Track and Field

Time for a Change

N Our Voice By Sadio Fenner

Nick Burkhardt/Huskers.com

Watching George Floyd die was the tipping point.

There was no hearsay, rumors or conjecture surrounding his death at the hands of the police. It was out there in the open, front and center, for the entire world to see another black man’s life snuffed out in the streets.

When will it all end? How many black people need to die before people realize enough is enough?

As a person of color, I can honestly admit all of it scares me. The fear of me possibly ending up in a similar situation goes through my mind each and every day. But along with that constant fear is also a hope for change.

There are a 1,000 different ways people can help make that change right now. It’s different for everybody and dependent on their own comfort and strengths. But the biggest one starts with you.

Real change starts from within.

A Rally for Change

 

For me, that change meant standing up and speaking out on these issues.

The one thing that comes along with being a student-athlete, particularly a black athlete under these circumstances, is the fact that you have a voice. Whether you choose to use it or not is completely up to you. But the decision to not speak out –for me, at least—would have been sacrificing a rare platform that may not come along again.

The platform we have at the University of Nebraska is one few people are blessed to have in this country. There’s a lot of reach that comes with it, and people actually pay attention to what you do.

I choose to speak out because I want to make a difference. I want to help instill the foundation of something that the younger Huskers can follow when I’m gone. My goal is to pave the way for future leaders to do better than I’m doing right now.

And it all starts with the Minority Student-Athlete Collective.

In light of everything going on over the summer with police brutality and the murders of George Floyd and Breonna Taylor, there were a good number of people within the athletic community upset and willing to do something about it.

After speaking with our diversity inclusion director, we created MSAC and started enlisting members to try to push for some positive changes.

Change starts from within, right? Then what better place to start than within our own community?

We recently had a rally in front of Memorial Stadium, where people of all races came out in support of the fight against social injustice. I would have rather seen everyone under happier circumstances, but it was also really empowering to see the support we received.

Even for the non-MSAC members, the willingness to simply show up and be empathetic towards different experiences in this country can go a long way.

 

"But the truth is your voice matters. Even if yours is the only voice, that one voice can start the conversation to facilitate change. If you can reach one person and change one heart, you can help change the world."

A Voice to Be Heard

 

I hit on my own personal experiences with racism during the rally.

All of us have our own stories. I’ve been called racial slanders as a young adult, but I’ve also experienced those same feelings of helplessness, dread, heartache and frustration as early as kindergarten.

Granted, I didn’t fully comprehend it at the time but as I got older, I became more cognizant of what was going on.

In seventh grade, for example, we were reading “To Kill a Mockingbird,” which is set during a period when segregation and mistreatment of people of color was very prevalent. Being one of maybe two black kids in the entire class and listening to our white classmates read off some of the racially explicit language in that book was pretty uncomfortable.

But nothing hurt more than having to hear them repeat that same language outside of the classroom, thinking it was okay because they read it in the book.

Anger, shame and complete isolation—I can still feel and remember every emotion from that time period.

Yet, the worst feeling was acceptance of the fact that no one told them it was wrong.

Situations like that set the tone for why people are afraid to come forward and speak out on these issues. If the majority is doing the wrong thing, then the minority can’t really speak out against it. So many people fall victim to that common misconception.

But the truth is your voice matters.

Even if yours is the only voice, that one voice can start the conversation to facilitate change. If you can reach one person and change one heart, you can help change the world. 

What Can Be Done?

 

But education is a must to even start having those conversations.

I think we’d be further along if everyone understood the why behind the fight for equality. So many things can get misconstrued from a media perspective, especially if you limit yourself to one outlet. Not everyone has the ability to navigate through their personal bias and take in information from a bunch of different sources.

But that much is imperative if we ever hope to understand each other’s differences. It’s a must to get to the point where we’re building each other up instead of tearing each other down.

Donations are also helpful, particularly if you’re donating to local organizations. 

I raised $2,500 over the summer for a bail fund that helped get protestors out of jail. Those voices have a right to be heard as long as they’re going about their business the right way.

I wouldn’t recommend protesting for everyone because some people go for the wrong reasons. Some negative things can come from that, particularly with the rioting and looting that came over the summer.

I can’t support anything that goes against peace. Isn’t universal peace and equality the end objective in mind?

I refuse to lose sight of that.

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Hope Still Exists

I also refuse to lose sight of the hope for a better future, but it all comes down to communication.

A communications class at Nebraska taught me to be more cognizant of the way my messages come across. Some things that make sense to me through explanation may not make sense to the other person in the discussion. That can often lead to the other side completely shutting down and becoming defensive.

An inability to have an open-ended and respectful discussion kills any chance of a mutual understanding. It also ruins any possibility of one side ever being willing to listen to reason.

I believe real change is trying to understand each other in a way where we can come together in a calm manner and really delve into uncomfortable topics. Together, we can work to create a more inclusive environment for everyone.

There are a 1,000 different ways people can help make that change right now. 

What are you doing to facilitate that change in your own community? Are you standing up and using your voice or sitting in silence?

Those are the questions we all have to ask ourselves.