Chris Elise: I'm A Pro Sports Photographer. Wokeism Is Ruining Sports | Stories of Us

i've been covering the nba for 16 years until last year i never heard any conversation about racial issue in the nba it's a problem it's marketing it's being part of the movement my name is chris elise and this is my story i'm a sports photographer been covering mostly the nba for the last 16th season i was born in france and i became a u.s citizen last june 2021. i was born in a middle city in france called tour it's like two hours and a half south of paris the middle of the loire valley we were not rich we were kind of like a lower income i had a love for america since i was a little kid since like around six seven years old my grandfather didn't speak one word of english but love western movies and um i used to go to my grandparents place every tuesday as a kid because on wednesday morning we didn't have school in france back in the day and we were watching western movies so my first love was like the cowboy the landscape everything about the cowboy the horse riding the gun the heart everything so other kid i wanted kind of to be a cowboy but for a long time i didn't even think about moving to the usa it was too big a dream for me i couldn't like phantom to move to another country and have a carry i have a job in another country so past 30 years old i was pretty good journalist in information security software but since i was six seven years old i had one dream go to this country so at the same time i say what will be the coolest job to do in the usa and i love sports so i was like it would be super cool to be a photographer and no problem with my language it doesn't matter if people don't understand me you know i'm just shooting photography i could have the best seat in the arena to follow this sport i bought some equipment some photography equipment and i trained myself as i was in the usa covering an i.t convention in san francisco i contact a french magazine and i say i'm here doing my job i can go to auckland and shoot the golden state warriors and take a bet on me i'm gonna do it you like the photo you can buy the photo you don't like the photo you don't lose any money and they did it and 16 years later i'm still working for them they're one of my clients so and that's how i built my portfolio as an nba photographer and it's just so fun and so cool you have 20 25 000 people around you screaming shouting you hear everything and you get the action every time is like the first time the first time i cover a game i was like i'm covering a game you know i'm not supposed to be here what's going on you know somebody's going to come and say oh what are you doing here go go go leave but in 2009 i covered my first nba finals and it was something like incredible because i was on the floor first for covering kobe bryant winning the nba finals so that that's the moment i told myself it doesn't matter for the next years and for my future what i did right right here to add what i did to get to this point i did something of my life i did something i couldn't believe that i could have done i've been covering the nba for 16 years until last year i never heard any conversation about racial issue in the nba not inside the franchise not between media between photographer never happened never but he really ignite and explode last year at the same time the nba was putting the black lives matter logo on the court they actually have almost no black media covering their nba they certainly have no black photographer covering the mba and it's a joke it's a prop and they they go with the flow they want to be work they want to be in the trend it's a trend because follow my logic if you think you need to kneel during the national long term because you want more social justice because black lives matter because police brutality why are you still not leaning right now you are praising to be like really big issues suddenly they disappear it's a pub it's marketing it's being part of the movement and when i see athletes dealings you have the right to do it you know definitely not the best way to pay or match an honor to the people who fought for these flags and for this country and i think it's a it's a gimmick it's gimmick it's kind of ridiculous for me i kind of like precisely quoted but basically libron james say one time like like as a black man or black woman you should be afraid of the police because the police can go out of their place in the morning to go to a job and wanted to kill a black man he basically really says this that's horrible that's that's such a shame and if you're young and again if you have nobody else who tell you no that's not that's not the reality of the world it's normal you're gonna you're gonna fear for your life and you're gonna live with this fear and it doesn't make sense but of course like a young people who are gonna love basketball is and he looks like them because he's black they're black they're gonna sing his voice and his opinion has value i think it's very dangerous for for his young people when kind of your cultural leader or cultural role model are an educated multi-millionaire if they're billionaire athletes i absolutely respect the bonjour for his career but he became because of his platform what we call this platform with social media he became a voice he became a cultural voice he's even like a cultural leader of the africans that's very dangerous and i blame him without blaming him in a way it's not an intellectual an intellectual gonna think about stuff not going to say stuff and react stuff some intellectuals have a lifelong of studying stuff or studying like society culture history et cetera inborn gem is not one of this person police want to kill you that's such a scary and a devastating thought to put into a young generation i never see america at the racist country and if you push to defend the police for this poor neighborhood if this is so obvious what's going to happen they're going to have less security so you want to pretend cops are racist they want to kill you so defend the police get less cop you leave the neighbor to who exactly to the criminals to the thugs to people who deal drugs and gonna protect the territory so you want to defend the police for people who really need the police never i i really don't believe like as a black man you're in danger because of produce in america you are not you're not going to make me believe if i'm being pulled over i'm going to be shot you know the thing is like if i'm being pulled over by a police officer he doesn't know who i am i don't know who he is he confess anybody he confessed nice chris which is like law-abiding citizen and a cool dude but he can find face like somebody really bad so i need to make sure he's gonna know right away as quick as possible like i'm a normal guy so i'm not going to do stupid thing but that's what i told to both my boss if the police officer pull you over you put your hand you turn off your you turn off your your engine you pull down your widow you have your hand and you're ready with your driver's license and your insurance card and this yes sir no sir tilly gonna he gonna see okay there's no issue with this kid i'm pretty sure there's also bad corpses bad people in every profession every job i've been pulled over most of the time because i was speeding you know and when i was spinning i'm not pretending i'm not spinning i put other i'm sorry because i'm not playing dumb i'm respectful but i've never been in any position when i was afraid for my life actually i experienced much more bad interaction with police in france that i did in the usa i can give you like a couple of countries which are much more difficult for black people and especially when it comes to racism in which the racism is culturally much more obvious this is not america america is not a racist country my father raised me to be a man not a black man if even if you don't have a father of a father figure around you get your knowledge and get your education from book from school from college don't get it from an athlete it's not because an athlete is remarkable because he's cool because he's a champion unfortunately most of the messages from these athletes are going to hold you back and make you think you're victim they're going to make you think there's too many things against you to succeed or to achieve any goal you might set for yourself and my message is if a french-born guy from a poor family in a small town in france succeed for himself at the curry in france then decided i want to live in this beautiful country and succeed to live work have a family in this country you can make it especially in the united states of america you definitely can make it [Music] thank you for watching this video to keep trigger your video free please consider making a donation