Kentucky players’ view of racism: ‘We’re not going to stand for it’
READ MORE
2020-21 College Basketball Preview
The Lexington Herald-Leader’s 2020-21 College Basketball Preview special section was published in the print edition on Sunday, Nov. 15. Click below to view all the stories from that section that have been published on Kentucky.com.
Expand All
As the belated start to the 2020-21 college basketball season nears and anticipation grows, Kentucky sophomore Keion Brooks suggested that long-term societal problems like systemic racism and injustice remain a concern of players.
“Sometimes things will get lost in getting ready for games and getting ready for a season,” Brooks said during a video teleconference Wednesday. “But things like that in our world are still going on. We continue to try to push that narrative and have that conversation that this isn’t OK and we’re not going to stand for it.”
Brooks, who made the Southeastern Conference First Year Academic Honor Roll in 2019-20, serves on three committees that can consider off-court issues: the National Association of Basketball Coaches Player Development Coalition, the SEC Council on Racial Equality and Social Justice and UK’s Student-Athlete Advisory Committee.
Earlier this year, Brooks led a UK player effort that produced a video supporting the Black Lives Matter movement. Of how the deaths of Breonna Taylor, George Floyd and others impacted Black people, he said at the time, “it’s scary because I’m a Black male. And at times I feel almost like we’re being hunted.”
On Wednesday, Brooks said the Kentucky team may make future statements on social issues.
When asked about the suggestion made earlier this year about renaming Rupp Arena, Brooks said of himself and his teammates, “We’ve just been trying to communicate with each other as far as what action do we want to take. Like, the video . . . we put out was a great job.”
Any future action would be with the intention of “using our platform and using our voices to let people know that we’re not going to stand for this and this isn’t right,” he said.
Brooks embraced the suggestion that the Wildcats and their contemporaries on other teams are more than just basketball players. They have social awareness.
“That’s extremely important,” he said. “Whether you like it or not, the ball is going to stop bouncing for you one day. You don’t just want to be known as — well, me personally — as Keion Brooks the basketball player.
“I have more to offer the world. We all have more to offer to the word than us putting the ball in the basket. Even though it’s fun and we love to do it, it’s not who we are. It’s something that we do as a person. We have other things about us that can help other people than us just playing basketball.”
