Mack Brown and Carolina athletes took action over the weekend to combat racial injustice

The social climate in this country has been hot, andit’s only getting hotter with each passing day. Sure, we’d love to purely focus on sports right now, but it’s hard to do so when there is such a high amount of unrest in the US. Mack Brown, much like Coach K and Roy Williams, has taken notice to this, and over the weekend he decided to share some words of his own.

Carolina football’s Twitter account released Mack Brown’s message to fans about racial injustice, and what he feels needs to happen moving forward.

In the video, Mack Brown posed perhaps the greatest question that there is to ask about the issue, considering that there is so many events that have transpired for decades that haven’t been caught on camera:

“Enough is enough. Let’s call it as we see it: racism remains a huge issue in this country and around the world. When you see the images and videos that we’ve seen in recent months, the first thing that jumps to my mind is how much haven’t we seen? How many times has a black man or woman been unjustly harassed, assaulted, injured, or killed?”

Mack Brown also went on to lay out just how different black lives are from those of different ethnicities, as he discussed how not all walks of life are afraid of the safety of their children as they leave their homes, aren’t concerned with their kids getting their driver’s license for fear of what would happen in a traffic stop, aren’t concerned about what might happen while out jogging, and many more examples. Perhaps the most important part of Brown’s message was asking for anybody that doesn’t like the message to just listen. Right now many people are boycotting businesses and sports teams because they are unwilling to understand the point of Black Lives Matter and instead see it as a political issue, or think that racism has somehow disappeared from this nation. I can tell you from my own experiences that racism is very much alive and well, and it’s never been clearer than it has been over the last couple of months.

During Brown’s press conference yesterday, he stated that he had a meeting with his players and asked them their feelings on everything that has been happening. After giving their responses, Brown asked them to help him become more educated so that he could represent them in the video that was posted. He once again emphasized the need to listen and learn, so that life can be better for everybody.

Another event that took place this weekend was a protest on campus with student-athletes from various sports participating.

The Black Lives Matter protest in Chapel Hill was one of a couple protests that took place amongst the Triangle schools. Duke also held a rally of their own on their campus this past Thursday. We’re likely to see more and more students speak out against racial injustice on campuses across the country, provided that they are on campus during the restrictions that are in place due to COVID-19.

Carolina athletics has done an excellent job of speaking up against the racial injustice issues in America. It’s a good time to remind ourselves that Hall of Fame coach Dean Smith himself spent a good amount of his career fighting against racial injustice, and even recruited the first ever black UNC scholarship athlete, Charlie Scott. He was never afraid to stand up against discrimination, and he would be extremely proud of everything that the athletics program has done in recent weeks.

Yes, the social climate right now is as hot as it’s been in a very long time. However, we must not let misunderstood rhetoric, politics, propaganda, and consipiracy theories get in the way of remembering one important thing: we are all humans that deserve the same rights and safety as our fellow man. Being black or white shouldn’t be a determining factor in how people are treated in this country, especially by police, and we are long overdue to put a complete stop to racism once and for all. If you don’t want to say those three words, then the least you can do is say this: racism needs to die. For those who don’t think racism still exists, I will simply re-state what Mack Brown has said many times over the last few days.

Listen.