Illini Center Kofi Cockburn on Racial Injustice: 'People Are Hurting'
CHAMPAIGN, Ill. -- Kofi Cockburn never saw racial injustice while growing up in Kingston, Jamaica. It’s hard to fully understand something you’ve never experienced firsthand.
Coming from the capital city of a Caribbean island where 92% of the population is Black, Cockburn rarely looked different than anybody else in his community. The sophomore center at Illinois said Thursday that, therefore, racial injustice wasn’t a part of life for him growing up in Jamaica. As a teenager, the only way Cockburn stood out among his peers was the fact that he and his older brother Nagash both stood 6' 7". Cockburn, who would eventually continue to grow into the 7-foot, 290-pound body that he possesses now as a star post player for the Illini basketball program, said he really didn't begin to figure out the impact of race relations until he moved to the United States to start high school.
“I’ve come here and saw especially how the Black male is treated here in America, it’s a bunch of stuff going on,” Cockburn said Thursday in a Zoom video conference with local and statewide media. “I feel like people are hurting. It’s like, put yourself in their shoes. What if that was happening to you or your family member? You would want to speak out eventually.”
Illinois center Kofi Cockburn was named the 2020 Big Ten Conference’s Freshman of the Year selection by both the media and coaches after averaging 13.3 points, 8.8 rebounds and 1.4 blocks while shooting 53.2% from the field.
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When he arrived in New York as a teenager with his mom, Cockburn immediately understood that his race, his height and frame, and even his accent made him different from his new surroundings in the United States.
In less than a year, Cockburn has witnessed and has had to process this country’s reaction to the coronavirus pandemic, the killing of George Floyd and the recent police shooting of Jacob Blake, along with the subsequent overnight shooting resulting in two deaths and one more victim in serious condition during a protest in Kenosha, Wis.
“It’s totally different from back home,” Cockburn said. “Back home growing up, racism wasn’t even in the picture. I come (to the United States) and there are words you can’t say to say to a specific race. Back in Jamaica, everybody is happy and everybody loves each other. Witnessing all these things first hand was really a game-changer for me.”
It’s during these times the Illini center wishes his new country was more like his native country from a social perspective.
“Let’s say one of these incidents happened in Jamaica where injustice was happening or somebody felt like they were being treated wrong, I feel like Jamaica would deal with the situation way differently,” Cockburn said. “Whenever something bad happens in Jamaica, I feel like the people as a whole will come together and tries to attack that situation to make it better. I don’t think that’s the case here. I think (in the United States) a lot of people stand up for it and a lot of people talk about it but nobody really takes the step to really change things.”
Cockburn, who turned down the opportunity to enter the upcoming NBA draft to instead return for his second year at Illinois, saw the strike of Wednesday night’s playoff game by the Milwaukee Bucks and the other teams that followed in the NBA and WNBA after the Bucks' decision not to play. The Big Ten Freshman of the Year selection said he was encouraged by what he saw from the NBA star players and the league Cockburn says he believes “will definitely one day” find himself playing in.
“A lot of the [NBA] players are speaking out about it and emotional about [racial injustice],” Cockburn said. “I think that’s really big because the NBA inspires a lot of kids. If the NBA does that, then the kids are really going to gravitate toward it. If the kids do that, hopefully the parents might do that too. Parents love their kids and if they see their kid is interested in it, it’ll probably help them make a better decision and look at it more seriously.”
Illinois center Kofi Cockburn (right) with forward Giorgi Bezhanishvili (left) going through a short fan video during Illinois basketball media day this past October.
Matthew Stevens/Illini Maven at Sports Illustrated
Along with being a projected top-15 preseason nationally ranked program, the Illini basketball roster for the upcoming 2020–21 season is globally diverse. Cockburn comes from Jamaica, while junior forward Giorgi Bezhanishvili was born in the country of Georgia, redshirt freshman forward Benjamin Bosmans-Verdonk in Belgium and four-star freshman point guard André Curbelo in Puerto Rico.
The COVID-19 lockdown and restrictions on one-on-one interactions has opened up the opportunity for Illini coach Brad Underwood and his staff to host several Zoom video open-discussion meetings with this melting pot of a roster.
“There’s times we’ll be put directly on a Zoom call with the rest of the team to express our feelings about what’s going on in the world,” Cockburn said. “I think that’s really big that Coach Underwood does that because we get to express our opinions and get to understand each other better. If you’re somebody like me from Jamaica or like Giorgi from Georgia, you’ll have a totally different perspective of what is going on. To listen to all these guys who have experienced it and been through this more, it’s big for us to get an understanding and look at from a different perspective, empathize and put ourselves in each other’s shoes.”