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Sometimes it’s important to take a step back from the life you live through you’re own eyes because it can become quite hard to truly appreciate what you see. The last several years have been a very trying and rewarding time for me both personally and professionally.
As I sit here watching Barak Obama deliver his acceptance speech at the Democratic National Convention, I cannot help but look at him and see myself in some ways. Within him, I see not only myself but I see at least 100 other people that I know and love. People that I’ve grown up with back in Alameda, or people that I met from around the world while at Occidental College in Los Angeles, people that I met as a teacher at Alameda High School, people that I met in Vancouver, BC while attending UBC or people that I met while traveling the world as a heart broken broke backpacker or the people that I met while starting and building an international clothing brand.
Barak Obama represents people. Real people, ordinary people, non-ordinary people, so fucking many people.
Somehow through various twists of fate, luck and chance one of the most memorable moments of my life came while watching a video on YouTube while being hung over because I was out with Mos Def until 8AM. Watch this video below.
At our Undrcrwn party on Tuesday in Las Vegas we heard word that Spike Lee was seen on TV wearing our Obama O-Face Tshirt. I was def excited to hear about it because Spike Lee is the shit and I’d be lying if I didn’t think it would help us sell tshirts.
But, after watching this interview on YouTube I realized how big of a moment that was for not just me, Undrcrwn or our tshirt. Spike Lee came out and said some things that I think really put the stamp on the importance of this election. And for Spike to choose our tshirt while on the floor of the convention is not-coincidentally symbolic.
Spike Lee is an American Filmmaker, social activist and more importantly a representitive of a generation that will be leading our country and world for the next 30 years. He says in this interview that he is only a handful of generations removed from slavery. In roughly 5 generations our country, our leaders, our culture enabled a segmenation of people to advance from slavery to a presidential nomication for President. This is a moment that has been building for a long time and is a symbol of what we need to do and continue to do in this country of ours and this world we live in. Spike’s interview embodied this fight we must continue to embrace.
And how does Undrcrwn fit in? Obama fucking plays and loves basketball. How untraditional is that? Basketball is an American sport that is now making strides on an international scale. It is a sport that is dominated by urban black males. It is a sport that is as hip-hop as hip-hop itself. It is a sport that embodies more than just sport right now. It embodies a changing world through the people that play it.
Obama plays it. Spike loves it. And we need to get every person that plays basketball to go out and vote to make Obama’s run to the presidental basket a reality.
So, yesterday, I had to take a step back to really appreciate what I’m doing right now because we are all living in an important time in world history.
