Jaylen Brown delivers powerful message on racial justice, John Lewis

Boston Celtics starting shooting guard Jaylen Brown delivered a powerful message in favor of racial justice, Brianna Taylor, and the memory of John Lewis.

Boston Celtics star shooting guard Jaylen Brown has made a name for himself as one of the most stalwart advocates for human rights in the NBA in his four-year career to date.

And, as a native of Georgia, it made sense to ask the Cal-Berkeley product if he’d ever met the recently-passed civil rights icon Rep. John Lewis.

Brown, after all, has been one of the most vocal and involved faces behind the push for a racial justice platform in the restarted 2019-20 season at the Disney NBA campus, and his native Marietta is just outside of Lewis’ home district in the state of Georgia.

“We never crossed paths directly, but indirectly we’ve crossed paths many times,” explained the outspoken young leader at Sunday’s media availability session, Brown quickly growing into a contemporary champion of civil rights himself.

“Just as a civil rights leader and a humanity leader his contributions not to just people of color but our society in general are appreciated and welcomed,” he said.

“[It] definitely was a tremendous loss hearing that he passed away yesterday. But, one of my favorite quotes is … “Don’t get lost in a sea of despair; be optimistic, be hopeful. The journey — or the struggle is not the struggle of a week or a month or a year, it’s a struggle of a lifetime. So don’t be afraid to be loud, to make noise, and to get in good trouble or unnecessary trouble.'”

“That that phrase speaks to me more than I can even explain with words,” Brown added.

“But to speak to John Lewis, to the legacies he left behind, is amazing. I don’t think words can be able to do justice, but Rest in Peace to John Lewis,”

The conversation soon drifted to the Georgian’s displeasure over the limits placed on pro-racial justice messages Brown had previously voiced being irked by.

“Pretty much was was the list is the list,” he explained. “I’m still contemplating on how I necessarily feel about what I should put on the back of my jersey.

“It’s kind of tough to epitomize like all the feelings and emotions and everything that you’re passionate about,” Brown offered.

“I’m still in the works, trying to figure things out,” he said.

“One thing that I thought I was clever, that I kind of gravitated towards was I saw … Jimmy Butler said he didn’t want to put anything on his jersey.”

“What I thought was clever with that is it potential, not having anything, [is] to play for the people that we don’t get to see every single day, or we don’t hear [their] names. We hear Brianna Taylor, we hear Philando Castile, we hear Ahmad Arbaury, Trayvon Martin. We hear all those names that we hear in the media because somebody was lucky enough to have a cell phone.

“But what about the people who didn’t have cell phone available at the time and experienced police brutality, they experience social stratification in education or not getting help in healthcare, there’s so many different things that go unnoticed, and it’s just bigger than what we see now. I think just police brutality is the tip of the iceberg.

“So being able to have an empty space and plan for some of those people that we don’t know their names, and we may not ever know their names, just because of … et cetera — I think that’s powerful too,” he explained.

Soon after, the presser seemed to end, and Brown appeared ready to get up and walk away.

He stopped himself, sat back down, and started again.

“I want to speak on Breanna Taylor,” began Brown. “I know it’s a it’s a hot topic in conversation I know a lot of people have chimed in and had their thoughts about it.”

“I guess where the line is drawn, or where the outrage of comes from it’s just, — you look at the case, you look at, since things have been settled down, Louisville has abolished the “no-knock” warrant, where now you have to knock if you have a warrant instead of just breaking into somebody’s home — and it happened to be the wrong home with Brianna Taylor.”

“I understand the protocol in officers that they have to follow, but I think a lot of people’s problems is not just with the officers; it’s with the establishment, the higher-ups … the problem is not just with the officers, it’s with what they’re being told to do.”

“For someone to have their home broken into and it not necessarily be the right home … we understand what the protocol is, but I feel like the protocols need to change, things need to improve. We see improvements being made, but I feel like continuing to have people speak on these things and continue to talk about them is going to be important.

“So equality is demanded and Black Lives Matter — and Brianna Taylor is an example of a Black life who was taken because of how the system has been laid out. We’re going to continue to protest, and going to continue to feel some kind of way about it. It’s unfortunate but now I think these conversations need to continue to be had, for sure.”

“Thank you guys,” he finished.

A powerful message for a moment in history in need of them.

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