"She stood there with her Bantu knots and a megaphone addressing the crowd, discussing the fact that campus security was now going to be able to carry pepper spray. In the 90s which my daughter Baby Sierra calls the 1900s, just to keep me humble campus security carrying pepper spray was a big deal. Now, they all carry guns. The fear was that they'd use the spray on Black and Brown students without hesitation, at the slightest perceived sign of trouble."
"Syracuse's campus newspaper, the Daily Orange, printed a photo of myself and Roland Williams, who would go on to play in the NFL, standing at the rally alongside the sista with the megaphone. A few days after the protest, Kathy found me on the quad to thank me for lending my visibility and privilege as a basketball player to their cause. She said she seriously doubted the police would ever pepper spray one of us."
It was 1996, first day at Syracuse University, and a student protest opposed campus security carrying pepper spray. Kathy Ade, president of the student African-American Society, spoke with Bantu knots and a megaphone, warning that officers might use spray on Black and Brown students at the slightest perceived trouble. The campus paper printed a photo of the narrator and Roland Williams at the rally. Kathy later thanked the narrator for lending athletic visibility and said she doubted police would spray athletes. The university treated athletes as valued and welcomed while other Black and Brown students were treated like trespassers, repeatedly asked to show ID. Those memories resurfaced after a recent trooper interaction with South Carolina player Nyck Harbor.
Read at www.theguardian.com
Unable to calculate read time
Collection
[
|
...
]