‘Dear white people, the problem is ours,’ Mark Cuban says during George Floyd protests
Dallas Mavericks owner Mark Cuban has a message for white people.
“The problem is ours.”
As racial unrest flared again at protests sparked by the death of George Floyd, Cuban took to social media Monday night to express his thoughts.
Cuban attached an open letter written by Emerson College president M. Lee Pelton, along with his own thoughts on what white people — including himself — need to change in their lives.
The letter, titled “America Is on Fire” speaks of the death of George Floyd and other racially charged injustices that have rocked minority communities across the nation.
“America is on fire, I thought” Pelton wrote. “Even in the face of a viral pandemic that had closed down much of human society, it could not stop a black man from being murdered in public view.”
Floyd, who is black, died on May 25 in the custody of Minneapolis police, with one officer pressing his knee into Floyd’s neck for almost nine minutes.
Cuban, who on Sunday took part in a vigil to honor the memory of Floyd, told The Dallas Morning News that “this is our community; our country. Both are hurting. I wanted to be here to listen. To understand better the pain the African-American community is going through.”
He followed those comments on Monday with tweets on what he believes needs to change.
“I used to think treating people equally meant treating them the same,” he tweeted. “Like it was a math equation. I was wrong.”
This story was originally published June 2, 2020 at 11:07 AM with the headline "‘Dear white people, the problem is ours,’ Mark Cuban says during George Floyd protests."