After the fashion of silly protest gestures like "Boobquake," we now have the Phoenix Suns joining the bandwagon. Their uniforms in tomorrow night's NBA playoff game will say "Los Suns" instead of just "Suns."
The idea, according to team owner Robert Server, is to protest the recently-passed Arizona immigration law. He opposes it and wishes to express that opposition, both of which are actions he has the right to do. In fact, if he really does believe it will be harmful to our nation and to his state's Hispanic population, he has an obligation to express himself, for their sakes.
But this is another dumb and useless gesture. For one, "Suns" in Spanish is actually "Los Soles." "Los Suns" is as meaningless as "el shirt" or "the equipaje." For another, Mr. Server, like many NBA owners, is not a poor man. Lawsuits filed against the state to fight this measure will require money, and he could definitely contribute some assistance to them. For a third, the Suns have worn these jerseys twice already this season under conditions that have had nothing to do with immigration law (but they just happen to be for sale now in the team store for $79.99, listed as a "new arrival" with the style name "Latin Nights Swingman Jersey"). Wait -- maybe Mr. Server and the NBA plan to donate proceeds from the sale of the "Latin Nights" jerseys to help fight the immigration law. I sure hope so, or else I'd get disillusioned and think that this silly protest gesture actually had some meaning, but that the meaning wasn't very nice.
(Equipaje, by the way, translates into English as "luggage" and is one of my favorite words to pronounce in Spanish.)
No comments:
Post a Comment