Michael Rose-Ivey Press Conference Quotes

Nebraska Football
Weekly Press Conference
Memorial Stadium (Lincoln, Neb.)
Monday, Sept. 26, 2016
Pre-Illinois

Senior Linebacker Michael Rose-Ivey

Opening Statement
“First off, I want to say my name is Michael Rose-Ivey. I’m a student-athlete at the University of Nebraska and I want to thank Coach (Mike) Riley, the administration and this university for allowing me to step out and speak on my beliefs on my own behalf. I want to thank you guys for being here and listening to me. As everyone is aware, this past Saturday before the game against Northwestern DaiShon Neal, Mohamed Berry and myself kneeled in solidarity with Colin Kaepernick and many other athletes across the country. Those professional and unprofessional who are standing together to use their various platforms to bring awareness about police brutality and the recent deaths of black men and women at the hands of police officers. While the anthem played, I prayed along with DaiShon and Mohamed. We asked God to watch over us and protect us, and to look down on this country with grace and mercy and to look down on all of us with grace and mercy. You see, we are not perfect beings. 2 Corinthians 3:5 says ‘Not that we are sufficient in our own selves to claim anything as coming from us but sufficiency is from God.’ As we looked at what has been going on in this country the injustice has been taken place primarily against people of color and we all realize there is a systematic problem in America that needs to be addressed. We felt it was our duty to step up and join the chorus of athletes in the NFL, WNBA, college and high school using their platforms to highlight these issues. We did this understanding the implications of these actions, but what we didn’t expect was the enormous amount of racially hateful comments we received from friends, peers, fans, members of the media and others about the method of protest. While you may disagree with the method, these reactions to it further underscore the need for this protest and gives us just a small glimpse into the persistent problems of race in this country and the divisive mentality of some Americans. To make it clear, I am not anti-police, anti-military, nor anti-America. I love my country deeply and appreciate the freedoms it professes to afford me. I have travelled outside of the United States, I have seen how people live in other countries with my own eyes. And though I’ve endured hardships as a kid and didn’t grow up with the whole world in the palm of my hands, as a conscious being, I am able to recognize that there are people out there who are in a much worse position than I am. I find it very concerning how some of my fellow Americans cannot do the same when it comes to these issues. Unfortunately, I cannot turn a blind eye to injustice. As Dr. King once said ‘Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere. The hottest place in hell is reserved for those who remain neutral in times of great moral conflict… (an individual) who accepts evil without protesting against it is really cooperating with it.’ So therefore, I believe it is my job, first as a man of faith, which teaches me ‘for what you do for the least of my brothers, you have done for me. And second brothers, you have done for me.’ And second as a young black man, who sees people who look like me being unfairly treated, who do not have the platform to let others know about these injustices that go on every single day. I feel I am obligated to stand up and bring awareness to the social injustices that are not limited to police brutality but also to policies and laws that discriminate and hinder the growth opportunities of people of color, low income people, women, and other marginalized communities. Again, there are issues in this country that need to be addressed. There are issues in this country that can no longer be pushed off onto the backs of another generation. For me, I look at it like this: Do I want my kids to be a part of that and have to endure the same struggles that we do today? No I don’t. So, it is my job to work to make this world a better place for the next generation. It is disheartening to see that the same social injustices that the likes of Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Malcolm X, Bob Marley, Tupac Shakur, Ghandi, WEB DuBois, Susan B. Anthony, Nelson Mandela, Thurgood Marshall, Maya Angelou, Jackie Robinson and Muhammed Ali amongst others have spoken out about since the birth of this nation. As a young black man, I cannot hide from these realities. As a child of the most high, I cannot hide from my responsibilities to be a voice for those who cannot speak loud enough to reach those who can help change their reality or the voices that continue to be ignored or muted. Those who are continuously told it is their fault that their problems exist, that only if they do better then they will have better. That if you just pull up your pants, etc. you can fulfill your own ‘what if’ but it’s not so simple, it’s not so clear. I can say that with confidence because even though I have done better, even though I am a college graduate, even though I am blessed and fortunate to play college football at the highest level and at one of the most prestigious schools in college football, even though I am a healthy being and even though I am fully conscious I have still endured racism. I am still referred to on Facebook and Twitter as a clueless, confused (expletive deleted), who by my former high school classmates, friends, peers, and even Husker fans. Some believe Daishon, Mohamed and myself should be kicked off of the team or suspended, some say we deserve to be lynched or shot just like the other black people that have died recently. Another believed that since we didn’t want to stand for the anthem that we should be hung before the anthem for the next game. These are actual statements we received from fans. People assume this is just internet talk but I can tell you from my own experience at this very institution, at various other college campuses within the past four years that racism is still a problem that must be addressed. I can’t tell you the numerous amount of times I’ve heard the “n-word” being shouted at my teammates and I from opposing fans behind our bench. My freshman year I remember going to a frat party and was told ‘(expletive deleted) weren’t allowed in this house.’ We were escorted out several minutes later by security officers. People want athletes like Daishon, Mohammad, and myself to remain silent and just play football. However, we cannot ignore what we’ve lived. We, as black athletes, cannot remain silent. We are fully aware that football consumes only a small part of our lives. As we are often reminded, football will not last forever. These issues are bigger than football. These issues are bigger than me. These issues are bigger than you. These issues are bigger than all of us because it impacts all of us, whether you believe it or not. We must have accountability, we must have understanding, we must have love, but we also must have genuine dialogue that finds genuine solutions and demands genuine action. We must demand that from ourselves, we must demand that from our family members, we must demand that from our friends, we must demand that from our schools, we must demand that from our police officers, we must demand that from everyone in this nation. That is everyone’s role as a conscious human being. I believe that we are supposed to look for one another and call out the injustices in this world against the oppressed, even when you have nothing to gain and everything to lose. America is a great place, despite the ugly blemishes. I love that I am able to wake up and worship my God, without fear of persecution. I love that I am able to express my viewpoint and I am protected by Constitution of the United States. This is what makes America great. But I cannot also ignore those things that keep America divided. I believe in the promise of America, that all men are created equal, have the right to liberty, justice and equality but unfortunately America doesn’t always live up to these ideals. So in the words of James Baldwin, ‘I love America more than any other country in this world, and, exactly for this reason, I insist on the right to criticize her perpetually.’ It is my hope that in taking a knee, the consciousness of the entire nation will be raised and everyone will be challenged to truly come together and work towards fairness, equality and justice for all. We have an important role. We all have this responsibility. God Bless.”

On what he said to his teammates pregame
“I thought they received it pretty well because they knew I was coming from a genuine spot. It wasn’t something that I just showed up one day and talked about. You guys follow me on Twitter, you guys see what I talk about. This is nothing new for me, this isn’t something new I’ve experienced or I’ve been talking about or bringing awareness to. I think for them, as they respect me as an individual, they also respect me as their brother and as their teammate and I think they took it very well. I did my best to not step on toes and to say my words correctly because I understand how sensitive of a subject we are talking about. We are talking about a sensitive subject, we are not talking about people’s feelings, we are talking about lives. I think it has to be a bigger importance on that and that’s kind of what I shared with them on Saturday and I believe they took it very well. Since I’ve done that, there’s people coming up that have been talking to me and saying ‘What can I do? What is my role?’ So, people telling me, ‘it does nothing, it’s a gutless action,’ how? It’s a conversation starter of what can I do? What am I gonna do now, how can I help? So I think they took it very well.”

On Head Coach Mike Riley’s approval
“I thought it was very important, that’s the leader of our team. That would be very disrespectful if I just showed up Saturday morning and told him ‘Hey, I’m gonna do this.’ I think that would be very disrespectful. I approached Coach Riley after our dinner and talked to him and he said it was fine and to talk to the team and let them know so I have to give a lot of credit and respect to Coach Riley and his wife, both of them really encouraged me to do this because they believe in us as individuals and our own individual minds. We are a team, our whole goal is to be united in the football aspect and also off the field, and we are. Just because we have a difference in opinion or a difference in action does not mean we are different. It’s just an opinion. We can still come together with commonalities and goals that we are connected on. This is just one thing separate but it doesn’t mean we are divided totally.”

Have you heard from any other athletes?
“I’ve gotten support from other athletes just saying what I’m doing is the right thing and I will say this: To the people that have messaged me privately and told me they support me I really do appreciate that, I really do. Because reading the stuff that I got and my family got and the stuff my mom had to see after the game to see if we had won or not on Facebook and to see the things she had to see about her son, that really crushed me on the bus ride to the airport, I’m not gonna lie. I just want to say I appreciate my teammates and I appreciate those people that took the time to say they support me and even the people that said didn’t agree with what I did but they support me for doing what I did and taking that stance. I want to say thank you, publically because that really picked my spirits up. Saturday night I was not feeling good about anything with what I had seen or what my family had seen.”

On the aftermath
“When you hear people say they support you, that definitely feels good. Especially in those low moments when it seems like the negative outweighs the positive. People that really took the time out to message me directly and just putting it out there and those irrational opinions and views. I put more value into stopping that than I do in the stuff that they put out there just to put out there. I definitely appreciate those people who took the time out to message me.”

On the Illinois game
“It’s a whole different team, whole different year. We have new players in positions, they have new players in positions. They have progressed in certain areas and we have progressed in certain areas so for us it’s about going out there and playing this year’s opponent. We can’t think about last year. We’re definitely watching film for reference of course and to get to know them a little better as the week gets going. We look forward to playing this year’s version of Illinois and playing as this year’s version of the Nebraska Cornhuskers.

How do you embrace the ranking?
“You don’t. At the end of the season if you look back and say well ‘we embraced it in week four, week five but we lost the rest of our games it doesn’t matter how we embraced it now. First, we’ve just go to focus on this game.”