Presti on racial injustice: We often take steps to soothe but fail to heal

Oklahoma City Thunder GM Sam Presti spoke on racial injustice and police brutality, saying meaningful change takes more than listening.

Oklahoma City Thunder general manager Sam Presti opened a conference call with reporters with a long statement about racial injustice.

The full quote, in a tweet from ESPN reporter Royce Young, is above.

Some important sections of the message are quoted below.

We take steps that sooth but fail to heal

“I don’t really have the words. I don’t have them. But I don’t think that’s necessarily a bad thing, either, in these situations, because I think what we need more now that words are actions. And the steps that we often take in these situations often revert to short-term solutions to what is really a problem that’s plagued this country for centuries.

“The steps that we often take are steps to soothe, when, in fact, what we’re doing is failing to heal, and I think that’s something that we as a national really need to let sink in.”

Listening isn’t about soothing, it’s about action

“The goal of listening is not to soothe the listener — it’s to equip the listener to act and to lift those up that are doing the speaking, in this case our black community that is voicing the real issues of social mobility, police brutality, socioeconomic disparity. These things are part of the fabric of our country, and I think that we also have to take heart that it’s also part of our responsibility to work to effect them in a positive fashion.”

It’s not enough to believe in equality

“Conversations are extraordinarily important, but I think the most important conversation that all of us, myself included, need to have is a conversation with an audience of one, that audience being yourself.

Where do you stand on the issue of race and equality in the United States? It’s not enough for all of us to believe in equality. It’s what we’re willing to do to sacrifice to battle the racism that threatens equality.”

Keep working even when the anger is gone

“When the protests dissipate and slow and the anger turns to sadness and sorrow, that is when the work of an organization like the Thunder or any organization should be building to its crescendo. That’s when we should be doing our best work, so we can make this meaningful and not just short-term.”

Meaningful change

“Meaningful change doesn’t come from listening alone. It comes from the lessons learned from that listening, and what do you do with that to pull other people up, to recognize the bias in yourself and to throw yourself into the action and the sacrifice that’s necessary to affect the future.”

Accountability

“I would ask everyone to hold us accountable in this area and to what I’m saying, because I believe we’re going to be able to make scalable change going forward.

“I’d like to think and I really, truly believe in my heart that the Thunder is all about bringing people together, and it’s about lifting people up, and those words are hollow, obviously, until the actions consistently back that up, and we’re prepared to do that.”

Starts with a conversation with yourself

“It’s obviously an extraordinarily sad time for us as a country, but we have to think longer, harder, and be willing to go further than we have in the past, all of us, but it starts with a conversation of one and builds on from there.”

[lawrence-related id=433431,433415,433388,433366]