Tag: racism

Lions release a statement on “racism and social injustice”

The Detroit Lions have released a statement centered around racism and social injustice.

The Detroit Lions have put Phase 3 of their offseason training program aside in favor of discussions surrounding racism and social injustice, following the recent deaths of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, and Ahmaud Arbery (Lions safety Tracy Walker’s cousin).

Today, the organization released the following statement:

“The painful examples of racism and social injustice reflected in the senseless deaths happening in our country are incredibly disturbing and it is clear that immediate change is necessary.

Over the last several days, it was important for our team to gather virtually so that the pain, confusion, anger and frustration that people are feeling could be shared as we attempt to process what is happening around us. This range of emotion has consumed the time we have spent together as a team this week. Our internal conversations have been powerful and emotional. We will continue to listen, support our players and learn as we press forward together.

Right is right and wrong is wrong. What is happening is not acceptable. We recognize that the deaths of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor and Ahmaud Arbery are only the most recent examples plaguing our communities. Our club vows to expand on the work already being done in the Detroit community – through real action and conversation – to help our team make an impact in areas of great need. We have a duty to lead these conversations now and always, but it is equally if not more important that we continue to LISTEN. The events over the past week are a hurtful reminder that we have a long way to go with inclusion, diversity and equality for all people.

We have a responsibility to create positive change.”

Matt Patricia alters team meetings away from football and towards conversations on racism

The Detroit Lions were supposed to begin Phase 3 of their offseason on Monday but instead pivoted to player-led meetings surrounding racism.

The Detroit Lions were supposed to begin Phase 3 of their offseason on Monday but instead, they pivoted to player-led meetings surrounding racism and the current protests happening across the country.

Late Tuesday night, coach Matt Patricia spoke with MMQB’s Albert Breer and discussed how the team shifted their team meetings away from football in the wake of George Floyd’s murder.

After watching the video of Floyd’s death, Patricia told Breer that “Honestly, I was just disgusted, angry, sad, depressed. The range of emotion, you watch the video, someone being murdered and you’re like … I didn’t even know how to process it. And the range of emotion I know I felt in watching that was only one-tenth of a fraction of a minute percent of what my players must’ve been feeling.”

Patricia discussed how he knew he was out of his depth on this topic and that the best thing he could do for his players was to put football conversations on hold and allow them to share their thoughts, feelings, and experiences related to the current events.

“It was just about listening and making sure we tried to get on and open it up for conversation, real conversation, truthful conversation, honest conversation, heartfelt conversation,” Patricia said. “And really, honestly, credit to my players for leading that. They’re the ones that really were able to get it to where it became so powerful.”

The Lions held both large (120 people) and small (only position groups) meetings, giving players multiple ways to share depending on their comfort level.

After two days of player-led conversations, and an off day on Wednesday, it’s still a bit unclear when the Lions will get back to football but Patricia is confident his players will help him decide when it’s the right time.

“When everyone’s ready to talk and move in that direction of football, we’ll move when the team wants to move,” Patricia said. “I think the one thing to understand there—we won’t move away from the conversation. It’s just, at some point, you’re having the conversation and then you’re also working on what we do, which is football.”

The Lions have not yet made a public statement regarding the events surrounding Floyd’s death or the fallout since, but one is expected to be made soon.

Seahawks pledge to donate $500k from Equality and Justice Fund

The Seattle Seahawks released a statement on their website pledging to donate $500,000 to bring about change after George Floyd’s death.

The Seattle Seahawks released a statement on Monday in the aftermath of George Floyd’s death, condemning the actions of now-convicted police officer Derek Chauvin and pledging to donate $500,000 in grants from the Seahawks Players Equality & Justice for All Action Fund to yet-unnamed recipients, which the players will determine to spur action to end racism and crimes influenced by it.

“We stand with Seattle, and every community in uniting to help heal our society and overcome the hurt, anger and frustration through peaceful protests and acts of togetherness,” read the press release. “With that, to further aid in the solution the Seahawks players will begin the process of determining recipients for grants from the Seahawks Players Equality & Justice for All Action Fund in the amount of $500k.”

All eyes are still on the aftermath of the incident and what organizations in power will do to bring about change.

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Bobby Wagner commends Seahawks for letting players speak out

Seattle Seahawks linebacker Bobby Wagner commended head coach Pete Carroll and the organization for allowing players to have a voice.

The recent tragedy of George Floyd’s death and the circumstances surrounding it have shaken America to its core, extending to athletes around the country. This has led numerous NFL players to speak out against racism and the injustice it causes.

Seahawks coach Pete Carroll recently held a virtual chat with his players and allowed them to voice their displeasure regarding the troubling state of affairs. Linebacker Bobby Wagner praised Carroll and the Seahawks organization for their willingness to let his players speak their minds.

“I’m grateful we have an organization that understands,” Wagner told the media on Monday during an interview. “It’s hard for me to focus on football or focus on anything other than what’s going on. If you looked up from whatever you were doing, you saw what was happening.

“To have a platform and a situation where we can do that, I felt it was great.”

Wagner stressed that football is just a game and that life and its complications, particularly the severe issues at hand, will always be more important than a mere sport.

“At the end of the day, life is bigger than football,” Wagner said. “There are things happening bigger than football.”

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The Counter: All the things we could have learned from Colin Kaepernick

And yet still so many will not listen.

This is not to say that if Colin Kaepernick had been allowed to keep playing in the NFL — and kneeling during the national anthem — that George Floyd would have lived. Or that streets across America would have avoided the flood of sorrow and righteous rage that we have seen the last several nights.

It is only to say that if you did not listen then you must now try to understand why suffocating those sparks in 2016 and 2017 helped lead us here, to America on fire.

In the 12th episode of The Counter, Steven Ruiz and I recounted Kaepernick’s story — what should have been learned and why it wasn’t. His message should resonate more than ever, but the same people who obscured it then are using similar tactics to obfuscate or outright ignore the meaning of uprisings in Minneapolis and D.C and Brooklyn and Louisville and Raleigh and Indianapolis and Los Angeles and Philadelphia and so many other places.

Those who stifled Kaepernick still do not listen now. Yes, the NFL put out a bizarre statement vaguely addressing the situation, saying the NFL family was “greatly saddened by the tragic events” — without acknowledging what caused those events. The word racism does not appear in the statement. Nor does the word police. There is no reckoning here, and the league was rightfully castigated immediately by the internet and players. Charles McDonald of the New York Daily News dropped a scathing column that you should not miss.

A former league vice president, meanwhile, wrote a mealy mouthed mea culpa for CNN saying now was the time for an NFL team — namely the Minnesota Vikings — to sign Kaepernick. As if some sort of public relations “win” would have meaning now.

We also discussed inadequate responses from most NFL and college coaches and looked ahead to what needs to happen next: White men around the sport of football acknowledging the pain and fear that a majority of their co-workers have felt for their entire lives, and committing to being actively anti-racist as the difficult work of dismantling broken system commences.

You can find the show at these links, or listen below.

Apple Podcasts | Spotify | Stitcher | Google Podcasts | TuneIn

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See the powerful images of Celtics star Jaylen Brown leading a peaceful protest

Jaylen Brown took an important stance this weekend.

Boston Celtics star Jaylen Brown provided another reminder of how athletes have the power to elevate and inspire beyond sports on Saturday.

He drove 15 hours from Boston to Atlanta — a city that’s just 20 minutes from where he grew up in Marietta, Georgia — to lead a peaceful protest over racial injustice and the death of George Floyd.

During the march, which also included Pacers guard Malcolm Brogdon, rapper Lil Yachty (both Georgia natives), Brown walked with a sign that read: “I can’t breathe.” Both Floyd and Eric Garner, another victim of police brutality, uttered the words before they died.

Brown, the NBA Players Association vice president, addressed the marchers on a megaphone.

“This is a peaceful protest. Being a celebrity, being an NBA player, don’t exclude me from no conversations at all. First and foremost, I’m a black man and I’m a member of this community,” Brown said. “We’re raising awareness for some of the injustices that we’ve been seeing. It’s not OK.

“As a young person, you’ve got to listen to our perspective. Our voices need to be heard. I’m 23 years old. I don’t know all of the answers. But I feel how everybody else is feeling, for sure. No question.”

Many pro athletes have been outspoken on social media since the death of George Floyd. Former NFL quarterback Colin Kaepernick has been paying for legal fees for protestors in Minneapolis. Brown’s decision to lead and march in a protest speaks to his commitment. He organized and mobilized, and should inspire others to do the same.

The images of him in that protest are truly powerful.

Three of the Atlanta protest’s participants were arrested, and Brown seems to have identified those protestors in order to help them post bail. He was frustrated on social media that these protestors got “wrongfully arrested” at a protest where there was no violence.

We’ve seen various levels of engagement from coaches and athletes in the aftermath of Floyd’s death. An important conversation is finally starting. Brown, though, opted to take direct action and lead others to physically take a stand against police brutality and racism. It’s inspiring work.

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Brown, Kanter, Tatum continue to speak on Floyd death, riots

Jaylen Brown, Enes Kanter and Jayson Tatum continued to post about the Floyd death in Minnesota and subsequent riots.

Several Boston Celtics continued to post on social media their thoughts and feelings on the continued unrest in Minnesota surrounding the death of George Floyd as he was taken into custody by police in Minneapolis earlier this week.

The incident which sparked the nationwide outrage stems from a police officer using unsanctioned means of restrained including a chokehold and kneeling on Floyd’s neck.

Protests have since escalated, with rioting, looting, arrests — including reporters for CNN on the scene — and violence dominating the headlines as protests spread across the U.S. Wednesday night and Thursday morning.

Third-year All-Star forward Tatum posted a simple message of hands clasped in prayer along with a tweet seeking to contextualize the life of Floyd:

While outspoken Celtics center Enes Kanter railed against the arrest of the CNN reporting team — and lack thereof the officers involved.

Jaylen Brown posted several responses to the last 24 hours’ events, most notably a tweet from president Donald Trump suggesting those looting in Minneapolis would be shot.

Twitter, for its part, slapped a warning message over the tweet as part of an escalating feud between the social media giant and the 45th president of the United States.

The Georgia native also retweeted Los Angeles Laker Kyle Kuzma’s call for change:

And another tweet taking a hard stance on those who have chosen to stay quiet on such issues.

Finally, he posted a similar, more in-depth message on Instagram on the that topic:

“Being a bystander is no longer acceptable. If you and your friends are around or a witness of cultural biases, microaggressions, subtle acts of racism, actual racism … and you don’t speak up on it, or do something about it, you are part of the problem,” began Brown.

“We’re past the point where it’s like it’s not in your governing space, so you’ve got nothing to do with it. If you don’t speak up on these issues, you’re just as bad,” he added, along with a quote from Malcolm X:

“If you stick a knife in my back 9 inches and pull it out 6 inches that is not progress. If you pull it all the way out, it is still not progress. Progress is healing the wound that the blow has made. They haven’t pulled the knife out or much less healed the wound. They won’t even admit the knife is there!”

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The Counter: The NFL’s proposed diversity initiative is better than nothing

It’s ridiculous that teams need to be enticed to hire black coaches, but that’s where we are.

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So I’ll admit that, on Friday afternoon when the news broke, I recoiled at the idea that the NFL is considering a plan that would entice teams to hire (and retain) minority coaches and GMs by offering improved draft slots and additional picks.

The very idea that in order for black coaches — because that’s really who we’re talking about here; 70 percent of the league’s players are black but only three coaches and two GMs are — to get a fair shot they would need to be attached to other incentive is offensive. And ridiculous.

But it is also, I realized as the weekend moved on, where we are. The Rooney Rule, which stipulates that NFL teams must interview a minority candidate before filling a head coaching vacancy, hasn’t worked. Teams too often tick off that box by conducting sham interviews that neither give the candidate real experience pushing for a top job nor create an authentic chance for owners to truly change their thinking.

So this, at least, is something. It’s a real acknowledgment from the league that, without action, nothing is likely to change. Owners will reportedly vote on the proposal — which gives teams improved or added picks in the third and fourth rounds for hiring minorities as head coach, GM or QB coach — tomorrow. We’ll see then how they feel about it.

Steven Ruiz and I discussed our thoughts on this in the latest episode of The Counter, our NFL podcast. Some of the most nuanced insights on the subject came from Tony Dungy, who in a Twitter conversation ended up forcefully rebutting some of the flawed thinking around this topic while incisively explaining how the owners — whether they mean to be racist or not — uphold systemic racism by defaulting to the same type of coach over and over.

This is a complicated, layered topic and we thought it deserved a full show. Systemic racism has widespread and insidious effects that can be hard to see (especially for the many who are unwilling to even look), but examining how it plays out within the relatively contained world of professional football could* help illuminate a different side of the story for some people.

(*We are not overly hopeful about this, but, again, it’s better than nothing.)

We also discussed:

  • How the coaching pipeline — which requires young coaches to get low-paying but highly sought-after gigs — stymies black players from getting into the business.
  • The way stereotypes rooted in racism prevented black players from playing QB for so long, which in turn led to fewer black candidates rising in the profession. Ex-QBs generally make-up a third of the NFL’s head coaches.
  • Whether a coach who gets hired under the new plan should feel “tainted” because a team needed extra incentive to hire him. (The answer here is: Of course not! Because the other option is to just let the status quo continue and never get a fair chance at a job he’s actually qualified for.)

We’ll continue to cover this story this week as it unfolds, and I’m sure we’ll talk about it in future episodes, too. For now, you can find the show at these links or listen below.

Apple Podcasts | Spotify | Stitcher | Google Podcasts | TuneIn

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Serie A reveals its shocking, tone-deaf anti-racism campaign, which features pictures of monkeys

The artist said he created the artwork to ‘change people’s perceptions,’ and this is just a disaster.

The Italian soccer first division, Serie A, has faced intense public backlash over the past few months for its handling, or mishandling, of instances of racism with fans and the media.

It’s a major problem, one that Serie A officials have seem hesitant to address, or even acknowledge. Behavior of fans has been dismissed as the actions of a few bad apples, or not really that bad, or just Italian fans’ way of expressing themselves.

When a soccer newspaper labeled a matchup between two black players as “Black Friday,” it was again dismissed as people not being able to take a joke.

Finally, this week, Serie A announced that it was going to start taking things seriously. The league finally announced it was launching an anti-racism campaign and … they chose monkey imagery.

Seriously.

It’s a shockingly tone deaf response, and yes, it is real.

From The Daily Mail:

The artist is Simone Fugazzotto and he says he created the pieces to ‘change people’s perceptions’.

He said: ‘For an artist, there is nothing more important than trying to change people’s perceptions via their work.

‘With this trio of paintings, I tried to show that we are all complex and fascinating creatures, who can be sad or happy, Catholic, Muslim or Buddhist, but at the end of the day, what decides who we are is not the colour of our skin.’

Fugazzotto, it should be noted, is white.

Serie A apparently tried to get edgy here, or tried to re-appropriate the imagery that has been used to spread vile messages of racism at their games. It’s not the time, and they aren’t the people to do it. I’m sort of dumbfounded that this could even happen, but here we are.

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