Football coach says it’s time to stand up
Iwanegbe’s impromptu address at rally was off the cuff, straight from the heart
Cyril Iwanegbe wasn’t planning on speaking at Sunday’s anti-racism rally in downtown Vancouver.
The UBC Thunderbirds defensive backs coach only heard about the local protest stemming from George Floyd’s death in Minneapolis just before it was scheduled to begin.
Iwanegbe was adamant he had to be there, and hustled to get to the Art Gallery just in time to hear the opening remarks.
Once there, Iwanegbe was adamant he had something he wanted to get across to the assembled group. He worked his way through the crowd, got to the organizers and talked his way into getting a chance to address the 1,000 or so in attendance.
His push to “stand up” and to believe that “enough is enough,” was both off the cuff and straight from the heart. You can find it on his Instagram page.
Iwanegbe was born in Nigeria. His family moved to Brooks, Alta., when he was 14, looking for a better life. He says he’s regularly experienced racism. He says if you think it doesn’t exist in Canada you’re kidding yourself. He wanted to make that clear in his Sunday speech.
“I understood I needed to be direct, I needed to be quick and I needed to get what I wanted to say across,” said Iwanegbe, who goes by C.Y. in his day-to-day proceedings.
“I knew I needed to speak on the topic of ‘standing up.’ It’s not in the sense of creating this violence. It’s in the sense of creating awareness. The problem is that racism isn’t an act. It’s systematic. It’s the way the system has defined things. This colour is considered dangerous, ugly, not good enough.
“When you see that cop’s knee on George Floyd’s neck, it wasn’t just a cop killing a man or just a white man killing a black man. That was a sign of pure evil. He showed no remorse.
“My thing is that we’re facing something bigger than black or white. This is hate or love. This is good or evil. For change to happen, it’s going to take everybody understanding.”
Iwanegbe, 26, played defensive back for the University of Calgary when current UBC head coach Blake Nill was in charge there. Iwanegbe moved to Vancouver with his wife Stephanie a little over a year ago, reconnected with Nill and joined the T-Birds’ staff as a part-time assistant coach.
Iwanegbe has a bachelor’s degree in economics from Calgary. He was a U Sports academic all-Canadian during his time there.
He’s currently the director of training at Studeo Vancouver gym. And he says there are times that he feels like people are making assumptions about him.
“As a black man with dreads, I can’t go down the street mean-mugging people. When I walk, I have to express some level of smile, just to let you know ‘Don’t get on guard, I’m good,’” Iwanegbe said.
“I go into a corner store or a grocery store, I have to let the guy at the cash register know, ‘I see you see me. I’m not going to touch what I’m not going to buy.’
“It’s a stigma I’ve dealt with my whole life. I know if I’m out for a walk at night, just listening to my music, I cannot come close to a white lady. I don’t want her to feel afraid. I have to create space. I have to speed past, just so she knows that I’m not trying to do anything.”
Floyd was taken into custody over allegations that he tried to pay a bill at a local deli with a counterfeit $20. Iwanegbe contends that a white woman being arrested for murder wouldn’t have been treated the same way as Floyd. Think about that for a second.
“If he had his knee on a white woman’s neck, every cop around him would have stopped him,” Iwanegbe said.
He admits these conversations can be difficult to start and equally hard to continue. He says they also need to keep happening.
There’s another anti-racism rally on Friday at Canada Place. He wasn’t scheduled to speak at it as of Thursday morning, but said “if the opportunity presents itself, I will definitely say something.”
“This is trending right now. At some point, it’s going to trend away. That’s the reality. The question is: While it’s trending, how many people can we get to change their thinking?” said Iwanegbe. “There’s an opportunity right now to speak up, to learn, to teach, to rally, to hear other stories.
“So many people want to help now. So many people want to do better and be better. With that, I believe that we also need mercy. When I say that, I’m a believer in God. I believe that we need grace. We need to give people grace in how they express their involvement.
“I have white colleagues who say, ‘I’m trying to find the right words. I’m trying to find the right picture. Is this OK? Is that OK?’ We need to free people from that fear.
“Guess what? There’s no perfect way of putting it. The reality is that it’s going to take courage to stand up. We need to give all people that chance.”