The Michael Jordan Controversy: Innocent or Guilty?
On February 15, Michael Jordan’s NASCAR team, 23XL Racing, won the Daytona 500. With driver Tyler Reddick winning it all during the final lap of the race, it was a great moment for Michael Jordan, especially since it occurred just two days before his 63rd birthday.
Unfortunately, moments after the victory, during the celebration, a viral clip emerged. This clip featured Michael Jordan interacting with the son of Tyler Redduck, the champion. However, many people across the world viewed this interaction as inappropriate, as it looked like Michael Jordan was touching the child’s lower back area, close to his buttocks.
This clip spread like wildfire, and many started to accuse Jordan of harassment on the child. People that looked up to him as one of the greats now held a different opinion on him as a person.
“I think that was a very inappropriate thing to do, and it was very disrespectful to that kid. I don’t even view him as the same anymore. My opinion on his basketball skill obviously doesn’t change, but that has nothing to do with his character. I used to look up to him, but not anymore,” said junior Dylan Cole.
This is only one voice out of the many who are criticizing Jordan, but after new footage, there are mixed opinions on whether or not Jordan owes an apology. With new footage and explanations after the clip went viral, people now know what Jordan was truly doing. Contrary to the popular belief, all he was doing was getting ice out of that kid’s shirt, something harmless and innocent.
And combining that with the response of Tyler Reddick, who claims that he sees Jordan as family, many people have put the dots together to claim that Jordan is innocent and wasn’t harassing that kid like the internet tried to make it out to be. However, this controversy highlighted the ongoing issues within social media.
Social media and the internet has a tendency of taking things out of context to shape their own stories. This is how false news and narratives develop. Algorithms pick up and spread content that gives off strong emotions, like Michael Jordan potentially being a pedophile, for example. When more and more people see this type of content and make content of their own with the same information, it increases the odds exponentially of false news going viral.
This is why when viewing content on the internet, it should be taken with a grain of salt, even if the person posting the content is a verified source. Most are fishing for views, and often aren’t double checking to see if the information they are posting is true or not.
“I think it was suspicious, but I think context is needed before we accuse him of something like that because of how severe the consequences can be if the accusations are true. There could be a logical reason as for why he did that, but if we jump to conclusions we wouldn’t know the reason,” said sophomore Brandon Clark.
This response to controversy is exemplary. Every time a new controversy comes out, we shouldn’t be ignorant, but we should wait for more evidence before saying drastic things that can possibly ruin someone’s life. As the legal principle states, “innocent until proven guilty.”
