Rising Cal junior Reece Whitley weighed in Tuesday on the calls for change sweeping the nation following the killing of unarmed black man George Floyd by Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin last week.
The killing is the latest in a growing list of black men, arrested for minor crimes, who have died while in police custody.
Whitley writes that he’s had time to think about “what were happen if it were [him] instead of [his] fellow brothers being murdered without hesitation,” and discusses how viewing videos of “Black reality” can be traumatic for those who can imagine themselves in similar situations. Multiple videos of Floyd’s death from security cameras and bystanders went viral on social media throughout the last week.
Whitley also urged his followers to “be an ally” by donating, rather than just posting on social media to show support for the cause, and wrote that “silence in the face of injustice is complicity.”
I know this isn’t a #BlackOutTuesday post but I do ask that you respect the fact that I’ve not spoken out yet and will not let my voice go unheard any longer. Please read this in its entirety and please click the link in my bio. pic.twitter.com/yaY58Lw5Pr
— Reece Whitley (@_reecewhitley) June 2, 2020
Whitley is a Philadelphia, PA-native breaststroke specialist who was an age group phenom, breaking numerous national age group records. At Cal, he’s a five-time Pac-12 champion and nine-time NCAA All-American.
His comments on this subject follow those of Olympic swimmers Simone Manuel, Cullen Jones, Lia Neal, Natalie Hinds, Katie Ledecky, Olivia Smoliga, Hali Flickinger and Kelsi Dahlia.
“The killing is the latest in a growing list of black men, arrested for minor crimes, who have died while in police custody”
Ok…but that list will always be growing. A very intellectually dishonest and misleading statement…did you bother looking at the statistics; the meaningful ones?
Meaningful to who? It’s quite meaningful to me that there is a growing list of black men murdered by police. The fact that you say the list will “always” be growing is the problem. Black men shouldnt be being killed while in police custody especially if its their job to serve citizens and protect peace and order. Even if these men have committed crimes and are to be arrested that does not mean they should be being murdered. That list is not something that SHOULD always be growing. If the fact that police are continuously killing black men is not meaningful to you then it is quite apparent what kind of person you are. We need change. Even if you… Read more »
Hmm I’m wondering where my white privilege card is. Still haven’t received it. I grew up with drug addict parents. Living off food stamps. Always malnourished as they cared more about buying for their fix. I didn’t pay attention and skipped lots of classes in school. Got kicked out at 16 from home, forget about college or uni, parents never had the money anyways, But you know what, I still didn’t play victim and let that bring me down. I got a job started saving. and now running my own business. So I ask again? Where the heck is my privilege card? I’ve had life 10x harder then lots of rich black folks from my town.
Thank you for sharing your experience.
It’s a nuanced world we live in.
Black Lives Matter does not mean that your life hasn’t been hard. Your privilege is that fact that your skin tone is not one of the things making your life harder.
Oh really explain me this? My white friend applied to be a firefighter in Toronto. But guess what. They didn’t accept him because he was white. You wanna know why. Because diversity is their motto. So again explain how being white helps? You guys are so twisted, we all have our own struggles. There’s rich and poor privilege.
Are your white friends or should I ask, have any of your white friends been scared of the police? Of being in the wrong place at the wrong time, in fear of being detained just because the colour of your skin is white? Follow up question: Do any of your white friends know what it is like to black? I’m sorry you didn’t get a job, but being arrogant and stubborn is not the way to go. You will never understand what it would be like to be black, but you may be able to understand and support them. Read about slavery, read about police brutality, educate yourself about the history of USA. In the end, if you don’t have… Read more »
If you honestly think that your friend didn’t get a job purely because he was white in a place that has diversity as their motto you really don’t get it. diversity does not mean exclusion of white it means inclusion of a diverse group of people as I presume he didn’t apply to a fire station with zero white people, which probably just means there were better applicants. The black lives matter movement is not saying you have life easy or have never struggled it just means that your struggles have nothing to do with the color of your skin. Innocent black people are being senselessly MURDERED. No matter the color of your skin, your background, your level of wealth,… Read more »
At the same time you didn’t get a job for being ‘white’, a man was murdered because he was black. Think kid.
Doesn’t sound like it’s opening up any doors for him either.
wait, what do you think “compels” means?
You might want to consider changing the word “compels” to “urges” or “exhorts”.
Thank you! Haha I agree with Reese’s message and applaud him for raising his voice, but the title of the article is goofy
Whitley is always a slow starter, but finishes fast.
Personally love seeing this movement be brought to attention everywhere including the swimming community
Agreed, Markster. White silence is white compliance.
Enough is enough. I’ve seen far too many young people—mostly black men die as a direct result of blatant or thematic racism in the last few years—either by the hands of bad cops or racist jerks.
The last protest I attended was against apartheid in college in the 1980’s. I was teased by some of my teammates as being a hippie for doing so. But I was right and so was the movement which with cumulative pressure toppled apartheid.
The murder of Mr. Floyd (by a cop!) led me to protest again. I was the oldest person and the ONLY 50+ white man at our city’s protest today. The ONLY one. That says a lot. Either my generation… Read more »
Hear! Hear!
Make this sticky, Swim Swam!
Maybe you didn’t hear, but there is still this COVID-19 thingy going on. Since you call out middle age “white” men (of which I am one) for not being present I would like to say the following. 1.) I am not attending any protest or large gathering of any sort while we are dealing with this pandemic. When you take into account that a large majority of protestors/rioters, etc are from outside the area where the protest occurs, this is just a recipe for disaster. Funny how COVID-19 and social distancing was such a big thing just one week ago…..Going to church? No, can’t do that you are endangering the public…protest with a couple thousand people in even closer proximity… Read more »
In the time it took you to write that you could have also said I am sorry that I can’t be there but I will do something else. It costs no money to write to your congressmen and congresswomen and voice that you are upset by what is happening. If you feel this strongly against Mr. Berkoff, it feels like you don’t know what it means to be oppressed for something that you have no control over (if at all). There is no need to get defensive.
Older people are more cautious I can tell you that we don’t want to waste our time showing up at a political rally for which we don’t agree with. I’m not talking about justice for George Floyd and the creation of a justice system that is color blind. It’s the original BLM organization that I’m talking about. We don’t know their ideological position on anything right now. My interpretation of them prior to last week is that their core belief is that all white people are racist. If you want to work with them go right ahead but I’m going to wait and have better information before I show up at a rally and give a group like that my… Read more »
“wait and have better information”
or you could actually do something like seek that information out…I think that was sort of the point of Berkoff’s original post. The time to “wait” is over
THIS is why swimming has a race problem
“BLM’s #WhatMatters2020 will focus on issues concerning racial injustice, police brutality, criminal justice reform, Black immigration, economic injustice, LGBTQIA+ and human rights, environmental injustice, access to healthcare, access to quality education, and voting rights and suppression.”
That’s directly from their website and took me 10 seconds to find.
https://blacklivesmatter.com/what-matters-2020/
Or… just keep waiting.
If you’re okay with a system that maintains the status quo, enforces the criminalization of black activity, and brutalizes the black community because you personally know people who are employed by that system and it benefits you then just say that. It clarifies which side you’re on.