How Former NBA Player Etan Thomas Deals With Racism

Etan Thomas was the 12th pick of the 2000 NBA Draft. The Syracuse alumni played for the Washington Wizards, Oklahoma City and for the Atlanta Hawks between 2001 and 2011. He’s mostly known for successfully undergoing open heart surgery and returning to play in the NBA one year later. (In his first game back, he had 10 points and eight rebounds for the Wizards).

Thomas, who now is a political activist, poet and writer, recently shared a story about a woman who told him the seat next to her on a full train was occupied before accepting another man’s request for the seat just a few moments later. He took a photo of the woman to make a post about the altercation on his facebook page, what made the woman complain about it to the conductor. The conductor, a life-long Wizards fan, recognized Thomas and told him that he’s a fan of Thomas’ what left the racist woman rolling her eyes in disbelief.

Check out the full transcription of his facebook post:

“Ok so I’m getting on the train and there are no open seats and I ask this lady if I could sit next to her (very politely and I soften my voice as to not frighten her) and she says someone is sitting here. So I go to the next seat. Now, less than 2 mins later a man (who happens to be white) asks if he can sit there and she says why sure let me move my stuff. So I have to say something so I ask ummmmm did you just not want ME to sit next to you ? Were you scared ? Not comfortable with a Black Man sitting next to you ? And she says lol smh don’t pull the race card stuff with me I dated a Black guy in college. So the guy (who was a nice guy) said listen I’ll get up and I said no need I’mma just take this pic and make a Facebook post about it. So then she says did you just take a pic of me ? Well I’m going to tell the conductor that you’re over here illegally taking pics of ppl without their consent. So the conductor came up and said hey Etan Thomas love what you’re doing in the community loved you with the Wizards big Cuse fan man the Knicks sure could use you …. And I said was there something you wanted to tell my man ? And she rolled her eyes smh some ppl I tell ya”