The world has come together to protest the killing of George Floyd while he was in police custody in Minneapolis, Minnesota. There have been protests in all 50 states ad everybody comes together to protest the fact that police brutality and racism are still real issues in 2020.
Philadelphia 76ers forward Tobias Harris has done his part by participating in a protest and a march on Saturday in the city and he has posted and shared messages on social media, but now he has opened up even more.
He has gone to the Player’s Tribune to express his feelings in a long-form way and he wants people to acknowledge the elephant in the room: racism. It still exists and it still is a real issue in this world.
Harris writes:
Don’t try and make excuses, or say this isn’t about race. In a lot of my conversations with white people lately, I’m getting that statement over and over again: “Let’s stop making this about race.”
That’s easy to say when your brother or your father is not that person on the ground with someone’s knee on his neck. Your brother, son, father is not that person running away, getting shot at, in broad daylight.
I really just want to tell those people, Shut the hell up — because this IS about race.
It’s always been about race.
And if we dig really deep, this also about HUMANITY.
If you can’t acknowledge that, then I can’t really have a dialogue with you
Another hugely important aspect is the fact that people do not want to listen. People are always hearing what others have to say, but they aren’t exactly listening–there is a big difference there. This is a conversation that needs to happen for the world to seriously move forward.
Harris adds:
It’s about preaching this message of how you feel about what’s going on in the world. You see a lot of stuff that’s going on with the riots, but many people are out there protesting PEACEFULLY because we want CHANGE.
On Saturday in Philly, it was about a togetherness of people pushing out a message. And that message was really about respect. It was about people respecting others, and understanding their hurt and their pain.
And we gotta keep it going — if not out in the street, then in our own circles. We gotta talk about what’s really going on. We gotta use our platforms to the fullest.
We gotta make it so you might not want to hear us … but you damn sure gon’ listen.
The message by Harris is a powerful one as it is time to stop talking and listen to the people who go through systematic racism on an everyday basis. This is an issue that has gone on in America for too long now. Now is not the time for the “but we don’t know what happened”, this is the time to have a serious dialogue and move forward together as a country. [lawrence-related id=32516,32509,32495]