NBA Team Owner Declares "Nobody Cares About the Uyghurs"
By Abdulla Gaafarelkhalifa
On January 17, 2022, Chamath Palihapitiya, CEO of Social Capital, chairman of Virgin Galactic, and minority owner of the NBA’s Golden State Warriors, took to Twitter to apologize for his comments about the plight of the Uyghurs of China during an All-In podcast episode.
Enes Kanter Freedom, an NBA star and Uyghur social justice advocate, shared the podcast episode in which Palihapitiya stated, “Nobody cares about what’s happening to the Uyghurs, OK?” He added after being asked to elaborate, “... I’m telling you a very hard, ugly truth, OK, of all the things that I care about, yes, it is below my line.”
Freedom told CNN’s New Day host that he was “very angry, disappointed, and disgusted” with the remarks and said what is happening to the Uyghurs is “one of the worst murder abuses in the world today.” He also appeared on FOX News, telling the host that Palihapitiya “pretends to care about social values but only cares about money and promoting CCP propaganda.
]The Warriors stated shortly after, “As a limited investor who has no day-to-day operating functions with the Warriors, Mr. Palihapitiya does not speak on behalf of our franchise, and his views certainly don’t reflect those of our organization.”
In his apology tweet, Palihapitiya acknowledged that he sounded apathetic to the Uyghur situation and shared that he was born in Sri Lanka before his family fled due to the atrocities taking place there. He finished by stating, “my belief is that human rights matter, whether in China, the United States, or elsewhere. Full stop.”
Many members of the Uyghur community responded to his apology tweet. One Twitter user shared that many of his family members were arrested and imprisoned and that he was forced to divorce his own wife.
Another shared the video below from the Uyghur Tribunal.
Others have pointed out that Palihapitiya’s apology lacked an acknowledgment of the genocide, as many do in the NBA.
Disclaimer: This article was previously published on Atheist Republic blog.