Dear Mr. Cuban

Earlier this year, a interview with NBA Owner/Investor/Businessman Mark Cuban was published by Inc.com. During this interview, Mr. Cuban made some very controversial comments in regards to stereotypes in the world. Shortly after that, I started writing lyrics to a song I titled "Mark Cuban". I initially planned to release the song as a bonus song on my upcoming project The Stage Is Set. I had no intentions to release the song this soon, but with the recent an unfortunate shooting of Ferguson teenager Mike Brown who was unarmed and gunned down by a local police officer, I felt like it was an important time to create dialogue and conversation about not only this tragic situation, but it's an important time to revisit the subject of stereotypes and prejudices in our world. This isn't a shot at the character of Mark Cuban. I'm actually a fan of Mark Cuban. He's a visionary and forward thinking person an as a avid NBA fan, I respect what he has done for the Dallas Mavericks organization and what he brings to the league. However, this is a response to comments Mr. Cuban made in that interview with Inc.com. "We're all prejudice in one way or the other. If I see a black kid in a hoodie an it's late at night, I'm walking to the other side of the street" Is a direct quote from the interview. He then followed that up by saying "If on the other side of the street, there's a guy that has tattoos all over his face..white guy bald head tattoos everywhere I'm walking back to the other side of the street". Do I think Mark Cuban is a racist after those comments? NO. But it's that type of thinking and mentality he speaks of that sometimes create tensions between people from different races and backgrounds. It's those type of stereotypes that sometimes lead to altercations that could have been avoided. An on a bigger scale, it sometimes leads to innocent kids losing their lives at the hands of Authority Figures who are suppose to serve and protect the community. People such as Oscar Grant(Oakland,CA 2009), Trayvon Martin(Sanford,FL 2012) and most recently Mike Brown(Ferguson,MO 2014) just to name a few. I didn't write this song with an attempt to capitalize on current news. And this is not about Black vs White. This is more about the thinking and mentality behind these stereotypes that played a part in the death of these young men. I wrote this song with the intentions to create dialogue around a problem that is becoming bigger each day. And that problem is Black Youth being stereotyped and viewed as a threat to society. I do agree with Mr. Cuban that we've all stereotyped someone before, whether it's our own race or another. But the majority of those times we're wrongfully stereotyping someone. So I think it's important we create conversation on how to fix this problem. If we don't do it soon, we might be talking about another kid losing his or her life because they "fit the description" or someone thought they were a threat.... The song will be released in the upcoming days...  If you want to view the clip of that Mark Cuban/ Inc.com interview...click the link here Mark Cuban Interview