a coalition of professional sports teams encouraging voter registration.

This announcement comes just days after many players and staff attended Sacramento’s peaceful Black Lives Matter protest on Saturday. 

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Kosta
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June 9, 2020 5:34 pm

comment image
 

Last edited 3 years ago by Kosta
ImJoeKing
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June 10, 2020 12:20 am

I don’t know how much difference those programs will make, but it’s better than nothing. Are the Kings still paying their arena workers? That might be a bigger deal to helping the community.

Otis
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June 10, 2020 8:43 am
Reply to  ImJoeKing

whynotboth.gif
 
I think a big part of the point is to keep the ball rolling and keep the awareness level high. People are energized right now to work towards solving (or at least putting a dent in) this issue.
 
Kudos to the Kings for doing the right thing again.

ImJoeKing
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June 10, 2020 10:24 pm
Reply to  Otis

If I posed it as an either/or that wasn’t my intention. Both would be great. I’m just asking the question of whether the Kings are skipping on the bigger commitment and fulfilling a smaller one.
 
Either way the organization’s ears and wallet are currently open and that’s great. I praised the team for getting involved the protests in the other thread.

Steven_Durkee
June 10, 2020 4:32 pm
Reply to  ImJoeKing

Those are separate conversations. This is a good thing.

ImJoeKing
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June 10, 2020 10:28 pm
Reply to  Steven_Durkee

Anecdotal, but in my experience the Kings arena staff features a lot of POC and members of the black community (a great thing!), and I feel that supporting those communities financially by continuing to pay employees might be just as helpful if not more than giving $75k to fund this program. It’s a difficult thing to measure though.
 
In that way, though, I think it’s part of this same conversation.

Inthestarz
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June 10, 2020 9:45 pm

I’m a little confused about the inclusion of the young Asian girl for the €œSacramento Youth Speaks€ portion of this BLM(?), or are they just showing random youths?
 
But IMO, the team is continuing to venture into liberal politics. Being the first team in any league to €œrally the vote€, when isn’t the issue of voting tied to last election etc?

Kosta
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June 10, 2020 10:24 pm
Reply to  Inthestarz

NASCAR went hella liberal today. And the NFL–ay caramba. No one is safe!

SMF-PDXConnection
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June 11, 2020 2:01 pm
Reply to  Inthestarz

If being against racism is against your politics, what does that say about your politics?

Inthestarz
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June 11, 2020 3:04 pm

So, in the modern political landscape, the €œget out the vote€ isn’t used primarily by Democrats, and an indirect rebuke of how Trump was elected (and thus a slap to non liberal fans, if that’s the Kings particular inspiration)?
 
Thats not what comes to mind when the issue is first brought up?
 
Whether or not it’s a tangible issue in certain communities is another story, it’s subjective to infer why the Kings are choosing that particular community issue
 
 

ImJoeKing
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June 11, 2020 7:00 pm
Reply to  Inthestarz

If more people voting is an affront to your politics, it’s not a good look for your politics. It means that your politics is aided by voter suppression.
 
If one is genuinely interested in building and maintaining a strong representative democracy they shouldn’t be afraid of and should encourage more people voting whatever their political persuasion. Encouraging people to vote shouldn’t be a political issue.

Inthestarz
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June 11, 2020 8:03 pm
Reply to  ImJoeKing

€œEncouraging people to vote shouldn’t be a political issue€
 
But it is now, right? And you would consider those doing it to be left wing, right?
 
So Kings placing themselves again politically (to the alienation of non liberal fans)?

Jman1949
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June 12, 2020 11:32 am
Reply to  Inthestarz

I remember when registering to vote was considered a civic duty. Now you’re telling me that €œEncouraging people to vote…€ is a divisive issue. If so, that’s because many €œnon liberal fans€ have chosen to make it divisive.

ImJoeKing
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June 14, 2020 7:05 am
Reply to  Inthestarz

If a political group wants to support a really bad idea like voter suppression, I don’t really see disagreeing with that idea as taking a political stand. It’s being sensible and doing the right thing.
 
Personally, if someone thinks people voting or encouraging others to vote is controversial, I wouldn’t care about alienating them because they clearly do not have the interests of the community or society in mind anyway.

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