Doyel: 'I can't breathe' is more than a shirt — it's your perspective

The movement is coming, creeping closer and closer until it happens right here with the Colts or Pacers or Hoosiers. Seems a matter of time before someone around here, whether a player or an entire program, makes like Kobe Bryant and LeBron James and five St. Louis Rams and one Cleveland Brown and the Notre Dame women's basketball team — see, it's coming closer already — and wears a shirt that speaks out against the recent spate of deaths of unarmed black men at the hands of police.

What will you do then? What will you think? How will you feel?

Depends on your background, of course. Depends on your perspective. Depends on your race? Somewhat, sure, but let's not overgeneralize what is happening here. It's simplistic to call this a black thing or a white thing, and simple is no way to go through life. This isn't about black-or-white. It's about perspective.

LeBron shared his perspective before the Cleveland Cavaliers' Dec. 8 game at Brooklyn, about 15 miles from where Eric Garner died in July after being placed in a choke hold by New York police officer Daniel Pantaleo. The incident was caught on video, and Garner could be heard saying over and over, "I can't breathe."

Those are the three words LeBron wore on his T-shirt during pregame warm-ups Dec. 8. Same message worn two nights earlier by Chicago's Derrick Rose. Same message worn Saturday by the (some white, some black) Notre Dame women's basketball team.

Five players for the St. Louis Rams came out of the tunnel on Nov. 30 with their arms raised, a nod to the "Hands up, don't shoot" movement that arose after Ferguson, Mo., police officer Darren Wilson fatally shot Michael Brown on Aug. 9. Cleveland Browns receiver Andrew Hawkins wore onto the field Sunday a shirt reading "Justice for Tamir Rice and John Crawford," who were fatally shot by police after holding an air gun (Crawford, 22, in a suburban Dayton, Ohio, Walmart in August) and a toy gun (Rice, 12, in a Cleveland park in November).

That's the background. That's the movement making its way across America. Perhaps the movement among athletes is finished, here and gone as soon as it started, but you don't really believe that, do you? This thing has just begun, and both sides are entrenched. Within two days of Notre Dame's show of support for Garner, Mishawaka police officer Jason Barthel — who owns South Bend Uniform Co. — was offering a shirt that read "Breathe easy, don't break the law." Three South Bend Common Council members have asked Barthel to stop.

Which side in all of this do I think is right? I think that's the wrong question to ask, and an impossible question to answer. Before another word, understand this about the person you're reading: When I see police officers in public, I walk up and thank them. Every time. Happens at airports, happens at football games, has happened at Lucas Oil Stadium four times since the Star hired me in October. Indy cops: Ever been approached by a 5-foot-10 bald dude offering a hand and a thank you before walking away? That was me.

It's what I've done for years, not in response to Ferguson or any of the recent events that make me sick. And they do. They make me sick. Too many unarmed people, black in these cases, have been killed by police officers, white in these cases. That's a hard thing to understand. Especially when it happens repeatedly.

Who's right? Let me tell you something else about me. Been to marriage counseling a few times over the years, and the only tip that stuck was when the counselor said:

"Stop trying to be right. Sometimes, nobody's right. Sometimes, it's all about perspective."

And isn't that something? It's true when the issue is cleaning the house when I'm too tired — no she is! — after a long day of work. And it's true with the political stands being taken now by athletes. There's just no way for me with my perspective, the product of the clichéd American family — two parents, two kids, one cat, one dog — to see Ferguson in the same light LeBron sees it, or Derrick Rose, or you, or anyone.

This happened on Monday night. I'm at the Lakers-Pacers game at Bankers Life Fieldhouse, talking with readers at the IndyStar area on the concourse, when a guy who looked to be in his late 50s walked up and asked if I was the person who wrote about the Washington Redskins' offensive team nickname. What happened next took place without a single word.

I nodded.

He shook his head.

He was expressing disgust and also pity, because clearly I didn't understand that Native Americans who are offended by the word "Redskins" are wrong. What made him think he was right? No idea. He was a white guy from the 1950s, when high entertainment was cowboys shooting Indians on TV.

"I'm not sure I'm right," I told him, "but why do you think you are?"

"Because the Indians themselves don't care about the name," he said.

"Not all of them, no. But plenty do care."

"Those are the ones who don't have any money," he said, and walked off victoriously.

As for one raging domestic debate du jour, about athletes wearing those provocative T-shirts, don't ask me which side is right, though I'll tell you which shirt I wouldn't wear: The one from Mishawaka.

More germane, though, is another question:

Did the Notre Dame women have the right to their protest shirts? Does the cop in Mishawaka have the right to his?

Absolutely, in both cases. It's all about perspective. Try to remember that some day if your favorite team, your favorite player, comes out of the tunnel in the wrong shirt.

Connect with Star columnist Gregg Doyel on Twitter at @GreggDoyelStar or at www.facebook.com/gregg.doyel.