Gamecocks To Hold Demonstration In Place of Monday's Practice
Following the death of Georgia Floyd, South Carolina head coach Will Muschamp spoke on the importance of people of his stature being catalysts for change and said it's time for action.
Monday he and his team will be doing more than just talking about social justice as they host a protest on USC's campus.
“We will have COVID testing Monday morning and we will go to campus and (have) a team demonstration,” Muschamp said Saturday after the Gamecocks' first fall scrimmage. “Obviously you’ve seen the video, the Jacob Blake situation in Wisconsin is a horrific situation. A team demonstration supporting racial equality and being totally against police brutality, our leadership group came to me on that. We want to make a statement on our campus. We’re going to do that. (I) think some other student athletes will join us, hopefully.”
When asked if he believes the Gamecocks are rushing to the defense of Blake too hastily, Muschamp shut down the notion.
“All I can tell you is what I saw on video; it wasn’t right in my opinion,” he said. “It wasn’t right in our players’ opinion and I’m gonna stand up for that.”
Before the Gamecocks led their first march back in June, Muschamp said that at this time in America, talk is cheap and everyone must do the work to ensure a better future.
“[We want to] continue to build relationships that bring down the barriers that we have in our country,” he said. “But I think the two words as a team that we took from this was educating and communicating. The more you know about somebody the more you feel comfortable with them and that's what we've got to continue to do. The two unacceptable words at this time as a team that we talked about was silence and violence. Actions are louder than words. I can put out a paragraph on social media that does nothing compared to what we did Friday as a football team, but the actions are what we need. We can't be silent about racial inequality at this time. Violence, Dr. King once said ‘hate begets hate, violence begets violence,’ and that's still true. “
He added that the education wouldn’t stop and he had plans of bringing in speakers throughout the month of June. His hope is that as more and more football players set the example, that the nation will follow.
