The Miami Heat apparently want you to know they feel very strongly about a migrant situation in Ohio — a state which, if you are geographically challenged, they do not play home games in.
As for an assassination attempt against a presidential candidate that happened in the actual state they play in, Florida? They’re a bit quiet on that.
Funny how that works, isn’t it?
The town of Springfield, Ohio has become a national issue after several viral claims made about the situation there. The wilder ones are almost undoubtedly false, the more troubling ones — at least practically speaking — are true.
What’s true about Springfield is that under the Temporary Protected Status program — which allows residents of a certain country undergoing some form of political turmoil and natural disaster who are in the United States when a TPS declaration is made to live and work here legally — roughly 15,000 Haitian residents have come to the city of about 59,000 residents in the past four years.
That’s stretched city and state resources, so much so that the state’s Republican attorney general, Dave Yost, said he was considering a lawsuit against the Biden administration for sending “an unlimited number of migrants to Ohio communities,” according to The Associated Press.
GOP Gov. Mike DeWine also said that the federal government needed to step up to provide funding for communities and states dealing with TPS migrants, particularly since Ohio had spent $2.5 million and sent state troopers to deal with the situation in just one city of 59,000.
What is untrue, or at least very much unconfirmed, are internet rumors that Haitians are eating pets. This got mentioned by Donald Trump during the presidential debate, and the rest is history. Suddenly, the only problem in Springfield was bigotry and fake news.
Enter the Miami Heat — an entity which, since its inception as an expansion franchise in 1988 — have contributed nothing positive to the national political discussion. Nor would one expect a team to do so. Their job is to win championships, which they have three of.
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Their job is not to wade into the complex situation that is Springfield and the national debate over the TPS program — but wade into it they did.
“The Miami HEAT staff, like Miami itself, is a diverse and brilliant mix of vibrant cultures, including many members of our Haitian community,” the team posted in a message on Monday.
“The false narrative surrounding them is hurtful and offensive and has sadly made innocent people targets of hateful speech and physical threats.
“Our Haitian employees, fans and friends deserve better,” the message closed, along with the statement “Ansanm nou kanpé fò” — “Together we stand” in Haitian Creole.
— Miami HEAT (@MiamiHEAT) September 16, 2024
There are more than a few problems with this — starting with, as one responder noted, the fact that most of these “physical threats” were hoaxes, according to a statement Gov. DeWine made the same day, according to the AP. (Many of those hoaxes also came from “overseas,” an implication that the Heat might be amplifying fake news from America’s enemies.)
You should probably translate this into multiple languages since the threats came from overseas. pic.twitter.com/zR20e4fHUl
— Jayintheweeds (@j_intheweeds) September 17, 2024
Remember when we cared about people who did that? Who was president then? I can’t quite remember.
Oh yes: a man currently running for president who faced actual threats of violence in the state where the Heat actually play just a day before:
I wonder if any sports team or big name celebs will come out and make a statement about not trying to MURDER a former president. That will never happen, it’s a crazy world we live in
— DannyB (@thefakedannyb) September 17, 2024
The Heat have said nothing about the assassination attempt against former President Trump at Trump National Golf Club in West Palm Beach on Florida on Sunday afternoon. Nor do I need the Heat to, since I expect social media posts like, well, this from them:
Asking Jaime the important questions here 🏆 pic.twitter.com/Vvd4wtSWE9
— Miami HEAT (@MiamiHEAT) September 16, 2024
But, if you’re a basketball team and your business is now virtue-signaling, this is something your people need to address. When you don’t, it sticks out like a sore thumb. (Or, as cancel-culture types were fond of saying a few years back, “We see you.”)
One is profoundly glad that social media and wokeness weren’t around half a century ago — else the Dallas Cowboys might have used Nov. 22, 1963 to remind their Instagram followers that it was the 144th birthday of Mary Ann Evans, author of “Middlemarch,” who had to use the pen name George Eliot, because people didn’t take female writers as seriously on contemporary social issues. #CheckYourMalePrivilege. #FemaleCowboyFansMatter. Oh yeah, and something’s going on at Dealey Plaza and Parkland Hospital. Thoughts are with those affected. Blue heart emoji.
Others noted the absurdity of not mentioning the nuances of what’s going on in Springfield, or the fact that most of the club’s most visible employees will never have to deal with a situation where their property or standard of living is affected by unmanaged TPS influxes:
I was just wondering what the position of the Miami Heat was on dumping 20,000 migrants from a failed state into a community of 60,000 people. We were all waiting for the Miami Heat to weigh in.
— Wade Miller (@WadeMiller_USMC) September 16, 2024
You live in mansions with security
— Matt Wallace (@MattWallace888) September 16, 2024
Rest assured that, whatever heavy lifting needed to be done to support the Haitian community in the United States, the media was already busying itself doing it. The sentiments of the Miami Heat did nothing but draw attention to the absurdity of how the situation is being covered — as if no problem exists because some rumors about cats and geese turned out to be false.
But, you know, if the Heat want to start addressing real threats of political violence, their input is always welcome. Unnecessary, probably, just like the team’s social media post was.
But if a basketball team wants to pretend that it can make a difference, it’s probably better to start closer to home — like in West Palm Beach, say.
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