Editor’s note: The following article is an op-ed, and the views expressed are the author’s own. Read more opinions on theGrio.
There’s a fascinating trend going around right now on TikTok, an app that has become the home of all sorts of social experiments. For some reason, some white woman decided to ask her boyfriend or husband, “How often do you think about the Roman Empire?” It seemed like a random thing that most people would never think about, but come to find out through this TikTok trend, many white men think about the Roman Empire a lot — like a few times a week or more. What?
So once the white women realized how big that thought exercise was among white men, they started asking themselves, what’s our Roman Empire? Like, what’s the thing that white women are constantly thinking and talking about alone and amongst themselves? What’s their big thought exercise? The answer that bubbled up was their ex-best friends. Their Roman Empire are those beloved close friends who got away. It’s not about a specific period of time. It’s about a big thought exercise that people of a certain demographic are obsessed with. So that got me thinking: What is the Roman Empire for Black men? What is the thought experiment that we’re constantly running? I did some thinking, and I believe there may be three answers.
First, though this is in no particular order, is the Michael Jordan vs. LeBron James debate. It feels like Black men are always talking about this subject in some way, shape or form. Either we’re signaling our allegiance to one side of the debate or we’re diving into the meat of it to try to explain how LeBron can possibly compete with M.J. when the GOAT has six rings and Bron doesn’t. It’s an epic topic that says a lot about how you see the world, what age you are and what you value from elite athletes. The correct answer is…
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