“Dear Mom — you taught me right; you taught me the importance of an education,” he began.
“You taught me to always do my best and you told me to do it with patience so I could hear your voice loud and clear,” shared Boston Celtics forward Jaylen Brown in a video for The Undefeated in which he dedicated a message to his mother for her role in sparking his activism.
Brown has taken on active roles in fighting inequality in society, particularly systemic racism in education — even participating in a fellowship with Harvard to that end.
And now we get a window into how the Cal-Berkeley product became so engaged, and so interested in fighting for a better world for others.
“You taught me to do my homework, my research — and then use my voice,” said Brown to his mother Mechalle Brown, who earned a Ph.D. from the University of Michigan while raising Brown and his brother Quenton as a single parent.
“Mom, you taught me to use my own experiences and to learn from things that I’ve seen,” explained the Celtic wing.
“It was your lessons that allowed me to question inequality, inequality in education — and challenge and encourage the growth that we still have yet left to do. Your lessons have allowed me to learn that there are a group of people that are comfortable being that dominant group, and some people might think there’s nothing wrong with the world, and that it should stay the way it is.”
“I’m one of those people that challenges that, and thinks we still have a lot of growth ahead of us,” he added.
On Jaylen Brown, and the spirit of Thanksgiving https://t.co/4cGNzxtmzk
— The Celtics Wire (@TheCelticsWire) November 26, 2020
As a budding NBA star, Brown has become a leader in the league, and the Players Association as a Vice President, and as a private citizen working as hard behind the scenes as he does on the biggest stage to use his platform to help others.
“Mom, you taught me right, you taught me the importance of education,” Brown continued.
“Now, I hope I can continue to question inequality — inequality by design, inequality and education, and to work together with those who care like us, lesson by lesson to make a difference. Mom, I love you — thank you.”
We think it’s fair to say he’s off to an outstanding start in those goals.
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