Thank you again for your participation in our Virtual Athletic Summit. As promised, we will be ending our time together with a crucial conversation around race and the role of athletics. For us to not take the time and address this in an open, raw and vulnerable way would be egregious to the spirit of this effort and the needs of our students, coaches, school communities and nation. As a high school principal of nine years and a father of four, the recent events that have occurred have weighed heavily on my heart with a host of emotions ranging from hurt and frustration, to rage and bewilderment. Even as I have prior relationship with our panel members, the fact that this conversation made me so incredibly uncomfortable was a sign for me to go into that discomfort with humility, vulnerability and honesty in hopes of modeling the way for so many of you who are on the front lines with so many unanswered questions in time of great polarity. Please join us as we “go there” and tackle the many complex issues surrounding where we have been, are currently and where we aspire. As a white man, I feel incredibly exposed and hope that this will encourage many of you to “go there” with me and engage our respective communities with love, grace and an open ear. The pain is real. The time is now.
Michael Roe
Michael Roe
I see that people are posting or saying that they’re confused, but when you read through the list of gamut positions that are being taken, it doesn’t seem like there’s confusion. It seems like people have taken certain stances. @KeyishaHolmes @LIOVirtualAthleticSummit @MichaelJohnRoe
We’re always going to be in conflict and in a state of flux until we get to the point where we can go introspective and examine our unexamined assumptions, beliefs, biases, and prejudices. @KeyishaHolmes @LIOVirtualAthleticSummit @MichaelJohnRoe The intellectual courage to do is to go inward and say, "What do I really believe about this?" @KeyishaHolmes @LIOVirtualAthleticSummit @MichaelJohnRoe Even if we find that our belief system is in opposition to what might be the prevailing expectation, we need to have safe spaces to come in to and say that. @KeyishaHolmes @LIOVirtualAthleticSummit @MichaelJohnRoe You don’t know what you don’t know.@KeyishaHolmes @LIOVirtualAthleticSummit @MichaelJohnRoe If you don’t have partnerships and relationships with people that you can go to and say, ‘On my own, I’m probably going to jack this up. I really need help understanding and developing a discourse about this topic because it is uncomfortable.’ @KeyishaHolmes @LIOVirtualAthleticSummit @MichaelJohnRoe Since I grew up in South Central Los Angeles, I wasn’t able to integrate into relationships with non-African American or Latino people except for during athletics. @KeyishaHolmes @LIOVirtualAthleticSummit @MichaelJohnRoe For me, I wouldn’t be here if it wasn’t for athletics. It was a way to give me the opportunity to navigate through this system. @VDLHSRavens @LIOVirtualAthleticSummit @MichaelJohnRoe Sports is supposed to be the great equalizer. Kaepernick received blow back in terms of him standing for inequality and disenfranchisement. @VDLHSRavens @LIOVirtualAthleticSummit @MichaelJohnRoe Where we’re at in this time is like, where do we go from here as individuals? I know a lot of people who are kind of discouraged in terms of where we’re headed. @VDLHSRavens @LIOVirtualAthleticSummit @MichaelJohnRoe For instance, the statement that Drew Breeze made in terms of him kneeling for the flag. He really missed the whole premise of what African American men are trying to do. You work with African American men every single day. @VDLHSRavens @LIOVirtualAthleticSummit @MichaelJohnRoe For me, this in an opportunity for people to see. @VDLHSRavens @LIOVirtualAthleticSummit @MichaelJohnRoe Sports is the great equalizer and it isn’t. Until we start recognizing and understanding race, and understanding the disproportionality of everything, I think we’re going to continue to miss it. @VDLHSRavens @LIOVirtualAthleticSummit @MichaelJohnRoe We don’t help each other move throughout this system. We want to be the ones that are on top. @VDLHSRavens @LIOVirtualAthleticSummit @MichaelJohnRoe This is not about just White people understanding but Black people understanding too. @VDLHSRavens @LIOVirtualAthleticSummit @MichaelJohnRoe Kaepernick put his whole livelihood on the line. Imagine if all athletes did that until things changed. You’re working for these billionaires and the billionaires are the ones who are running these organizations. @VDLHSRavens @LIOVirtualAthleticSummit @MichaelJohnRoe If all athletes did that, things might change. They’re not going to want to see all their dollars go away. @VDLHSRavens @LIOVirtualAthleticSummit @MichaelJohnRoe If we come to a point where we start thinking globally in terms of how we’re going to create change, the only way we can do that is if we get on board and we start shutting stuff off that we know is important to the people that have the money.@VDLHSRavens @LIOVirtualAthleticSummit @MichaelJohnRoe We can talk about this and it’s good to talk about it, but until we start making some headway, we’re going to be doing this for another 30 or 40 years. @VDLHSRavens @LIOVirtualAthleticSummit @MichaelJohnRoe It’s going to take a lot of transparency and it’s going to take a lot of authentic conversations because we want to be heard. We don’t just want to play the victim. We want you guys to really understand and feel what we’re feeling. Especially if it’s coming from athletes. @VDLHSRavens @LIOVirtualAthleticSummit @MichaelJohnRoe COVID-19 did some really good things for athletics, for getting rid of the SAT, because that negated a lot of kids from getting scholarships. @VDLHSRavens @LIOVirtualAthleticSummit @MichaelJohnRoe Our kids, they want people to understand them, and to be able to understand what they’re dealing with. It’s hard because you’re looking at the media and kids are saying, "You’re not black so you don’t understand. That’s not true." @VDLHSRavens @LIOVirtualAthleticSummit @MichaelJohnRoe Just like how white people navigate through the system, we’ve got to really figure out what we’ve got to do to navigate in this system. This will be beneficial for us. @VDLHSRavens @LIOVirtualAthleticSummit @MichaelJohnRoe You’ve got to lead by example and your character is everything because they’re looking at you all the time in terms of how you carry yourself. @VDLHSRavens @LIOVirtualAthleticSummit @MichaelJohnRoe Our athletes need to stay positive and maintain the integrity that they need in order to be the positive role models on campus. It’s going to be a tough one because we don’t know what’s going to happen. At the end of the day, you’ve just got to continue to stay positive and continue to want to create change, but positive change. @VDLHSRavens @LIOVirtualAthleticSummit @MichaelJohnRoe Don’t bring a negative impact to the system as well. @VDLHSRavens @LIOVirtualAthleticSummit @MichaelJohnRoe It was through athletics that I forged relationships and developed cultural understandings of people who were different from me. I’m not sure I would have been able to do that outside the context of athletics. @KeyishaHolmes @LIOVirtualAthleticSummit @MichaelJohnRoe I had a white coach and one of the things that really helped to shatter some of my own beliefs that I had been socialized around was the way that he interacted with me and treated me. When we hear athletes say things like, ‘I can’t relate to you or I don’t want to talk to you because you don’t look like me,’ much of that is coming from a place of hurt and past betrayal as a result of trying to do that. @KeyishaHolmes @LIOVirtualAthleticSummit @MichaelJohnRoe It all comes back to finding relationships in a way that preserves the integrity, the love, and the trust. @KeyishaHolmes @LIOVirtualAthleticSummit @MichaelJohnRoe My coach treated me the same as everyone else in the sense of what he expected. He was also sensitive to the challenges I faced. @KeyishaHolmes @LIOVirtualAthleticSummit @MichaelJohnRoe My coach and I had conversations privately, we had conversations publicly, but he was conscientious. He inquired about how he could help to navigate some of the challenges that I was experiencing that maybe no one else was privy to. @KeyishaHolmes @LIOVirtualAthleticSummit @MichaelJohnRoe I was the only African American on the team and I was the only black out of a class of 312 students at the time. That was a context of an experience that was foreign, that completely plummeted me into uncomfortably territory. @KeyishaHolmes @LIOVirtualAthleticSummit @MichaelJohnRoe I had people to help me navigate in a way that regarded empathy and that regarded compassion for me as an individual. @KeyishaHolmes @LIOVirtualAthleticSummit @MichaelJohnRoe Sometimes we default to comforts like, ‘Well I don’t see color.’ We take on this notion of color blindness, and color blindness is benign racism. @KeyishaHolmes @LIOVirtualAthleticSummit @MichaelJohnRoe If you don’t see that my needs are starkly different to some degree from other people, not seeing me means that you can’t even begin to help respond to what I might need in a particular situation. That included athletics. @KeyishaHolmes @LIOVirtualAthleticSummit @MichaelJohnRoe Both black, white, all people lack the historical context of this whole notion of racism. @KeyishaHolmes @LIOVirtualAthleticSummit @MichaelJohnRoe Until we delve into the complexity and the severity of the egregiousness of how systemic this issue is, people are always going to vacillate on the continuums of understanding and misunderstanding. That’s everybody. @KeyishaHolmes @LIOVirtualAthleticSummit @MichaelJohnRoe My daughter couldn’t imagine that this is happening all on the basis of George Floyd’s race. And she said, ‘If that’s the basis, what makes me different?’ @KeyishaHolmes @LIOVirtualAthleticSummit @MichaelJohnRoe Even as black people, you’re not always aware of the systemic things that effect you until there’s a direct experience that you have. It underscores that this might be real. @KeyishaHolmes @LIOVirtualAthleticSummit @MichaelJohnRoe There are a lot of people who exist because they haven’t had an experience, they have no point of reference in terms of if something is reality. @KeyishaHolmes @LIOVirtualAthleticSummit @MichaelJohnRoe I think the disconnect between all people is, if you haven’t had an experience, then it doesn’t exist. You may think it’s something historical until you have an actual encounter yourself. @KeyishaHolmes @LIOVirtualAthleticSummit @MichaelJohnRoe One of the first things we need to understand is that to watch or to have that experience, to one person visits trauma vicariously through other people who identify ethnically to that experience. @KeyishaHolmes @LIOVirtualAthleticSummit @MichaelJohnRoe Some of the rage and the range of emotions that are being experience by African American people is because they feel like that traumatic experience is being overlooked. @KeyishaHolmes @LIOVirtualAthleticSummit @MichaelJohnRoe Simply acknowledging, ‘Look, I don’t know what it is you’re feeling or what you’re going through but I’m going to unveil myself to listen and to be a part of solutions. But I need help being able to do that.’ That’s all we need. @KeyishaHolmes @LIOVirtualAthleticSummit @MichaelJohnRoe We don’t need White people to have all the answers, but we need White people to be in a position to empathize with what’s happening and to understand it didn’t happen to me, but it happened to me vicariously. @KeyishaHolmes @LIOVirtualAthleticSummit @MichaelJohnRoe I need help talking through it and working through it with folks to figure out what we do next. @KeyishaHolmes @LIOVirtualAthleticSummit @MichaelJohnRoe We need tangibility to how we actually create the systemic change. @KeyishaHolmes @LIOVirtualAthleticSummit @MichaelJohnRoe We do civic engagement work. This doesn’t mean you go and hold a Black Lives Matter sign. We need to see how we can make sure people are counted in the Census. That is huge in terms of having an impact on the democratic practices on stuff that happens in our world. @KeyishaHolmes @LIOVirtualAthleticSummit @MichaelJohnRoe What we can do is exercise our democratic rights to vote and to participate in political processes that can cause these things to change. Those are viable and tangible things that people can do. @KeyishaHolmes @LIOVirtualAthleticSummit @MichaelJohnRoe If we seek out tangible ways that people can get involved and to help guide them through those systems and structures, I think that’s something people can begin to garner hope around. @KeyishaHolmes @LIOVirtualAthleticSummit @MichaelJohnRoe The power of teams is amazing. The power of knowing we are all committed around winning, we are all committed around developing championship caliber, and what it takes to develop as a championship caliber teams, requires that everybody on the team has equal value. @KeyishaHolmes @LIOVirtualAthleticSummit @MichaelJohnRoe If we can begin to teach people the concepts of developing equal value, I think that is something that will really garner hope, at least with our athletes. @KeyishaHolmes @LIOVirtualAthleticSummit @MichaelJohnRoe We all had an experience. Even though the circumstance was unfortunate, it is also something that unified us, and the world was in solidarity. @KeyishaHolmes @LIOVirtualAthleticSummit @MichaelJohnRoe When Kobe Bryant passed away, it didn’t matter what color you were. Everybody was purple and gold. It was because of what he represented in the world. @KeyishaHolmes @LIOVirtualAthleticSummit @MichaelJohnRoe The impact that Kobe Bryant had on inspiring people and everybody felt connected to him. We bestow value to Kobe because of how he acted and how he behaved in the world. @KeyishaHolmes @LIOVirtualAthleticSummit @MichaelJohnRoe Everybody has the capacity to be able to impact the world like Kobe. @KeyishaHolmes @LIOVirtualAthleticSummit @MichaelJohnRoe As much as we want to believe that we are one, circumstances would dictate otherwise. We have to yield to that. Not for the purposes that we have to give credit, but for the purpose of acknowledging our reality so we get to the point of how we actually fix it. @KeyishaHolmes @LIOVirtualAthleticSummit @MichaelJohnRoe One of the things I think we need to differentiate is that if people say that you don’t get it, and it might be plausible that they’re speaking of a system that you present, not necessarily you. @KeyishaHolmes @LIOVirtualAthleticSummit @MichaelJohnRoe One of the things that needs to happen is that we have got to get under our socialization. We all hold ideas and beliefs that could be perpetuated against people in ways that are oppressive. @KeyishaHolmes @LIOVirtualAthleticSummit @MichaelJohnRoe The posture that people are looking for is humility on the part of white folks and humility on the part of people looking to be partners and listen and learn what responses need to look like. @KeyishaHolmes @LIOVirtualAthleticSummit @MichaelJohnRoe When you have people wanting to help without the skills or the tools to fix the problem, we get confusion and chaos. Until we begin to grapple with this issue on a spiritual plane, we’re going to exist in an age of confusion, misunderstanding, and all of those things. @KeyishaHolmes @LIOVirtualAthleticSummit @MichaelJohnRoe We have to understand in a true sense what it means to be reconciled to one another, what it means to heal, and what it means to interact around creating justice for all people. @KeyishaHolmes @LIOVirtualAthleticSummit @MichaelJohnRoe |
In my office, there is a quote by Nelson Mandela that says, ‘Sport has the power to change the world. It has the power to inspire. It has the power to unite people in a way that little else does. It speaks to youth in a language they understand.’ @wearemesaathl @LIOVirtualAthleticSummit @MichaelJohnRoe
I became obsessed with basketball because it was the great equalizer. When I stepped on that court, it didn’t matter what sort of hardships I was facing at home. @wearemesaathl @LIOVirtualAthleticSummit @MichaelJohnRoe White American now have to have ears, the heart, and the empathy to listen and understand why we feel that way. @wearemesaathl @LIOVirtualAthleticSummit @MichaelJohnRoe Create that space where we can come say this is how I feel. Now it’s received as, don’t play the race card, I don’t see it like that, or I didn’t mean it like that. @wearemesaathl @LIOVirtualAthleticSummit @MichaelJohnRoe Off the court I was viewed and looked at a certain way. On the court it was, how hard are you working today? What type of effort are you taking in? How are you encouraging your teammates in that nature? Nothing off the court mattered. @wearemesaathl @LIOVirtualAthleticSummit @MichaelJohnRoe How we carry ourselves and the work we put in while we’re in that athletic atmosphere, that’s all that matters. @wearemesaathl @LIOVirtualAthleticSummit @MichaelJohnRoe Once you spend more time in that atmosphere, the more the color desensitizes in regard to how I feel about my teammate. @wearemesaathl @LIOVirtualAthleticSummit @MichaelJohnRoe No one really cared at all about the hardships I was facing. It was about the heart and the effort that I brought every single day. For me, that gave me a great lens to view life. @wearemesaathl @LIOVirtualAthleticSummit @MichaelJohnRoe There are different things that challenge my view on life, but I was always able to go back to athletics. @wearemesaathl @LIOVirtualAthleticSummit @MichaelJohnRoe I was able to understand that it doesn’t matter where I started in regard to ability. If I continued to put in the time, if I poured my heart out into it, everything I wanted to see or become, I was in control of that. @wearemesaathl @LIOVirtualAthleticSummit @MichaelJohnRoe When I think about the great equalizer as it relates to some of the things we’re facing now, you’re uncomfortable, I’m uncomfortable, because there is an obvious disconnect. @wearemesaathl @LIOVirtualAthleticSummit @MichaelJohnRoe I’m uncomfortable knowing that athletics taught me the world and how I should view things. When we enter a season like we are now, I think we’re all uncomfortable because we know how it should be because athletics gave us that example. @wearemesaathl @LIOVirtualAthleticSummit @MichaelJohnRoe I think our kids are being impacted. Naturally they do have questions. @wearemesaathl @LIOVirtualAthleticSummit @MichaelJohnRoe For a lot of our athletes right now, this is a new season. This is as heightened or as sensitive racial regulations have been since Rodney King. @wearemesaathl @LIOVirtualAthleticSummit @MichaelJohnRoe For our current student athletes, they don’t know how to process the same way. I didn’t know how to process the world and what I’ve seen it in. @wearemesaathl @LIOVirtualAthleticSummit @MichaelJohnRoe I have a heavy heart as well because I was bred within that athletic atmosphere about how you treat everyone. @wearemesaathl @LIOVirtualAthleticSummit @MichaelJohnRoe As soon as our student athletes get back to campus, we’re going to have to address these issues right away. @wearemesaathl @LIOVirtualAthleticSummit @MichaelJohnRoe I think as time moves on and as our athletes stand shoulder to shoulder, maybe on some campuses and during the season, there is going to be a moment very similar to Remember the Titans. @wearemesaathl @LIOVirtualAthleticSummit @MichaelJohnRoe Sports means too much and teaches us valuable lessons that I believe our country is moving forward. Once we return back to normal a little bit and get back to our atmosphere, my experience has been that people’s true colors will show and harmony will rise. @wearemesaathl @LIOVirtualAthleticSummit @MichaelJohnRoe I think the awareness of it all in regard to how I’m supposed to perceive people of every creed, color, or gender will be neutralized. @wearemesaathl @LIOVirtualAthleticSummit @MichaelJohnRoe We’ve all been involved in athletics and that close bond with our teammates. It’s that journey that creates those bonds. @wearemesaathl @LIOVirtualAthleticSummit @MichaelJohnRoe If life hits my teammate, I’m in tears because he’s in tears. I don’t need to understand and I don’t need to make the statement, ‘I can’t imagine. I’m not you.’ You’re my teammate and my heart bleeds because yours bleeds. @wearemesaathl @LIOVirtualAthleticSummit @MichaelJohnRoe We need to harness the idea that we’re in this together and that we’re teammates. Yes, we’re different races but at the same time our team is called Humanity. @wearemesaathl @LIOVirtualAthleticSummit @MichaelJohnRoe You may not know what it’s like to be called an African American but the emotion of what we’re dealing with – injustice, unfair treatment, and oppression – that’s a definition, not a color. That’s colorless. @wearemesaathl @LIOVirtualAthleticSummit @MichaelJohnRoe I’ve gotten many responses to a post I made that say, ‘I see you. I stand with you. I’m against it. What can I do?’ They keep asking what can they do because they feel like they’re told they have to stand on the sidelines since they’re not African American. @wearemesaathl @LIOVirtualAthleticSummit @MichaelJohnRoe We are one. @wearemesaathl @LIOVirtualAthleticSummit @MichaelJohnRoe There’s no color when you look at the word ‘oppression.’ Yes, there’s a subgroup in regard to who’s impacted – African Americans and African American men in particular, are being impacted. @wearemesaathl @LIOVirtualAthleticSummit @MichaelJohnRoe When you think about any other issue in our country like domestic violence, no one pauses. You can experience it or not experience it. If you want to advocate it, you wouldn’t be uncomfortable. Whatever the place of advocacy is in our country, the only topic where people feel like you feel right now is this issue because their perspective is wrong. @wearemesaathl @LIOVirtualAthleticSummit @MichaelJohnRoe Yes, we are being affected as an African American culture, but what we’re advocating for is equality. @wearemesaathl @LIOVirtualAthleticSummit @MichaelJohnRoe If we can focus on the idea that there is a group of people being oppressed vs. someone who feels like they can’t speak up or they don’t belong, as humanity, this is an issue we must address. @wearemesaathl @LIOVirtualAthleticSummit @MichaelJohnRoe When you are told that you’re playing the victim, that’s a dagger to the heart. @wearemesaathl @LIOVirtualAthleticSummit @MichaelJohnRoe Every time I bring up where I feel like I’m being singled out, I’m experiencing unfair treatment, or this is how I’m seeing it, every single time it feels like I’m being told I’m playing the victim. @wearemesaathl @LIOVirtualAthleticSummit @MichaelJohnRoe I’m also told I can’t be pulling the race card. It’s the idea of systematic oppression or racism is seen as an underlying statement. @wearemesaathl @LIOVirtualAthleticSummit @MichaelJohnRoe Empathy is a huge word. I’m not going to say it’s a greater word than the systems in regard to allowing this governance to happen, but both of them are key. @wearemesaathl @LIOVirtualAthleticSummit @MichaelJohnRoe We have to bring people together. If we don’t create a platform or create an atmosphere where people feel united, we won’t act united. @wearemesaathl @LIOVirtualAthleticSummit @MichaelJohnRoe We need to try and unite what our emotions are – to hurt, to feel alone, to struggle, to feel like you have been mistreated. I know you don’t just have to be African American. I think to a certain degree, everyone in every age group, representing every color, age group, culture, religion, whatever the case may be, at some point along our journey we’ve all felt an emotion of negativity. @wearemesaathl @LIOVirtualAthleticSummit @MichaelJohnRoe If we can come together and understand and support in regard to what that’s like and the empathy component, allows us to have the love needed or the understanding of what all these little groups are representing and screaming. @wearemesaathl @LIOVirtualAthleticSummit @MichaelJohnRoe Then the walls start to break down and then we can celebrate each other’s differences and at the same time, we can all say that my heart beats like yours, I feel like you, let’s see what we can do to support each other and create an atmosphere where we’re all supported and cared for. @wearemesaathl @LIOVirtualAthleticSummit @MichaelJohnRoe View campus life, view culture, view the world, and view society like you would view your team and campus life. You want the win and you can focus on that. It’s really no different in life. I would encourage student athletes to view everyone the same and have the empathy necessary. @wearemesaathl @LIOVirtualAthleticSummit @MichaelJohnRoe Hold yourselves to be the best version you can be and make sure to carry yourselves that way. @wearemesaathl @LIOVirtualAthleticSummit @MichaelJohnRoe With that, you can treat everyone else the same. That type of energy and perspective is infectious. @wearemesaathl @LIOVirtualAthleticSummit @MichaelJohnRoe Our athletes will impact our campus in some sort of way, and some of them didn’t necessarily sign up for leadership but it’s appointed the minute they step into a role. @wearemesaathl @LIOVirtualAthleticSummit @MichaelJohnRoe They have to take those leadership positions seriously; they have to honor and understand that they will influence their campus. It is up to them if it’s going to be in a positive or negative way. @wearemesaathl @LIOVirtualAthleticSummit @MichaelJohnRoe You have to create space for groups feeling disenfranchised and marginalized in order to have conversations and communicate what they experience as a culture on those campuses.@KeyishaHolmes @LIOVirtualAthleticSummit @MichaelJohnRoe You need to begin to converge and create efforts where those dialogues are happening in a multicultural/multiethnic way with the premise and the goal being to develop understanding and empathy. @KeyishaHolmes @LIOVirtualAthleticSummit @MichaelJohnRoe Use your privilege and your power to stand up for what’s right. If a student is dealing with something on campus whether it’s racial or on an athletic team, you’ve got to stand up as a White administrator and say, ‘We’re not doing that here.’ @KeyishaHolmes @LIOVirtualAthleticSummit @MichaelJohnRoe You make sure others know these acts are not tolerated at your school and present the actions you’re going to take. Develop your capacity to show others how to be more empathetic and be more conscientious about the way they treat people. Don’t just push things under the rug or act like they don’t happen. @KeyishaHolmes @LIOVirtualAthleticSummit @MichaelJohnRoe We minimize the experiences, or we just dismiss them, like, ‘That’s just your perception. That’s just the way you see it.’ That’s anti-empathetic, but that’s a lot of what we’re met with. We also have people who say we play the victim. As African American people, when we try to bring up that there’s a racial problem, we are told we’re playing the victim, that’s the way you see it, and you need to be more open. @KeyishaHolmes @LIOVirtualAthleticSummit @MichaelJohnRoe When we talk about how to generate hope, we’re being silenced at our attempts to bring up conversation and begin to engage in dialogue. It stops there and therefore progress is not even possible because we’re not willing to engage in the conversation. @KeyishaHolmes @LIOVirtualAthleticSummit @MichaelJohnRoe What has to happen is that we have to lean into the discomfort. It’s going to have to require that intellectual empathy and that intellectual courage to say, ‘However this feels, we have to do this because everybody matters.’ @KeyishaHolmes @LIOVirtualAthleticSummit @MichaelJohnRoe So long as this democracy is hostile towards “others” you’re going to continue to see that polarization. @KeyishaHolmes @LIOVirtualAthleticSummit @MichaelJohnRoe The only reason why people retreat into infinity groups is because the larger spaces aren’t safe. To be able to engage in a conversation and the dialogues that are necessary for people to be okay socially, emotionally, and psychologically. @KeyishaHolmes @LIOVirtualAthleticSummit @MichaelJohnRoe The impact of this is multi-faceted. You have it impacting people’s social-emotional wellbeing, psychological wellbeing, and physical wellbeing, but general spaces have not been safe for people to talk about those things. It needs to be regarded with value, empathy, and with action people consistently ask for. Infinity grouping is only symptom of the fact that the problem exists and that it’s worsening. @KeyishaHolmes @LIOVirtualAthleticSummit @MichaelJohnRoe If we want the infinity groups to disseminate or be something that’s no longer necessary, we have to rid ourselves of the systems that perpetuate the injustices that cause people to retreat into those spaces. @KeyishaHolmes @LIOVirtualAthleticSummit @MichaelJohnRoe It needs to be just as comfortable for me to come up to you and say I’m upset about this or this hurts me, and be met with love and compassion. @KeyishaHolmes @LIOVirtualAthleticSummit @MichaelJohnRoe Those spaces need to be neutral and equal. @KeyishaHolmes @LIOVirtualAthleticSummit @MichaelJohnRoe It’s not about having the answers, it’s about really striving to say, ‘No. The value of everyone here needs to be the same.’ That’s what we mean by equality. @KeyishaHolmes @LIOVirtualAthleticSummit @MichaelJohnRoe I think that school leaders and coaches need to be more deliberate and intentional. They need to take their leadership and help others to build their capacity to engage in cultural conversations. @KeyishaHolmes @LIOVirtualAthleticSummit @MichaelJohnRoe If we assume that kids are already armed with the skills and the resources they need to navigate these topics and conversations successfully, we couldn’t be more mislead.@KeyishaHolmes @LIOVirtualAthleticSummit @MichaelJohnRoe A lot of our students are functioning from how they’ve been socialized and so they can only bring that to the experience. If we’re being intentional about saying, ‘We’re going to have some deliberate conversations about culture, race.’ @KeyishaHolmes @LIOVirtualAthleticSummit @MichaelJohnRoe Us helping to form their ideology around empathy, around inclusion, around what it means to be reconciled, I think we stand a far better chance of helping to heal our society then just letting the go at it from what they know. @KeyishaHolmes @LIOVirtualAthleticSummit @MichaelJohnRoe It’s not just about academic prowess. It’s about civic prowess. To respect and honor people that are different than you, to maybe disagree with their stances, but be committed to loving them. @KeyishaHolmes @LIOVirtualAthleticSummit @MichaelJohnRoe We have to be intentional about how we teach love. @KeyishaHolmes @LIOVirtualAthleticSummit @MichaelJohnRoe |