TNT hosted a show Thursday night to discuss the recent savage killing of George Floyd by Minnesota policeman Derek Chauvin and the worldwide racial uprisings and protests that have ensued.
Host Ernie Johnson and co-hosts Charles Barkley, Kenny Smith and Shaquille O’Neal covered the racial overtones of Floyd’s death in detail with NBA commissioner Adam Silver and former NBA player Stephen Jackson, who grew up in Houston with Floyd, and were two of Thursday’s guests. Also a guest on the show was Dallas Mavericks owner Mark Cuban.
Chauvin knelt on Floyd’s neck for eight minutes and 46 seconds, all while Floyd was saying he couldn’t breathe, was begging for his life and was calling for his mother.
Here are Cuban’s comments during his segment on the show:
Ernie Johnson: Did you call it a white problem the other day? Is that what I saw? Was that an accurate description?
Mark Cuban: It’s not something black people have to change. It’s something we have to change. It’s our perceptions, it’s how we understand the black community, how we understand all ethnic communities. The problem is ours – not a problem of the black community.
Charles Barkley: I know as a black man when I watched that tape and they’ve got this knee on this dude for eight minutes and 46 seconds, I think every black person is like, ‘Yo man, this is not right.’ As a white person, what exactly are you’re feeling when you were watching this video?
Mark Cuban: I was just sick to my stomach. I watched the first time all the way through, and so when I first saw him standing up my first thought was, ‘What did he do wrong?’ But it just shows you where I’m coming from and part of what we need to change. But once he got down to the ground and it got to the point where he had his knee on him, it was just sickening. I mean it was stomach-turning.
Ernie Johnson: Mark, as a business leader and as a white man, what is your plan of action? When you look at the problem that is obvious here, what is Job 1?
Mark Cuban: Job 1, I think, is to push so that there’s zero tolerance in police enforcement. This guy who killed Mr. (George) Floyd, it wasn’t his first act of violence. So we need to get to the zero tolerance and pushing for legislation, and getting there is certainly part of Job 1. As a business person going out into the minority community and providing support, we’ve been working to provide economic support for some of the businesses in the minority community that has been looted, helping them get loans, helping them get the education that they need. A bigger part of it is having these kinds of conversations. Because look, it took me a while to figure out exactly what people like Stephen (Jackson) and you guys are feeling. It wasn’t natural for me to know. That’s why I always like to just treat people — just being color-blind was the goal, and it’s not. The goal has got to be much more than that. It’s got to be providing support, it’s got to understanding the position and the plight of African-Americans. And it’s got to be finding ways to lift them up and for the white community to understand better what it takes to be black in American. And it was hard for me to get here, and I have a long way to go. But if I can get here I can help others get here.
Twitter: @DwainPrice
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