People need to step up, Raptors say
When faced with racism ‘use your platform,’ Powell asks public
It is the silence that has to be broken, and broken by many, and the time has come for that to happen.
Norm Powell knows it, he knows people feel racism and discrimination, but now they must speak to it. And act on it to correct it.
“I think a lot of people see the prejudice and discrimination, the racism that’s going on, and they don’t agree with it but they also don’t speak up,” the Raptors forward said Monday. “Speak up, use your voice, use your platform no matter what it is. Doesn’t matter how many follow you, what job you have. If you see wrong being done, that’s where you can be the most effective.”
Powell, along with teammates, other Raptors officials and countless athletes from countless teams in countless leagues is among those appalled at the death last week of George Floyd beneath the knee of a Minneapolis police officer, who has since been fired.
An autopsy commissioned for Floyd’s family found that Floyd died of asphyxiation due to neck and back compression, the family’s lawyers said Monday.
The former police officer, Derek Chauvin, has been charged with third-degree murder and second-degree manslaughter.
The Raptors, and the American public, have all seen the protests that have turned violent, they have recalled other such deaths— Freddie Gray, Eric Garner, Alton Sterling, Sandra Bland — young Black lives snuffed out and, as Fred VanVleet said Monday, they are fed up.
“It’s really unfortunate, even more unfortunate, we’ve seen this before, we’ve seen this movie before and I think people are tired, I think people are tired of the racism and tired of the discrimination and the abuse,” VanVleet said. “Unfortunately this man had to lose his life but I think it was a boiling point and people are just fed up.
“I think it’s time for a change and everybody’s seeing that. The curtains are being pulled back and you can see everything for what it is and see who stands where, and we’re going to have to move forward through this eventually but, right now, (there is) just a lot of emotion and rightfully so.”
Said Powell: “I know it takes an extreme to bring the light and bring actual, true progress and hopefully with this we’re able to take some big leaps and strides to a resolution to this.”
It would be wonderful to think this is the true tipping point, the one senseless death that galvanizes the world. But it will be not be easy. “The more and more people who come out of the shadows of being shy and afraid and timid of speaking their mind, the better it’s going to be,” Powell said.
“You see that now with people all over, really coming together and saying enough is enough … I think that’s the biggest thing.
“It’s not going to take one person to come out and speak and everyone’s … going to change. It’s going to be people in masses, in groups and it’s going to be not a day or two, (it’s going to be) weeks and months of consistent pressure put on people above that we’re tired and change needs to come.”
In a personal Instagram post put on the Raptors Twitter feed, veteran guard Kyle Lowry said he is trying to make sense of the situation and explain it to his sons.
“How can I explain to my fouryear-old and eight-year-old that being black (in America) comes with a chance you can be harmed or killed just because of the colour of your skin, the texture of your hair, the way you walk, anything they might want to say that makes you Black,” Lowry wrote.
“It’s sad because I can’t explain it. I will protect them until the day I die the best I can, but it’s going to be a time when I’m not there to take the fall for them so I’m trying to find a way to say just survive.”