On Saturday, the Seattle Seahawks became the latest team in the NFL to cancel practice after the players voted not to practice amid the shooting of Jacob Blake.
Head coach Pete Carroll then told a Zoom audience of media and fans: “I’m going to talk to you guys about something that’s on my heart.”
For the next 14 minutes, the 68-year-old coach didn’t say one word about football, but described the pain and fear Blacks, including his Seahawks players, live in daily.
“They are crying out,” Carroll said.
Carroll spoke specifically to white Americans. He demanded people listen to Blacks.
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More of his speech via the News Tribune:
“It’s not that they’re not telling us. They’ve been telling us the stories. We know what’s right and what’’s wrong. We just have not been open to listen to it. We’ve been unwilling to accept the real history, and been taught a false history of what happened in this country. We have been basing things on false premises. And it has not been about equality for all. …
“This is a humanity issue that we are dealing with. This is a white-people’s issue to get over it and learn what’s going on and figure it out the issue to get over. And start loving. Everybody. …
“Our players are screaming at us: ‘Can you feel me? Can you see me? Can you hear me?’ They just want to be respected. They just want to be accepted, just like all of our white families and children want to be. It’s no different, because we are all the same.
“There’s a lot of people that don’t see it that way. But there’s a lot of people that do. And I’m hoping that from this point forward maybe there’s a new door to open for us, and we can walk through it together with the thought of doing what’s right.
“What’s right is treating people equally.”
He continued:
“White people don’t know. They don’t know enough. And they need to be coached up. They need to be educated about what the heck is going on in this world.
“The Black people can’t scream any more. They can’t march any more. They can’t bare their souls any more to what they’ve lived with for hundreds of years.
“Can you imagine how long Black people have hung on, with the belief that it’s going to be better?” Carroll said.
“Racism is out the door. Get rid of it.”
