Lebron James and Nicolas Maduro Attacked for Serving the People

“Both have attempted to serve the people and important lessons can be gleaned from their efforts.”

Lebron James doesn’t share Nicolas Maduro’s socialist politics. It is also likely that neither Maduro nor James pay much attention to each other at all. James is a multimillion dollar athlete of the corporate sponsored National Basketball Association (NBA). Maduro is the President and former bus driver of the socialist-oriented government in Venezuela. Yet in recent weeks, both have been subject to attack for their service to the people.

James opened a public school in his hometown of Akron, Ohio in late July. The move was unprecedented given that most athletes and celebrities choose a corporate route for their philanthropic endeavors. As Black Agenda Report Managing Editor Bruce Dixon pointed out just two years ago, plenty of Black celebritieshave attempted to cash in on the privatization of public education by latching on to the greedy designs of corporate charter operators. But not Lebron James. Diane Ravitch celebrated James’ decision to give back to the public sector. President Donald Trump, on the other hand, used James’ to insult the basketball superstar’sintelligence in a continuation of his conflict with the corporate media.

“Plenty of Black celebrities have attempted to cash in on the privatization of public education by latching on to greedy charter operators.”

Trump did what he does best for the power structure: incite racist tropes in service of the circus show that is the corporate media. His comments on James’ intelligence immediately took the spotlight off the issue of public education and onto the struggle between personalities in high places. And Trump always has a convenient punching bag in the corporate media. Trump can always count on the monopoly media for attention, especially in the form of shallow celebrity banter. When Trump isn’t the center of corporate media attention for his war of words with Black athletes like Colin Kaepernick or Lebron James, he is being accused of deliberating with Russians or partaking in scandals with porn stars.

The only effective counter to the loud and insidious distractions of the corporate media apparatus is the truth. However, the truth, just like anything else, is full of contradictions. The truth is multilayered yet straightforward once unearthed. Some academic and bourgeois philosophers don’t believe that a single truth exists. This, like most bourgeois ideology, is a fallacy. For example, it is true that Trump’s comments about Lebron James are patently racist. It is also true that the corporate media is both racist and moredangerous than the big orange celebrity in the White House.

“Barack Obama attempted to end public education ‘as we know it’ like his Democratic predecessor Bill Clinton attempted to do to welfare in 1996.”

The Trump and James conflict serves the interests of the ruling elite because it takes our eyes away from the actual policies that dictate issues such as public education. Public education has been under complete assault from both corporate parties for nearly two decades. Barack Obama attempted to end public education “as we know it”like his Democratic predecessor Bill Clinton attempted to do to welfare in 1996. Trump has been no less friendly to the forces of school privatization, although the chaos of his Administration has not lent itself to solid policy on the issue. Nevertheless, majority Black school districts in Chicago, Detroit, Philadelphia and a host of other cities continue to face the ongoing corporate war on public education head on with no relief in sight. James’ contribution to Akron won’t make a dent in this trend, but it surely offers a model of what can happen when public education is the focus of investment instead of austerity.

Trump’s response to James’ CNN appearance with Don Lemon garnered more attention from the corporate media than another pressing matter that would emerge the following week: the attempted assassination of Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro. On August 4th, Maduro was attacked by drone strikesduring a public address to the military in Caracas. The socialist head of state escaped unscathed and with the foresight to pin the blame on the Venezuelan far-right and its supporters in Colombia. It isn’t a farfetched accusation given the history of support that the right-wing, US-backed Colombian government has given to the oligarchs seeking to overthrow the socialist government in Venezuela. The so-called Venezuelan opposition has used such support to commit several terrorist attacks over the course of the last several years, including flying helicopters into government buildingsand setting Afro-Venezuelans on fire.

“The US has used Colombia as its military stronghold in Latin America for over five decades.”

Maduro released evidence shortly after the assassinationattempt that indicated the attack was indeed carried out by opposition figures backed by Colombia and, by default, the United States. The US has used Colombia as its military stronghold in Latin America for over five decades. During this time, the US military has committed unspeakable atrocities throughout the continent, first in the name of anti-communism and now in the name of anti-Bolivarian sentiment. Maduro and Venezuelan officials have verified that the suspects involved in the assassination were offered fifty million USD and citizenship in the US. The US has denied involvement in the assassination. However, the CIA-backed coup in Venezuela in 2003, the US’s longtime support for the right-wing opposition, and the refusal of Obama and now Trump to take the country off its list of “threats” to national security make such denials hard to believe.

Political conditions in the US are so deeply reactionary that most on the left have been confined to purely defensive struggles, whether it is defending public education at home or Venezuela abroad. These struggles are important but too weak when fought in isolation. The system of US imperialism is global in character and its contradictions are bound by a single purpose. That purpose is to ensure the accumulation of private profit for those who own the monopolies and the banks. It is critical that we analyze the interconnectedness of all developments and their relationship to the primary purpose of the system.

“Obama has never been one to hold back his contempt for his most loyal supporters.”

To be clear, Lebron James is no Maduro. Such a comparison would be politically irresponsible to make from any serious leftist. However, both have attempted to serve the people and important lessons can be gleaned from their efforts. James made a bold statement in support of public education. However, his overall political orientation is loyal to US empire. The boldest statement James has ever made is that Trump is using sports “to divide us.” He has also made it clear that he would never sit across from Trump but would love to sit down with Obama. This is the same Obama that not only waged a full throttle assault on public education but also a ruthless corporate war on the entire planet’s impoverished majority. Obama’s leadership for eight years in the corporate-led war on the poor hurt Black Americans the most and the “Black President” has never been one to hold back his contempt for his most loyal supporters.

Nicolas Maduro is a different type of leader. Despite the media’s portrayal of the Venezuelan President as a “dictator” of a flailing economy, the Bolivarian movement has made significant gains in the way of poverty reduction under arguably more difficult conditions than under Hugo Chavez. US imperialism has poured fifty million USDto the rightwing opposition since 2009 in hopes that it would topple what Jimmy Carter has called the most democratic electoral system in the world. Under the leadership of Maduro, Venezuela has retained its democratic character and continued its relief for the impoverished masses. Tens of thousands of schools have received new technology and equipment, free healthcare has been expanded to sixty percent of the population, and Maduro announced last year that the government has finished the construction of one and a half million homes for the poor.

“Under the leadership of Maduro, Venezuela has retained its democratic character and continued its relief for the impoverished masses.”

This is what US imperialism desperately wants to destroy. Trump has made rhetorical gestures toward peace with Russia and Korea but has done no such thing in Latin America.Nikki Haley and Mike Pompeo have intensified their war on Venezuela with increased sanctions and threats of military invasion. Trump’s opposition to Lebron James is qualitatively different. While the Administration is no friend of public education, Trump took advantage of the media attention James received to once again blow the racist dog whistle for his supporters in the media and the nation at large.

The corporate media gave Trump’s tweets their usual platform with the usual message that struggling people in the US, especially Black people, should feel ashamed of the orange billionaire’s presence in the White House. Shame is a paralyzing emotion. It doesn’t require much study into political or scientific questions. Public education and the ongoing austerity imposed by the corporate oligarchs are two of the most critical questions of this period. Another is the endless wars waged by the US’ trillion-dollar military apparatus. These questions require us to study what it truly means to serve the people. The hope is that through such study, the left will learn to follow more in Maduro’s socialist footsteps.

Danny Haiphong is an activist and journalist in the New York City area. He and Roberto Sirvent are co-authors of the forthcoming book entitled American Exceptionalism and American Innocence: The Fake News of Wall Street, White Supremacy, and the US War Machine (Skyhorse Publishing). He can be reached at [email protected]