Calgary Herald

STUNG BY RACISM

Wall calls for change

- DANNY AUSTIN Twitter: @dannyausti­n_9

Jamar Wall hasn’t forgotten exactly what it was like to have the guns of two police officers pointed right at him.

The Calgary Stampeders defensive back isn’t really the troublemak­ing sort. He’s never been arrested, he’s never been taken to jail and has barely got any parking tickets. He’s had to work incredibly hard to become a profession­al football player.

But none of that prevented him from being racially profiled.

“Honestly, if a black man says he hasn’t experience­d it, he’s a rare breed,” Wall said. “To have it where two officers have their guns pointed at you for, really, at the time it was uncertain as to why, and you’re knowing your life is in their hands and not knowing what they’ve been told … you don’t know what kind of day they’re having and all it takes is one pull of the trigger.

“It was scary. It was terrifying. It was the most terrifying time in my life.”

That specific experience isn’t why Wall marched in Monday’s Black Lives Matter protest in downtown Calgary, and it isn’t why he’s choosing to speak about the root causes of the civil unrest that’s going on right now in the United States.

Like so many others, though, Wall watched the video of George Floyd being killed by a police officer in Minnesota last week and was filled with sorrow, anger and the sense that somehow, something needs to change in the way black people are treated by the police in America.

Wall and his family have spent the off-season living in Calgary, so he’s not able to protest alongside his fellow Americans. He was at the massive Black Lives Matter protest on Monday, though, and wants people to understand where the anger that is fuelling the protests south of the border is coming from.

“(The racism) is coming out of the shadows. It’s been ignored for so, so long,” Wall said. “We hear people talk about peaceful protests, but where is the leadership? The one person who did that years ago — and people said he was disrespect­ing the flag — was Colin Kaepernick. He clearly said he wasn’t doing it to disrespect the flag or veterans, he was doing it to bring attention to something that’s bigger, and that’s the inequality in the black community.

“Now people are like ‘This is not the way to do it, why don’t you do it peacefully?’ but no matter what you do, you get ignored and people are tired of it. I was so proud of Calgary yesterday. There were so many people of all races. We’re tired of it.”

One step in bringing about change is communicat­ion, and that’s why Wall is choosing to speak up about racial injustice right now. He credited the police at the Calgary rally on Monday for their work, which was a sharp contrast to what is being seen at protests in many American cities where the divide between law enforcemen­t and black communitie­s is so wide.

“It’s fear on both sides (in the U.S.). Officers are scared to get to know people because of what they’ve heard and there’s fear (of police) from the black community,” Wall said.

“It’s so tense and it’s building because it’s not being communicat­ed. People are scared to talk about the subject, but we have to talk about it. That’s the only way we can understand it.

“I’m calling many people out on it. There’s no more being on the fence. You’re either for change or you’re not.”

Wall is hopeful that change is coming, although he’s doubtful it will happen overnight. Unlike the protests that erupted in 1992 after the policemen who brutally beat Rodney King were acquitted, he sees more people joining the black community in the U.S. and calling for an end to systemic racism. That’s important.

He also believes that the more people learn about the systemic injustices that have been inflicted on black Americans, the more people will join the call for change.

For Canadians looking to educate themselves, Wall suggested watching “13th,” Ava Duvernay’s 2016 documentar­y about race and mass incarcerat­ion in the U.S., which is available on Netflix.

“I just want to really encourage people to try to get an understand­ing, there’s a whole lot of history,” Wall said.

“Black History Month is only a little bit, but there’s so, so much more education out there. I’m educating myself, as well. I’m not going to say I know everything because I don’t, but it’s painful.

“It’s painful to see people get hung from trees at mass gatherings like it’s a sporting event. It’s painful to see body parts, people getting mutilated just because of skin colour. We can’t run from it. Nobody can run from it anymore.

“I’m challengin­g us, I’m challengin­g the (CFLPA and the CFL), I’m challengin­g everyone. I have kids, I have nieces and nephews who are fully black and need this.

“I’d just push people to educate themselves and push the people around them and push for change. We’ll never be a great nation, in the United States or Canada or wherever, we’ll never be truly great unless we make a change, and that change has to come from the community.”

(The racism) is coming out of the shadows. It’s been ignored for so, so long.

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 ?? AL CHAREST ?? Calgary Stampeders defensive back Jamar Wall says people need to educate themselves about racism and stand up against it.
AL CHAREST Calgary Stampeders defensive back Jamar Wall says people need to educate themselves about racism and stand up against it.
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