NBA dress code goes too far

The NBA’s new dress code has players capitulating their sunglasses indoors, hats worn to the side and chains with large pendants. Business apparel and attire is required to be won every game in the news conferences. Seventy-five percent of the NBA players are African-American. The new dress code implies they are gangsters.

For decades the African-Americans had no voice. They had to do what they were told, abandon their own beliefs and live life as their master allowed them. It’s the 21st century and the African-Americans of the world have a voice and are doing great things with their lives, especially the players of the NBA. But the NBA is trying to take the players’ voices away.

I understand the NBA is a business and the players should look professional, but the Constitution’s First Amendment gives American citizens freedom of religion and speech. Wearing chains, large pendants, listening to music and having baggy jeans are ways players express themselves. They are not thugs telling children to go out and be gangsters. They are African-American basketball players of the NBA telling young African-American children they can make it to the NBA regardless of how they dress. They can make it regardless of society’s views of African-Americans.

Tre’onna Wilkerson

Cheney