U of W hoops team rallies against racism
Winnipeg — “My skin is not a threat.”
That’s probably the most powerful line in a video produced by Black athletes at the University of Winnipeg, released this week.
The video comes after women’s basketball player Kyanna Giles began watching another video but couldn’t stomach finishing it.
It was the cellphone video of the police killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis.
“My heart just dropped all the way into my stomach,” Giles, 22, told the Winnipeg Sun. “I watch it to a certain point, and then once it gets too graphic – I just can’t. I think, ‘What if that’s my brother? What if that’s my father? What if that’s my cousin, my grandpa?’
“I can’t even imagine how their family members feel watching that video.”
For Giles, an education student who grew up in Winnipeg’s inner city, Floyd’s public execution was the tipping point.
But she could feel the world was off kilter before that.
“Everything that was happening in the States … I was waking up every morning just crying, because I was just so upset,” she said. “There’s something that needs to be done. I can’t just sit back and see it happen. Being a role model in my community, it has to start with me. Being a black female athlete, it has to start with me.”
Giles called her coach and suggested the university release a statement condemning racism and supporting its Black students.
Given the heavy wheels of university bureaucracy, the response wasn’t exactly immediate.
“I kind of felt betrayed by the university,” she said. “Because they didn’t say anything. I was the one who had to push for the university to come up with something, which is not right. You guys should be wanting to get out and show support, especially because you have Black athletes, Black students.”
The university ended up going one step further, with a three-minute, 26-second video that’s direct and to the point.
Showing Floyd’s name at the start, and following with other victims of police brutality — 12 in all — the final product includes audio clips of news reports, cellphone footage of police/ protester clashes and photos from marches across North
America, including one that attracted thousands in Winnipeg.
Just over a minute into the video, the voices change, as Giles and four teammates take over the script, alternating lines.
“The painful reality of racial inequality is being documented daily in front of our eyes,” is one part narrated by Jillian Duncan, a 19-year-old daughter of Jamaican parents.
Duncan says when she got wind of the project, she was all in.
“After witnessing all the things that were happening in the news, I immediately knew it was something I needed to be a part of,” she said. “Even if it was just in a small way, I wanted to be part of the movement and have my voice be heard.”
Duncan grew up in South Winnipeg, a less diverse part of town than Giles is from.
Like Giles, she felt eyes on her and saw staff or security following her when she’d go into a store.
“It’s something I’ve always been aware of,” Duncan said. “Even my parents have told me I have to be careful, because I’m the odd one out. I stick out. So, I have to always be extra cautious in everything I do.”