The Conversation

Do Black lives really matter to you?

Black athletes carry the weight of the Heritage with them. Others, especially white ones, do not, and it has been yet another way privilege has shown its face and given cover to them. They still have that luxury right now, to not say anything about the recent murders of Ahmaud Arbery in Brunswick, GA, as he was jogging through a residential area and given chase by a trio of white-armed vigilantes, Breonna Taylor (shot 8 teams in her own home) and George Floyd (choked to death in the streets) at the hands of police, in Louisville, KY, and Minneapolis, MN, respectively, but if/when they do stay silent, they are, for the first time, at this grand a scale, being called out for it. More have spoken up this time around but a whole lot more still haven’t. And it’s not just white athletes, it is also the coaches (college and pro), GMs, owners, commissioners, media, heads of corporations. They are on notice: we will remember those of you who said nothing and more importantly those of you who did nothing.

Growing Up Biracial in the Deep South

I am biracial, I grew up in Louisiana …still a state that operates like a plantation. When I was two, I went to daycare for the first time with mixed races. One particular day my mom picked me up and one of the workers (black) told my mom I thought I was white and wouldn’t play with the black children. Odd because most of the children in my family are brown-skinned.

I grew up very aware of the racial divide. Black and white people went to the same schools but didn’t intermingle much.