Disheartening lessons
Harvard seminar hits McCourty, Pats hard
It was an off day not fit for man nor plow but as snow lay in foot-high piles around Harvard Square and cars crept along icy streets battered by arctic temperatures on the morning of Jan. 5, Devin McCourty was making his way to a daylong “Listen and Learn’’ session at Harvard Law
School that had nothing to do with learning about who he might be facing a week later, when the Patriots were to begin their seemingly annual playoff run to the Super Bowl.
Joining him in Cambridge was a small but hearty band of teammates, Duron Harmon, Johnson Bademosi and Matthew Slater along with team president Jonathan Kraft, who for the rest of the day would have their eyes opened to the real reasons some of them had taken a knee earlier this season as the national anthem played in NFL stadiums around the country.
That act of silent protest against racial injustice and police brutality in America caused a stir, as it should. A movement begun by one man, the now departed and unfairly unemployed quarterback Colin Kaepernick, had morphed into a league-wide demonstration over conditions most NFL players understood all too well. Those protests created a moment of national discomfort for a nation in denial that increased when President Trump, catering to the country’s lowest common denominator and twisting truth into a pretzel, told a cheering Alabama crowd, “Wouldn’t you love to see one of these NFL owners, when somebody disrespects our flag, to say, ‘Get that son of a bitch off the field right now?’”
A week later Jerry Jones, a Trump supporter, himself took a knee because Trump had enraged even players who had to that point chosen to remain standing. Seeing a looming crisis, the Players Coalition was formed and it led to a league pledge to donate $100 million over the next seven years to various groups focused on bettering law enforcement relationships in communities and seeking solutions to ongoing problems of racial injustice, inequality in the justice system and other polarizing issues.
Yet, as McCourty was to learn that blustery day in Cambridge, those problems run deeper and are more endemic to the juvenile justice system and in many minority families than most of us know. Such as, you ask? Such as eight dollars. “When large groups of us took a knee earlier this season a lot of us didn’t want that to be it,” McCourty explained during a lengthy chat about the day-long meeting co-hosted by the Committee for Public Counsel Services and the Fair Punishment Project, a joint initiative of Harvard Law School’s Criminal Justice Institute and the Justice Collaborative at the Advocacy Fund.
“Listen and Learn’’ sessions were created in several NFL cities and when McCourty and his teammates sat down, one thing they heard was stunning.
“One of the first things that stuck out was that the net worth of the average African-American family in Boston was $8,” McCourty recalled. “That jumped out at everyone in the room. I thought it was a misprint at first.”
Who wouldn’t? What flows from that kind of grinding poverty became clear to McCourty, Kraft and the others as the day progressed and they heard from judge Gloria Tan, Boston City Council president Andrea Campbell, Rahsaan Hall, who directs the Racial Justice Program at the ACLU of Massachusetts, and a number of other local activists, law school professors, public defenders and a man named Jerome Pitts, who manages Haley House, a community café and nonprofit organization that among other things provides support for formerly incarcerated people returning to the community.
McCourty’s group not only listened about a harsh side of life too many Americans experience but also visited Haley House, getting a first-hand glimpse of what one grassroots organization can do with a little bit of help and a little bit of hope.
“You begin to understand the disparity (in opportunities) we as players wouldn’t think about,” McCourty said. “The first step is to educate ourselves, to get a really true understanding of what some people face.”
That process included learning how the bail system in Massachusetts unfairly impacts a family with a nonexistent net worth and that — while Massachusetts has a low incarceration rate for juveniles — it’s 46th (out of 50 states) for racial disparities within the juvenile justice system. Why?
McCourty learned how consistent neglect of the educational and welfare systems in America’s poorest neighborhoods has directly contributed to our warehousing the world’s largest prison population.
While Jan. 5 was a day off from the demands of pro football for the four Patriots gathered at Harvard Law School, there really are no off days for poverty and racial injustice. It seeps into the bones of a hungry child, who arrives at school distracted by an empty belly before the day even begins. Such a start too often doesn’t produce academic achievement but rather problems that eventually create a pipeline to the juvenile justice system rather than a college admittance form. From there it’s a slippery slope to a hard life.
As the day wore on and fact and statistic piled one upon the other, McCourty noticed Kraft coming up with names who might help and ideas that might bear fruit if given the time and money to blossom. He had never taken a knee but he was standing up with his players.
“You could see his mind racing,” McCourty said. “He was mentioning people he could call, ways to help with the reach he has. We don’t think these things can be changed just with a couple phone calls. We understand we have to fix relationships.”
McCourty said Slater mentioned the importance of improving relations between police and communities in poorer neighborhoods, where suspicion on both sides creates distrust, racial profiling and fear.
“When there’s a fear of people right from the start they become defensive and reactive,” McCourty said.
As a first step, the Players Coalition is setting up a program at the Pro Bowl where players will go through some police training and sit down and talk not only about problems but also solutions. That, of course, is the only way things change. When people talk.
“You hear some of the statistics and stories and it’s very saddening but there are a ton of people in the community trying to affect change,” McCourty said. “We as players want to do our part.”
One of those is Campbell, who told the players how she ended up in law school while her twin brother ended up in jail, unable to make bail. Thus began a spiral from which he never recovered.
“They were twins and ended up with two different lives,” McCourty said. “I’m a twin so that hit me. She went to law school. He died in jail. That was a sad story but it was encouraging to hear because she’s now in a position of change and we’re in a position where we can help raise awareness by using the NFL’s resources to reach people.
“We don’t want to make this a one-time thing. Education is important. We’re in a position to help turn a spotlight on things we think are wrong and need changing.”
McCourty admitted right now his focus is on the Jacksonville Jaguars and, hopefully, a trip to the Super Bowl in two weeks. But when the offseason arrives he and a number of his teammates are hoping to become agents of change standing up for a movement that began by kneeling down.