Few words spoken by college football players have ever been so important.
“All lives can’t matter,” said the Alabama football team, “until Black lives matter.”
That is the last line of an essay on equality by Alabama football player Alex Leatherwood, and it was used for a powerful team video on June 25. The essay is still featured on the main Twitter page for Alabama football, and it’s also still ringing from the Denny Chimes inside my head all these days later.
What a statement for the university.
What a message for the state.
With literary brilliance, Leatherwood crafted words that now speak for a new voice in this country. They are so beautiful, and the video is moving in a way that transcends sports. Do not undervalue the significance of what has happened here.
We can’t let this moment slip away like a summer friendship.
They tried so hard to keep Black people out of the University of Alabama, remember? Can the state try that hard now, finally, to do the right thing and make improving Black lives a priority?
We are still shackled by our hateful past in so many ways. The building where they teach English at Alabama is still named after a grand dragon of the Ku Klux Klan.
Independence Day is my favorite holiday of the year, but I know for a lot of Black people it’s a day of resentment. Facing that hard truth might hurt, but that’s what the Alabama football team is talking about in their message.
Watch the video again on this Fourth of July. Listen to the voices of America’s best college football program. Hear Nick Saban, the greatest coach in the history of college football, say “in this moment of history, we cannot be silent.”
He has never been a more impactful teacher, and a better leader than in that moment.
Woke Saban might be my favorite new superhero.
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Silence is violence, Saban is saying. Systemic racism can no longer be ignored. That’s the overarching message of the Black Lives Matter movement, and that’s the theme that Leatherwood captured so poetically with his inspired prose.
“We must speak up for our brothers and sisters,” Saban said.
Amen.
And Roll Tide.
It is so easy for people to wall themselves off from the struggles of someone else, and especially people of the same demographic as Saban. It is uncomfortable for many white people to even talk about race. Have you ever heard a white person whisper the word “Black?” If you are white, then yes you have.
Like saying “Black” is some kind of insult or something.
Oh, and then there’s the famous line we all learned growing up: “I don’t see color.” Wrong. Yes, you do. You just don’t have the courage to acknowledge it.
“I don’t see color,” is just another way of turning your back to a problem.
“All lives can’t matter,” said the football team from Alabama, “until Black lives matter.”
Put those words on the schoolhouse door. Etch that line into the cornerstone of Alabama’s new football facility. They are historic, and a glowing light of justice pointing the way to a new path forward.
College athletics have their problems, sure, but they still inherently bend towards the collective good. This summer, student-athletes are learning how to be leaders of this country, and they haven’t been in a classroom in months. The coronavirus pandemic has put everything on hold, but the upshot there is that it has given us time to think.
I had an insightful conversation with Florida State legend Charlie Ward this week, and I asked him why student-athletes aren’t always this engaged on their campuses. Is it a culture created to keep student-athletes silent? Is it a trend? Ward said I had it all wrong.
Student-athletes are just always too busy, and now they’re not.
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“They always have something to do,” said Ward, who coached Leatherwood in high school, “and now everything has stopped. You have more time to think about things going on.”
Ward is so proud of Leatherwood’s essay, but he says what really reached him in a way he wasn’t expecting was the video. Everyone came together to support Leatherwood’s cause.
We have all had time to think these last few months and reflect on this country. People like Leatherwood and his Alabama teammates are now trying to help it heal. We are all better for it.
Joseph Goodman is a columnist for the Alabama Media Group. He’s on Twitter @JoeGoodmanJr.
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July 04, 2020 at 07:46PM
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Alabama football confronts hard truths - AL.com
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