Black lives matter, white voices help
Bianchi: We are all united against police brutality, racial injustice.
Black lives matter.
And, right now, so do white voices. For perhaps the first time in many of our lifetimes, we are not only seeing black Americans uniformly speaking out loudly against police brutality and racial injustice, we are seeing all Americans speaking out against it.
We’ve seen thousands of black protesters and thousands of white protesters in more than a 100 different cities standing shoulder to shoulder, holding signs that read, “I Can’t Breathe” …. “Stop Killing Black People” … “No Justice, No Peace.”
In sports, we are seeing black NBA players and white NFL quarterbacks speaking out. We are seeing conservative college football coaches and liberal professional basketball coaches speaking out. We are seeing Gators and Seminoles speaking out.
Even Michael Jordan and Tiger Woods have actually expressed an opinion.
Sadly, it’s taken a white Minneapolis police officer coldly pressing his knee
into George Floyd’s neck as Floyd begged for air, lost consciousness and ultimately died to outrage us all. But maybe, just maybe Floyd’s killing will not be in vain. Maybe this is the one tragic death, unlike all the other unarmed black men killed after altercations with police, that will finally get all of us on the same side — the right side; not the white side.
“More people than ever before have become aware of the horror of racism by watching that video over and over again,” says Dr. Richard Lapchick, a white UCF professor and longtime human rights activist who is commonly considered the world’s foremost expert on race and sports. “One of the things that many oppressed people feel is that they feel alone in their struggle. When you have allies — whether it’s white people in this case, or straight people in LGBT issues or men fighting for women’s rights — you are always going to be stronger if you have a united group of people who cross all boundaries.”
Maybe for the first time in the recent history of our politically polarized, racially divided nation, we
are all united in our outrage. All you have to do is look around the world of sports at every level and you can see it for yourself.
Dave Langdon, a white athletic director at Trinity Prep High School, is spearheading a “Coaches for Community” walk of solidarity this Saturday at 9 a.m. at Lake Eola Park.
“Be the inspiration you were meant to be,” Langdon wrote in an email inviting Orlando area high school coaches to join him. “4th and 1 … you can punt or go for it. Let’s go for it.”
Anybody and everybody with a social media account is speaking out loudly in the aftermath of Floyd’s death. From UCF football coach Josh Heupel to FSU football coach Mike Norvell. From Orlando Pride star Alex Morgan to Orlando Magic CEO Alex Martins.
Leagues and conferences are taking action. The Big Ten has formed an Anti-Racism Coalition and NBA coaches have formed a committee on racial injustice and reform.
Former Orlando Magic coach Stan Van Gundy, a longtime Central Floridian and political activist, has been a white man fighting against institutional racism for years. Van Gundy, along with Golden State Warriors coach Steve Kerr and
San Antonio Spurs coach Gregg Popovich, are among the outspoken white coaches who are part of the NBA’s committee.
“It’s tragic, but our country has oppressed black people for its entire history,” Van Gundy says. “We’ve gone from slavery to the Jim Crow laws to unpunished lynchings of black people to mass incarceration to now the killings of unarmed black people by those who are trusted to serve and protect.
“… We can change laws, change police policies and change racism in the criminal justice [system] by the influence of powerful and wealthy people on government leaders. Steve Kerr said the other day this is a white people problem and he’s right. We’re the ones in power; we’re the ones who have oppressed blacks or stood by while others do. If the most powerful and influential — with their businesses and large campaign contributions — speak up and put pressure on our leaders then those leaders are forced to make changes.”
But what if the rich and influential don’t speak up? What if they don’t put pressure on our leaders?
“If the people who are in power or have power refuse to use their influence
to change policies and laws and make this a safe society for everybody, then the people have to do it through massive, prolonged protests to change public opinion and votes,” Van Gundy says. “Many of those who are denouncing today’s protests revere our founding fathers. Our country was founded [on protests] by staging the Boston Tea Party and then fighting a war to gain our freedoms — freedoms, which by the way, did not extend to black people.”
Van Gundy, as always, does not mince his words. He says this is not a black issue; it’s a human issue. He says black Americans do not have the numbers and voting power to make the changes on their own. Besides, he points out, it can’t be the responsibility of those who are oppressed to make the changes; it has to be all of our responsibility.
And while the proliferation of public protests and prepared statements of outrage are a great start, there has to be more. Nick Saban might be the most powerful man in the state of Alabama. He can’t just issue a statement, he has to use his influence to affect elections and lobby politicians. The same with Dan Mullen and Dabo Swinney and Bill Belichick and Jon
Gruden and Steve Clifford and every other white NBA, NFL and college football coach who has created generational wealth by coaching teams made up mostly of young black men.
“You always hear how we have to speak out and speak up, but what we really have to do is rally and promote and campaign for the leaders who will push for policies that will end the police brutality and the racial injustice,” Van Gundy says. “We have to let our leaders know that you’re either going to support these policies or we’re going to put our time, money and votes behind the people who will. If we’re not willing to do that; if we’re not willing to get out and do the dirty work, then this [killing of George Floyd] will be just another tragedy waiting for the next one to happen.”
Black lives matter.
And so do white voices like Stan Van Gundy’s and Richard Lapchick’s.
Listen to them.
We are lucky to have them in our community.