It may be a cliche, but it holds true to this day - some things are bigger than sports.
While my professional life is centered around games and points, standings and statistics, there comes a time when the ills of our world need to be addressed directly. Why?
Because silence hasn’t worked.
So in late August, as unrest surrounding social injustice, inequality and police brutality in America continued, I felt it was important that our student-athletes of color at East Tennessee State be heard. Too often they are racially marginalized or viewed as mere entertainment rather than the intelligent, upstanding people that they are.
So I conceptualized an idea, developed and structured interviews for each of our guests, corresponded with leadership to gain approval, worked with our video team to create a set/look for the videos, and in mid-September, taping for Jerseys For Social Justice began.
During the three days of taping, we heard from six student-athletes on topics ranging from, amongst other things, how racism and social injustice has affected their lives, to how the last few months may have changed their view of the world, to what they think needs to happen to attain a more equal, fair and just climate in our country.
After hearing from the six featured student-athletes, three ETSU coaches talked about what they have experienced and seen in their lives on the same issues, and how those happenings have shaped how they lead and support their student-athletes. Finally, three interviews with ETSU’s top administrators centering around next steps within the department, and at the university, closed our conversations.
After those three days of taping, I assisted our video team in editing, wrote press releases for each video, handled social/outside media, and rolled out the first in the 12-part video series in late September.
Here is that first video in a series that culminated October 29 with the president of our university announcing the athletic department’s first-ever head of diversity, equity and inclusion.
The student-athletes, coaches and administrators that lent their voices and stories to this series were all fantastic. It was hard to hear the pain in their words, and eye-opening to hear about the oppressed world that many of them have to live in. The way people of color in this country are treated is unfortunate, sad and downright disgraceful.
The hope of this series was to give those that are on the wrong end of that treatment a platform to be heard, and to humanize these individuals so they are not only propped up on the field/court, but held in esteem as they walk among us in the community as well. Support can’t end when the buzzer sounds, it needs to be ever-present so marginalized communities can emerge from the dark period they’ve lived in throughout American history.
I don’t know if this series swayed anyone to reconsider their views on race relations, in fact I’d venture to say it would be a relatively big surprise if it did. But I hope that the momentum this series created continues, because behind all difficult conversations needs to be action. We took the first step at ETSU, now our new head of DEI and those that can affect systematic change are tasked with picking up where this series left off.
Whatever they need from me to continue the fight, I’ll proudly provide.
If you’d like to watch the entire Jerseys For Social Justice series, links can be found to each video at the bottom of this press release.