Joshua Perry’s comments on race and sports
“It really makes me excited (the formation of the Anti-Hate, Anti-Racism Coalition),” said Perry. “I think this is the importance of black leadership. And there are plenty of competent African American folks that could be in leadership positions that may be overlooked. When you see — when you have someone that looks like you be a champion for your voice and for all the things you believe in, I think it’s important to recognize. And having a coalition like that is obviously very important.”
“And the Big Ten Conference is very diverse — from big cities like Chicago — and Columbus, Ohio is a bigger city — you know, places like Happy Valley that are a little bit more isolated. You get all kinds of people from different walks of life. And I think the ability to coach the administrators and coach the coaches, but also to affect the student-athletes and to let them know that they have a support system is big. I think just overall for the conference to taking a lead like that is very important because I’ve said it before, but sports fans are very finicky.”
“They’ll cheer for people when they’re dunking the basketball and when they’re scoring touchdowns, but when the cheering stops after that three hours, how much do they really care and support the people they were just cheering for? So I think this reinforces that thinking that we’re dealing with people within the sports, and we’re dealing with people within the administration and all those different things. Having resources is key.”
Well said Mr. Perry. It’s great to see when a student of the game becomes a student of life and passes that knowledge on to others.
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