Lakers Hire Dr. Karida Brown as Director of Racial Equity and Action

The Los Angeles Lakers announced Thursday they hired Dr. Karida Brown as their director of racial equity and action.

Tim Harris, the Lakers COO and president of business operations, spoke about Brown's duties in the role:

"We are very happy to have Dr. Brown join the team. She will play a key role in implementing educational programming on race and racism for our employees and helping us focus on racial equity in our day-to-day functions, as well as empowering the organization to identify ways to be more active participants in affecting real change."

Brown is an assistant professor at UCLA in the Department of African American Studies and Department of Sociology. A Fulbright Scholar, she also authored Gone Home: Race and Roots through Appalachia and co-authored The Sociology of W.E.B. Du Bois: Racialized Modernity and the Global Color Line.

Across the country, Americans have protested and demonstrated to demand meaningful reform addressing systemic racism and police brutality in the wake of the killings of Ahmaud Arbery, Breonna Taylor and George Floyd.

The Lakers issued a statement May 30 saying they "condemn racism, bigotry, violence and prejudice in all its forms" and that they "will not stay silent."

The NBA announced the Board of Governors agreed to restart the 2019-20 season on July 31 at Walt Disney World Resort in Orlando, Florida. That date has since been tentatively moved to July 30. Some players, however, have expressed concerns about whether resuming play will partially diminish the momentum generated by the ongoing protests.

ESPN's Malika Andrews and Adrian Wojnarowski spoke with Lakers guard Avery Bradley, who's part of a players coalition seeking to get meaningful commitments from the NBA and its stakeholders to address issues related to the black community.

Shams Charania of The Athletic and Stadium shared a statement from the league on the matter:

One example cited by Andrews and Wojnarowski as a focus of the coalition is increasing the diversity among candidate pools for NBA coaching and front-office positions. Another focus involves the NBA and associated parties striking deals with black-owned businesses and arena vendors.