Kobe's Death; This Backward System & How We Process It All

On an organized and disorganized basis, I’ve played basketball since I was about 10 years old.  As I got older, I made the personal decision to avoid drinking, getting high, etc., but everyone needs something in their lives to release pressure, anxiety, and depression.  Especially in this backward society where people are commodities who hold as much value as material possessions.  So, for me, sports most often filled that requirement.  I played organized and disorganized sports, primarily basketball, well into my 40s.  I watch professional basketball, not as much as I would like to, but a lot over the last several decades.  Consequently, since he came into the National Basketball Association (NBA) in 1996/97, I was aware of Kobe.  I wasn’t a fan.  I live in Sacramento and despite their ineptitude, I’ve been a fan of the Sacramento Kings basketball team since the 80s.  As a result, I watched Kobe dismantle my Kings multiple times, on television, and often in person.  From a basketball standpoint, no one who watched Kobe play could not be impressed with his skills, commitment and presence on the basketball court.  That was especially true for me during the 2002 season when Kobe, Shaq, and the Lakers ripped the chance for the championship from the Chris Webber led Kings.

So, I understand why Kobe’s death, the death of his daughter, and the deaths of seven other people on board that helicopter, would really impact so many people on such a level.  Most of the people of course, never met Kobe Bryant.  I never did and I probably never would because I have a practice of never approaching celebrities.  I just believe those folks get more than their share of adulation for their capabilities and although I enjoy watching them perform their crafts, I have never seen them as people who generate that level of respect to require me to approach them.  Now, when I met Assata Shakur, or Marilyn Buck, or Kwame Ture, I was speechless each time, but I know that for most people, basketball in general, and an iconic player like Kobe in particular, provides much of the relief they need to continue to function within this oppressive, capitalist system.  The pain these people feel from Kobe’s death is real for them.  Capitalism teaches us every second of every day that we don’t matter.  For most people, celebrities represent immorality.  So, when a seemingly larger than life figure like Kobe is killed, it rocks people's sense of stability.  That pain, fear, and shock is real for people, but I think we have to learn how to think deeper about what incidents like this mean and why people actually react the way they do, even people who don’t follow basketball in the least.

There are many variables at work.  For survivors of sexual assault, and those who wish, like I do, to bring consciousness around patriarchy and issues related like sexual assault, there is a need to remind people who are mourning Kobe’s death that he was accused of sexual assault a few years ago.  The people who are mentioning this are not doing it to demean the loss of Kobe or anyone else.  They are seeking to maintain their dignity because in this backward society, the suffering they experience doesn’t matter.  Just like the suffering experienced by the woman in Colorado, U.S., who accused Kobe of assault didn’t seem to matter then, and certainly doesn’t matter to many people today. Still, its legitimate that people want everyone to remember that this accusation against Kobe is as much a part of who he was as him scoring 81 points in a game.  

Another related contradiction is that people die tragically every second of every day.  People being brutally exploited working oil rigs in the Niger Delta for Shell Oil die in the hundreds in the most tragic and violent ways all the time.  People digging out cobalt from Congolese mines by hand so that cell phones, laptops, etc., from Apple, Samsung, etc., will work are dying from inhumane conditions on a consistent basis all the time while this piece is being written and while you are reading it.  Mass incarceration, imperialist motivated wars, sanctions, and oppressive conditions, kill people by the hundreds of thousands consistently.  Police murder thousands of innocent people every year in the U.S. alone, not to mention in other societies.  These things happen and all of them combined never generate anything close to the attention that Kobe’s death is creating.  That’s something that doesn’t sit well with those of us who have consciences because we know that the reason for this inequity is because the masses of people on earth have no value whatsoever to the forces that control the planet today.  We know the only reason Kobe does is because his profession is entertainment for the privileged in these societies.  So, whether we want to think about it or not, the fact his death generates nonstop coverage everywhere while the fact the rape and murder of a poor and innocent child in the Congo, or Brazil, or New York, will be talked about by very few people is very disconcerting.

We know the everyday people distraught about Kobe are just trying to hang onto what they can grasp because capitalism has taken everything else from them, including their dignity and ability to critically think about the issues being discussed here.  We also know that death is upsetting, especially when its people we feel that we know and the people who respect Kobe feel as it they know him and his family, etc. What we have to do is use tragedies like this to steel our commitment to continue to work effectively to challenge the inequities that make an incident like this so disjointing. 
​
The bottom line no matter what is Kobe is a commodity like all of the rest of us in this capitalist system.  He’s just a higher priced commodity based on his ability to deliver products this system values.  The reality is a few months from now Kobe’s death (along with the others) will be practically forgotten by most of us as we continue to move on navigating and trying to survive this corrupt system.   I’m not saying people are going to forget Kobe. I’m saying life will move on because that’s what happens in this system of profits over people.  The NBA will do tributes, but the games will continue and the profits will pile up.  In fact, there will be more than a handful of people who will figure out how to profit themselves from Kobe’s death.  Maybe not out of spite, but because those folks are just trying to be as creative as they can in finding ways to survive this system.  Capitalism gives them no other options.  I would even suggest confidently that capitalism, as always, is probably the direct culprit in the Kobe crash incident.  We don’t have details, but speculation is that visibility was an issue with the pilot of the copter and how it possibly crashed.  If so, that’s a clear indication of the pressures of finance that drive all decisions in this backward society, including decisions that place completing a job above human safety.  As people concerned about justice, we have to make that correlation for people because this is the same disregard for humanity that devastates the masses of people every day.  This is true whether we are talking about who gets incarcerated, why people have to work in inhumane conditions, or why a copter tried to make a flight that could be ill advised due to conditions.  These are the lessons I hope we take from Kobe’s tragedy.  Kobe was a rich and famous man so his death in this backward society has value, but we should expand that and use it to advance our struggles for justice.  So, mourn Kobe if you need to.  Point out the contradictions.  Talk about sexual assault.  Talk about class struggles and contradictions.  Talk about how capitalism values some deaths of certain people it adorns over the deaths of the masses of humanity.  Use all of this to move us forward in helping people understand why nothing that happens is separate and/or devoid of class, race, and gender analysis about how capitalism is always the driving force that creates trauma for everyone on earth.