May 19

May 19 Showing Them Who We Are

Alsobrooks On CNN And ‘Basketball County’ Are Moments We Tell The Story

By Raoul Dennis

Prince George’s County was on the national stage at least twice last week. Like polar bookends, one represented pain and challenge and the other, hope and empowerment.

Prince George’s County Executive Angela Alsobrooks appeared on CNN May 13 to discuss the disparate impact of COVID-19 on Prince George’s – a wealthy, majority-minority county in Maryland. The network’s nearly two million viewers watched John King’s interview with Alsobrooks as she led him through understanding the geographic and economic specifics of who the county is and how it has come to this pitched battle with the virus.

Two days later, SHOWTIME aired “Basketball County: In The Water Where Greatness Lives.” The 60-minute documentary took viewers of its 29.7 million households on a journey through understanding the geographic and economic specifics of who the county is and how it came to be one of the nation’s most dynamic incubators for NBA talent—and about strong men from stronger families.

Basketball County was a good way to end the week for the county. Pushing through the pain of 50,000 unemployed, nearly 11,000 suffering from COVID-19, and more than 400 dead and rising at nearly nine people per day has our people hurting deeply. And, to make matters worse, county leaders are just at the beginning of what looks to be a fight with the state to get the support desperately needed. People are hungry, people are weary and people are frustrated with being passed over.

Basketball County went viral throughout social media in the DMV because the nation got to see what many folks here understood all along. The county gives rise to talent like an under-tapped oil field, seeping with richness but relatively unseen by those who aren’t looking closely enough. The raw power and talent of Bball virtuosos get spotlight because it’s on-screen and generates billions in revenue but Prince Georgian stars shine in every field, across every discipline and industry. One only needs to pay attention.

But that’s not the only reason all of us were excited to see the film.

Many of us saw the same thing in Basketball County that we saw in Angela speaking for the county on CNN just two days earlier. We saw Prince Georgian voices telling the story, shaping the narrative, and telling the history. These were not victims crying in the aftermath of a disaster, they are not the angry or the bitter, and they are certainly not hiding from the truth of the whole story. What we get from the County Executive on CNN and Jimmy Jenkins co-directing Basketball County (a documentary featuring and paid for by the efforts of other Prince Georgians) is the freshness of telling our story as leaders of the community from which we come.

As surprising as it may seem, that doesn’t happen often. Certainly, not often enough.

Both airings had another thing in common: simple pride.

And though they say pride goeth before the fall, in this case, as we fight COVID-19 with or without anyone else, a little pride can be the beginning of something we build on.