West learned about protests a long time ago
In a multi-part series, the Bay Area News Group will be discussing racial justice in America with former Warriors players from the last six decades.
When David West brought his 11-year-old son to a protest in North Carolina, he thought back to his days as a youth in Teaneck, N.J.
“I was 8 years old the first time I was at a protest in my hometown,” West told our Wes Goldberg. “It’s not something I’m new to.”
West, 39, ended his 15-year career with the Warriors in 2018 with back-to-back NBA championships, having played for New Orleans, Indiana and San Antonio along the way.
He has long had an interest in Black history, as well as psychology and philosophy. West was ready and willing to engage teammates and media in the exchange of ideas on the Black experience in America, and has been watching closely as the nation and the world cry out for social justice in the aftermath
of the videotaped death of George Floyd after a traffic stop in Minneapolis on May 25.
“I am in full support of the energy that’s with the people, people who are not seeking just to make noise but seeking to change a system to produce better outcomes,” West said.
In the “Locked On Warriors” podcast with Goldberg, West gives his observations of what progress is being made and how far there is to go with an issue that has spanned his lifetime.
Some highlights, with comments edited for clarity
and brevity:
THE LONG ROAD AHEAD
“I don’t want to act like what happened with George Floyd is some kind of eye-opening experience for me or my children or my family, because we’re Black people, we’ve lived in this country, we understand the legacy that exists in this country. George Floyd and this current moment is not just about this moment. It’s a culmination of moments.”
THE REACTIONS OF HIS CHILDREN
“Well, for (my son at the protest), I think the aesthetics of it, seeing the people, talking with him, he reacted to seeing things boarded up. I think to his credit, his young 11-yearold eyes, that was the most
stark thing about it.
“There was something on TV, my kids were a couple of years apart. It was a guy pulled out of a car, broken glass, it was really, really a big spectacle. My daughter (now 14) thought it was a movie. her mother told her that no, that happened to someone in real life. That’s when the veil came down for her. She was no older than 10.”
WHY THE BLACK LIVES MATTER MOVEMENT HAS RESONATED WITH YOUNG PEOPLE
“This group of young people, I think they’re just a little bit further away than the old guard of the sort that white establishment is comfortable with. They’re not growing up in isolated realities.
“Social media allows
young generations and young people that are intertwined in media to be connected and experience one another in a different way. So even if you’re living in a segregated community whether it be Black or white, you can figure out what’s going on and be tuned in to people’s lives and be plugged in.”
THE DIVERSITY OF THE PROTESTS
“I think we’re at a point where you have this large non-Black group that has seen the way the country is headed and they don’t like it. And they don’t believe in the nature of what America was born in.”
WATCHING THE GEORGE FLOYD VIDEO
“I haven’t watched any
one of those murders. The last couple of years, I really can’t tell you the last one I watched. I see still images. I listen to people’s commentary about it. Once I heard a couple of people describe it, your first thought is, `Again?’
“Black people are made to bear the brunt of the trauma, watching things like this, witnessing things like this. It’s starting to bleed over to the consciousness of non-African-Americans, the way people are responding to this still image of him just leaning on this guy and looking to the crowd. There’s a casualness associated with the way he took the man’s life.”
HOW THE MOVEMENT WOULD SUFFER IF THE NBA RESUMES PLAY
“I’m not saying that players shouldn’t play or sports shouldn’t resume, but right now, we need to be having town halls, we need to be having forums. We need to be structurally implementing things that would change the nature of this country for the better.
“It’s beyond people wanting to be entertained . . . I agree with the players that don’t want to be out there to be jesters and make sure attention isn’t being drawn from the serious dilemma that our society is in. It’s only going to serve to occupy people’s time and it’s going to divert media attention, the media energy and dissipate energy amongst the young people.”