WE ALL WANT TO CHANGE THE WORLD

Insights into social movements from an NBA legend.

When Abdul-Jabbar met Martin Luther King Jr. in 1964, he was “a skinny, seventeen-year-old basketball player” who never believed he could ever make a difference in the fight against racism. Yet that encounter proved crucial in his lifelong awakening to many faces of social injustice and the power of fighting back through protest. Assisted by longtime co-author Obstfeld, Abdul-Jabbar examines not only the Civil Rights Movement but also those that emerged alongside it that supported gay rights, women’s liberation, environmental protection, and an end to the Vietnam War. The greatest lesson he offers from his many years of activism is that no matter how urgent the need for change, “nothing happens right now.” Like the passage of the 1964 Civil Rights Act nearly 100 years after the end of the Civil War, change is slow and incremental. Yet even as society evolves through commitment to social betterment, Abdul-Jabbar also admits that discrimination and unfairness—which prompted the Black Lives Matter and #MeToo movements—stubbornly persist. But Abdul-Jabbar is never without hope. Throughout the book, he references his own personal evolution, which took him from dismissal of the women’s movement and a prejudice toward homosexuality to a social activism premised in the idea that “no one is free unless everyone is free.” With wisdom, compassion, and humility, this book reminds readers that the ideals of equality and justice are works in progress that each generation is tasked with transforming into reality.

A timely reflection on protest movements that also chronicles how a beloved champion came to political consciousness.