Athletics Kemp Takes to Instagram for a Conversation About Race
Tony Kemp keeps pushing the bar forward, so eager is he to create understanding about this country’s ongoing struggle with racial injustice.
The Oakland A’s second baseman’s voice was hear Friday in a Juneteenth Instagram Live program hosted by the club called “A Conversation about Race: Reflection & Action.”
A’s vice president of governmental affairs and Oakland native Taj Tashombe shared the floor with Kemp, interviewing and conversing with the infielder as part of the organization’s outreach to the community on the day set aside to remember the end of slavery in the United States on June 19, 1865.
“It’s a big change in society,” Kemp said when asked about the renewed conversations around race, racism and Juneteenth. “And to be able to move forward, I think that means changes are on the way. I think that’s is ridiculous (Juneteenth) isn’t already a holiday. We’re pushing for it, so we can continue to do these things and voice our opinions.
“We’re not going anywhere. And I think that’s important.”
Tashombe, who is one of those working on the A’s Howard Terminal ballpark project, said Kemp has been an inspiration even if he has just joined the Oakland organization. He asked Kemp about what the Juneteenth celebration means to him.
“This day is huge,” Kemp said. “Even when you say `Juneteenth,’ it gives me chills, because I know what my ancestors when through. And I think, doing the work that we are doing right now, my ancestors are looking down and I think that they are proud of the work that we’ve been doing.
“It's a big change in society, and to be able to move forward. I think that shows changes are on the way. I think it’s ridiculous it’s not already a holiday. We're pushing for it so we can continue to do these things and voice our opinions. We're not going anywhere.”
While Major League Baseball has been shut down, the three months of pandemic-induced baseball vacuum has seen Kemp become more of an activist.
The second baseman returned home to Nashville after baseball was locked down, and he spent much of May trying raise funds to help those hit hard in Nashville and Oakland by the COVID-19 pandemic and subsequent economic downturn.
In the wake of the George Floyd shooting in Minneapolis on May 25, he’s used his platform on social media to reach out, offering to be a listening post to anyone wanting to talk about race and racism in the context of 2020.
And he has created the “+1Effect,” a campaign he took public Tuesday. He’s made T-shirts and is offering them for sale with the proceeds going to Campaign Zero, an organization whose goal is decreasing police violence.
“If we can have this one person have a new perspective, then that person takes that forward, and they move on to the next person, that’s when you start to see a trickle-down effect of the +1Effect,” Kemp said. “And that’s how you begin to see a new movement and change in the world.
“And I think that’s what everybody wants to see.”
Friday’s Instagram Live program was the first in what is expected to be a series of conversations on race that will feature current and former A’s players, prominent community members and celebrities who either are from Oakland or who call it home.
The A’s organization has stepped up in the wake of the George Floyd death, with the A’s community fund making donations to the Jackie Robinson Foundation (https://www.jackierobinson.org/), Campaign Zero (https://www.joincampaignzero.org/), the NAACP Legal Defense Fund (https://www.naacpldf.org/), the Equal Justice Initiative (https://eji.org/) and the Oakland-based https://colorofchange.org/.
Anyone wanting to join Kemp’s movement can do so at http://BreakingT.com/Plus1.
Follow Athletics insider John Hickey on Twitter: @JHickey3
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