Millionaire New Orleans Pelicans coach Stan Van Gundy has declared himself the “poster boy for white privilege,” in his best effort to prove he is a top NBA social justice warrior.
On the tail of the least-viewed NBA season in league history, the 2020-21 season is now underway (with ratings still tanking), ESPN’s Marc J. Spears checked-in with the relatively new Pelicans coach to discuss his social justice campaigning.
Right at the outset Van Gundy burnished his social justice credentials and declared that all white people are abject racists.
“We’re the ones that are racist,” Van Gundy exclaimed. “It’s a white person’s problem that affects people of color, and so we’re the ones who have to change. … Certainly, you want to promote Black voices, right? But if they’re the only ones speaking out, a lot of people just push it aside. There needs to be people saying, ‘No, wait a minute. This is wrong, and we need to correct these things.'”
Van Gundy then tried on some self-deprecation, saying he is a perfect example of institutional racism.
“I’m a poster boy for white privilege,” Van Gundy continued. “I’ve led a privileged life, so I only know about these issues, and these problems, and these inequities from people I’ve been associated with, work with, know, care about. I don’t carry the issue. But just because something doesn’t happen to you, if it’s happening to people you know, if it’s happening to people you care about, you care about the issue.”
Van Gundy inserted himself into the left-wing, Black Lives Matter narrative before he even joined the Pelicans. Indeed, he was so overt for his support of far-left activism that the NBA included him on the league’s “NBA Coaches For Racial Justice” committee early this year even though he was then unemployed after having been let go by the Detroit Pistons in 2018.
Naturally, Van Gundy was also virulently anti-Trump on Twitter, which he joined in July as part of his effort to get re-hired as a head coach, The Undefeated reported.
Van Gundy also slammed lower-income white people who don’t feel they have any of this so-called “white privilege.”
“They don’t have money,” Van Gundy said of whites who disagree with the whole white privilege narrative. “They’re working their ass off just to get by, and they’re like, ‘What the hell are you talking about? There’s no such thing as white … I’m not privileged.’ You may not have an easy life, but you’re not oppressed simply because of the color of your skin. That’s the difference. I’m not going to get pulled over driving around at night, I’m not, just because of the color of my skin. I’m not going to get a DWB [Driving While Black], I’m not. That’s white privilege.”
The pandering coach is also a big supporter of national anthem protester and former NBA second-string quarterback Colin Kaepernick.
“When he took a knee, and racial justice became forefront, and you’re in a business where 75, 80% of the people that you’re working with, players, staff, everybody is Black, and you’re hearing their stories, and the pain and things like that,” the coach said.
For all his extreme political rants, one thing Van Gundy has some slight regrets over is saying that all whites who voted for Trump were racists. He told The Undefeated, ” I went on a rant about the election in 2016, and I disparaged voters for their vote and assuming that I knew their motivations, and everything else. That part I regretted. That’s the only part I regret. I didn’t regret 90% of what I said.”
Finally, Van Gundy said he was thrilled to be brought on by the New Orleans Pelicans because The Big Easy is so LGBT friendly. “And just the diversity of the entire city. Political diversity, racial diversity, LGBTQ diversity. It’s different than anywhere we’ve ever lived, quite honestly,” he gushed.
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