Jordan Burroughs at the 2020 Pan American Championships (Photo/Tony Rotundo, WrestlersAreWarriors.com)This week, the wrestling community joined with many citizens to acknowledge the voices of Black America and people of color in acknowledging the ongoing pervasive racial injustices in America.
From social media posts to articles, podcasts and television appearances, personalities and politicians of all types have acknowledged that racial inequalities in America have been ignored for far too long and that the damage caused is both real and inter-generational.
Wrestling is a simple sport, but a complex community. On one hand we encourage diversity, but many of those in our community work hard to prevent women's wrestling. We celebrate Jordan Burroughs, James Green, Tamyrah Mensah, and more but there are only a handful of black Division I head wrestling coaches. Why the disconnect in career advancement?
Mostly it's the privilege of white people to hand jobs to their friends and those in their social circle, rather than forcing themselves to expand their social networks and take chances on more young black professionals, coaches and administrators. But is that something we can blame on anyone? Am I to blame because United World Wrestling doesn't have any full-time media members from the Black community? Yes. I know that we hire freelancers from all communities, but nobody full-time. That's on me to improve.
The wrestling community also faces a lack of positive leadership from its most powerful youth coaches. We've dealt with anti-vaccine movement, Sandy Hook deniers, Alex Jones wannabes, and a pervasive culture of general white supremacy and selfishness. Not all of it in-your-face, but all of it strikes the same chord -- I matter, you don't and your failures are OK by me.
But they aren't. White Americans hold a tremendous amount of wealth and power and it won't be until we decide to share it with our community members that we will see any positive change. There has been plenty of opportunity to make positive change, but most of it has been squandered. What can we do moving forward?
I commend USA Wrestling for having hired black Americans, supporting their black athletes and having absolutely zero tolerance for poor behavior. The statement written this week with the input of several athletes is the standard bearer for how to go about creating positive solutions and acknowledging struggle. There is no perfect solution or magic bullet, but the efforts of their staff to be inclusive was impressive and will have a lasting impact.
Black America has been telling America with incredible clarity and consistency that they are being hunted, beaten, and murdered by law enforcement and racist white people. Those with means and those who have privilege need to advocate on their behalf in a meaningful way. I know that there are members of our community who will come out of this with a drive to effect positive change and I include myself in that group.
I benefit every single day from the fact I'm white. This is not a neutral treatment by society, but an active display of opportunity and ease in almost all my interactions. I know almost nothing of the black experience in America, but what I have seen through friends and teammates is a world that is far different than the one I passively enjoy each and every day. Like many I've only seen their world through a keyhole -- this moment in American history is jarring because what we see now is something larger, the picture is wider and enhanced by the voices of Black Americans explaining very clearly all the ways in which they are targeted and oppressed.
To do nothing now is to willfully neglect our responsibility as American citizens. There is no nationwide healing until we peel back the layers of racism in our society and start indicting those around us for being too selfish to consider the emotions of others. That goes double for the wrestling community. We've lacked the empathy necessary to understand the journeys of our Black athletes and people of color. From cutting dreads to racist language in the locker room, we all know racist sentiments exist in our community and those need to be immediately addressed and corrected.
The good news is that the architecture of the racism in the United States will be demolished and replaced. The youth of America are interconnected, motivated and hungry for positive change. The leadership class will expand and strengthen in the black community so long as we remain active.
For now, that's enough from the middle-class white guy with a weekly column for ten years. It's probably better if we listen to those who have been directly affected by racism.
Hi Twitter, these are my beliefs and what I stand for. Please read. Thanks, I love you â™¥ï¸ pic.twitter.com/eoik4wmjem
�" Victoria Anthony (@Victoria_Vortex) May 31, 2020
And read this.
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