Florida Gators

GAINESVILLE, Fla. — The Florida men's basketball team on Tuesday batted leadoff in the University Athletic Association debut session of "LISTEN, LEARN & ACT," a series of conversations with Gators teams, staff and student athletes to address the issues of racism and social justice. 

The webinar, which was available to all UAA employees, was billed as an "important moment for us in amplifying and more fully appreciating the student-athlete voice." 

The session was a candid talk that was viewed live by more than 170 UAA staffers, with the recording made available for those who couldn't join live.   

"This is chance for us to hear what they have to say to say, learn from them and understand their experiences, with the hope that out of this current moment, it can change all of us," Executive Associate Athletic Director Lynda Tealer said. "Not just individually, but as an organization, as a community, as a country." 

* The Black Lives Matter movement. 
* The definition of institutional racism. 
* Unwritten rules for African-Americans. 
* Micro-aggressions. 
* The prospects of hope. 
 

These were among the topics taken on by Scottie Lewis, Anthony Duruji, Noah Locke, Tyree Appleby and several other team members, as well as Gators coach Mike White's assistant coaches, all of whom are black. 

The remarks, at times, were strikingly candid. 

"I'm a tall black male. I have tattoos and dreadlocks, so I'm definitely aware of how people perceive me," said Duruji, the fourth-year junior forward who transferred to UF last summer from Louisiana Tech. "That's just the sad reality of how I have to navigate through society." 

Duruji, who is 6-foot-7 and 215 pounds, told the story of when he was a 12-year-old boy walking home at night from some basketball courts in his hometown. He was stopped by police, who asked what he was doing. When Duruji gave them his last name, they asked, "You got any weed on you?" 

That was nearly 10 years ago, but in recent weeks Duruji was out for a jog that took him through what he called a "white neighborhood." As he approached a couple, he gave them a warning that he was coming alongside to pass. They didn't hear him the first time. 

They did the second time. 

"They turned around frightened, like I was going to kill them or something," Duruji said. "I was like, 'Why do they have that fear?' Sometimes I think I have to assert my humanity based on assumptions. … Through those micro-aggressions, we keep pushing forward."

Some aggressions aren't so micro. 
Appleby, an Arkansas native, point guard and fourth-year junior transfer by way of Cleveland State, recalled the time he was pulled over in the car he was driving for failing to use his turn signal. Appleby had three friends in the vehicle with him. The officer, using a loud speaker, ordered Appleby from the car. Within minutes, he was handcuffed in the back seat. The cop, after a check of Appleby's car, said he smelled marijuana in it, then put the three others in cuffs. About a half-hour later, after his ride was searched, Appleby was issued a ticket for not using his turn signal. 

"It was a scary moment," he said. "But also kind of usual with things that are going on nowadays." 

And that was an impetus to this conversation; to put faces, using anecdotal moments, to the issues. 
 

Associate head coach Al Pinkins was a standout youth athlete in Camilla, Georgia, but as a quarterback had to fend off all the stereotypes that accompanied a black kid playing that position in the 1980s. He persevered and ended up signing as a dual-sport athlete at Auburn. Assistant coach Jordan Mincy was raised in Memphis, Tennessee, where his parents warned him about dating white girls because that might put him in harm's way. He carried that advice with him when venturing to play basketball at Kent State in Ohio, where his teammates, mostly northerners, didn't understand. 

What did Mincy learn? 

"Rules change through life experiences," he said. 

And assistant coach Darris Nichols brought an interesting moment to the forum, recalling last year when former UF staffer Dusty May bolted to become head coach at Florida Atlantic, leaving a hole on the Gators staff to fill. Both Nichols and Mincy assumed White would hire a white guy. 

White's response: "I want to hire the best guy." 

Nichols and Mincy, though, were thinking perception. In the coaching ranks — and the fan base ranks — they were viewed as good recruiters who could relate to players. The perception was the Gators' staff needed an X's-and-O's guy. An intelligent guy.

Translation: a white guy. 

"There are code words and you can see right through them," Nichols said. 

Lewis, the sophomore guard, already has organized a pair of BLM marches in his home state of New Jersey. He is passionate about the subject. He has studied it and is all too glad to talk about it. Lewis, in fact, is very good at speaking about a lot of subjects. "I've always been someone who is intrigued by words," he said. His ability to articulate issues is something that over his life, he says, has surprised people, with some responding by telling him he "sounds white."

Sometime code words aren't necessary. 

"Racism is not new, it's just broadcasted more. I can speak for all athletes in that we have a moral obligation to use our voice and platform, not just for the enrichment and quality of future generations, but to provide a voice for those who might feel silenced," Lewis said. "If you're someone who [is] just starting right now to pay attention to the racial injustice, then you're part of the problem."

If such is the case for some people, the Gators — from administrators to coaches to players to staffers — plan on advancing the conversation by putting some familiar faces on the issue in hope of orchestrating change.

"It's not a question of rewriting history, but creating new history. Can we do that? Are we going to allow ourselves to unify and start fresh?" Lewis asked rhetorically. "History repeats itself, that's what I'm scared about the most. That's why sometimes I'm extremely hopeful and other times I'm extremely hopeless."

Duruji is optimistic about what might lie ahead. His faith makes him so. 

"I have the hope that God changes the hearts of people because he's changed mine," he said. "As a black man, I'm going to seek and fight for justice and I'm always going to try to be the best person, [and] loving and forgiving to others whether you're black, white, Mexican, Asian, no matter what. But I hope for things that are unseen. I know there is going to be justice in heaven and in the days to come. Romans 12 says 'Rejoice in hope, be patient in tribulation, and be constant in prayer.' So my hope is that people's minds and hearts can change, and that we might truly see that tomorrow."