Coco Gauff: I don't think people should be dying in the streets just for existing'

"I think for me, it is tough to sometimes wake up and see something because I do care a lot about our country. I think people think I don't for some reason, but I do. I'm very proud to be American. But I think when you're from any country, you don't have to represent the entire values of what's going on in the leadership."

"For a long time, Gauff has shunned the shut up and dribble rhetoric that has been thrown at athletes who dare to speak out on social and political matters. At 16, she stood in a Black Lives Matter rally in her home town and gave a stirring speech in which she urged people to take action, exercise their right to vote, and speak up for social justice."

Coco Gauff follows US news while preparing for the Dubai Duty Free Tennis Championships. She finds it difficult to wake up to reports of harsh immigration crackdowns and protestor killings and said people should not be dying in the streets for existing. Gauff expressed pride in being American while noting citizens need not represent leadership's actions and she hopes the country will return to values of diversity and equality. Activism runs in her family; her grandmother helped desegregate Delray Beach schools in the 1960s and passed those values to her. At 16 Gauff spoke at a Black Lives Matter rally urging people to vote and act for social justice.

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