Jim Brown insults Kobe Bryant’s African-American culture, Bryant responds

NFL star Jim Brown recently made some demeaning comments on the Arsenio Hall Show about Kobe Bryant’s “confusion” over African-American culture. Bryant was raised in Italy for several years, and Brown feels that Bryant was not properly exposed to the culture. “He’s somewhat confused about our culture. Because he was brought up in another country,” Brown said. He then brought up the early 70s summit regarding Muhammed Ali’s unwillingness to fight in the Vietnam War. “If I had to invite people to that summit all over, there’d be some athletes I wouldn’t call. He’d be one of them.”

After Lakers practice on Thursday, Bryant responded to Brown’s comments. “It surprised me in the sense that it came out of left field,” he said. “I’ve never even met him. It came out of left field. But I do think it’s a great opportunity to have this conversation, to have this discussion. No matter where you come from, whether you come from Italy, whether you come from Inglewood (a Los Angeles neighborhood), whether you come from London, it doesn’t matter. Ultimately the conversation is that it doesn’t matter what color skin you are to begin with. But I think it’s a good place to start and have a good conversation.”

“There’s nothing to talk about. We have different perceptions and different views on that, clearly. The thing I’ve tried to do is I’ve tried to educate our youth going forward, no matter what color skin you are, African-American or white or whatever the case may be. Just try to talk about having a bright future going forward and how to help the kids and progress as a society as a whole. He and I, there’s no reason for us to try to have a conversation. We’re on opposite sides of the spectrum. I’m an old dog, but he’s a much older dog and a lot more set in his ways than I am.”