Former NBA Player Royce White Speaks Out About China Oppressed Uyghurs

Royce White might be a name that basketball fans recall, as he was a first-round pick of the Houston Rockets in the 2012 NBA Draft.

Like so many, his career was nothing to write home about, but a lot of his issues were self-inflicted. White had a dispute with the Rockets early in his rookie season regarding mental health. He was eventually removed from the team when these problems could not be resolved.

White then went to Sacramento to play for the Kings. He played in only three games in the 2013-14 season and didn’t score a single point.

It seemed that White had plenty of outside interests, including mental health, his history of Generalized Anxiety Disorder (GAD), and his involvement with civil rights.

Now, he has a new civil rights issue to champion. White wore a “Free the Uyghurs” shirt to the opener of the Big 3 basketball league, and CBS interviewed him wearing it. The Uyghurs are a group in Northwest China that have been oppressed by the Chinese government. The Chinese government has detained more than one million of them in prison camps, under the guise of counter-terrorism.

White was hopeful that the interview would draw interest and attention to the situation, but so far, it’s just been crickets.

The former NBA baller took to Twitter to voice his displeasure with the apathy.

When you know a moment like this should be going viral but instead you get crickets from media outlets… that’s when you know you’re doing it the right way. When it doesn’t suit anybody to talk about justice and freedom, that’s when you should talk about it. #FreeTheUyghurs pic.twitter.com/Gx2TkXWadS

— Royce White (@Highway_30) July 11, 2021

It’s interesting that only one outlet — the South China Morning Post — picked up the story.

“Free the Uygurs, two million ethnic minorities in East Turkestan, China, in concentration camps,” White said via CBS.

“Something we got to talk about. You know I’m always going to talk about the real things.”