Saturday morning, one of the top sports/crime/celebrity headlines was the extraordinarily sad story about the death of a young woman in Chicago. A woman named Nykea Aldridge was shot and killed on a Chicago street while she pushed her baby in a stroller. Aldridge was the victim of crossfire – two men were shooting at each other, and Aldridge was the collateral damage. One of the reasons why this was such a major headline – beyond the tragic detail that Aldridge was pushing a stroller – was because Aldridge was Dwyane Wade’s cousin. Wade is one of the biggest basketball players in the world, born and raised in Chicago, and he announced last month that he would be returning to Chicago this year as he joined the Chicago Bulls. Wade is also one of the major basketball players doing prominent work on civil rights, police violence and violence in the African-American community.
In any case, when I read the story first thing on Saturday, I had no plan to write about this family’s tragedy. They should be able to mourn in peace. It was my belief that everyone would feel the same way. Wade did tweet about it:
My cousin was killed today in Chicago. Another act of senseless gun violence. 4 kids lost their mom for NO REASON. Unreal. #EnoughIsEnough
— DWade (@DwyaneWade) August 27, 2016
RIP Nykea Aldridge… #EnoughIsEnough
— DWade (@DwyaneWade) August 27, 2016
The city of Chicago is hurting. We need more help& more hands on deck. Not for me and my family but for the future of our world. The YOUTH!
— DWade (@DwyaneWade) August 27, 2016
These young kids are screaming for help!!! #EnoughIsEnough
— DWade (@DwyaneWade) August 27, 2016
As you can see, Wade didn’t politicize his cousin’s death in any way. He, like so many people, is just sick of seeing a parade of gun violence on a daily basis. That’s not political, that’s factual. So why did I choose to write about this tragedy? Because Donald Trump is a terrible person. Trump tweeted:
Dwyane Wade’s cousin was just shot and killed walking her baby in Chicago. Just what I have been saying. African-Americans will VOTE TRUMP!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) August 27, 2016
That’s actually the second tweet from Trump on this subject. The first was deleted… because he misspelled Dwyane Wade’s name. He deleted the original tweet, corrected the spelling of Wade’s name and left everything else unchanged. When people are like, “Ha, Donald Trump is sort of sociopath,” I’m always like, “No, he’s mostly just stupid as hell.” But is he a sociopath? In what world is it appropriate for a presidential candidate to say a woman died in Chicago, therefore black folks are going to vote for him? At some point, he’s literally using this poor victim as a prop in his campaign.
Naturally, Twitter went crazy. Some said Trump was an “absolute disgrace” and that he should be ashamed of himself. My favorite was Don Cheadle telling Trump to “die in a grease fire.”
Photos courtesy of WENN.
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