and not to ‘the gay side’,” he said to a chorus of laughter. As Vassor University alumni Acacia O’Connor tells us, John Amaechi was speaking in front of some Vassor students.
Most of those present at the lecture on Oct. 8 knew Amaechi for one of two reasons: First, because of his basketball celebrity or secondly, because in February he became the first (former) NBA player to come out as being gay.
Despite this fact, Amaechi spoke relatively little about these two facts of his life, which he addresses in his new book Man in the Middle. Instead he engaged the students in audience in a conversation about tolerance, activism and the power of their generation.
If some people still look at him as some guy who plays basketball and is gay – you really miss out on this guy where many people could learn from:
He said he was offended by the notion that he was someone who should be “tolerated.”
“I have no time for that phrase,” he said, adding that tolerance is something he has for American Caesar salads with anchovies, not an attitude toward people different from onesself. “How many times in history are we going to decide how many fifths human people are?” he asked.
I am sure some people also ask themselves why he does all these speeches in front of people, organize these camps in his home country Britain and many more good things, other people should also do. Here give us the answer: Why speak if not to change the world?
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