Cal Basketball: Jaylen Brown Speaks Out After Capitol Riots, Jacob Blake Decision
Jaylen Brown and the Boston Celtics met prior to their game Wednesday night in Miami and considered walking out on the game after the rioting we all watched at the nation’s Capitol.
But it was more than that, coming a day after county officials in Kenosha, Wisconsin, made the decision not to charge the police officer who shot Jacob Blake, an unarmed black man, on Aug. 23, leaving him paralyzed from the waist down.
The Celtics-Heat game ultimately was played, but Brown and others in the NBA -- including coaches Steve Kerr and Doc Rivers -- spoke from the heart about the continued racial injustice they see in America.
“In one America, you get killed by sleeping in your car, selling cigarettes or playing in your backyard,” Brown said after the Celtics’ 107-105 win, according to the Boston Globe. “In another America you get to storm the Capitol. No tear gas. No massive arrests. None of that. It’s 2021 and I don’t think anything has changed. We want to still acknowledge that.”
Brown, who played one season at Cal in 2015-16, has emerged as an all-star level player but also a strong voice on social issues. He helped organize and lead a peaceful protest march in his hometown of Atlanta last May, part of a nationwide response to the police killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis.
Brown, 24, was among the most vocal players in the “bubble” during the NBA playoffs last summer, and players continue to wrestle with how to appropriately respond,, as Gary Washburn writes in the Globe:
In the bubble, the players boycotted games for three days following the Blake shooting and were only encouraged to play after hours of intense meetings between players, as they agreed that playing would bring more attention to their concerns.
That’s not necessarily the case anymore. While the Celtics and Heat carried out an exciting game that came down to the final seconds, the players still walked off the floor facing the same social climate as before the NBA bubble.
After the game, in which Brown had 21 points, 12 rebounds and five assists, he was asked by reporters for his reaction to what he’s seen this week.
“I don’t think any of us were really surprised, that what happened transpired today,” Brown said. “I think that America is kind of built on racism, that’s the foundation. We don’t even flinch or shift to any of those ideas.
“I think it’s (understandable) for a lot of people to be upset. All of us felt the same way but using this platform that we have is important to us. We are role models. We are members of our community. We do have people looking up to us and we want to know where we stand. We want the next generation to know hopefully it’s better than this one.”
As the past 50 years since the Civil Rights movement began in earnest has shown us, attitudes and behaviors aren’t easily changed. It doesn’t help when the President of the United States encourages his crowd with violent rhetoric.
Brown understands he and his fellow players can send their own message to an audience looking for hope.
“We want to keep those conversations alive,” Brown said. “We want to compartmentalize but at the same time we want to voice our opinions through the media, through our platforms to let people know this is not OK.
“There are people who have lost their lives that shouldn’t have lost their lives. Deadly force should be the last result in terms of handling an equation or problem.
“We’ve seen too many people on camera losing their lives and we have to explain that to our nieces, our nephews. It’s hard looking at them and telling them it’s going to change when it’s not. We want to continue to keep having those conversations.
“As athletes, our responsibility is more than being a basketball player. We’re not here to just entertain and go home. We are members of our community. Let’s just try to use our platform for good and inspire some great change.”
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Follow Jeff Faraudo of Cal Sports Report on Twitter: @jefffaraudo
