“Because of our platform, we felt like this was the perfect thing to do.”
When Isaiah Wilkins and London Perrantes were asked at ACC’s Operation Basketball about a team picture that they tweeted in late September, they spoke with a sense of pride.
Kneel for Injustice. Kneel for Equality. ✊ Using our platform to help creat change. TOGETHER! pic.twitter.com/7AEA3mH63B
— London Perrantes (@London_Tyus) September 29, 2016
“Obviously we got some backlash, but we knew that coming in,” Perrantes said. “But we wanted to voice our opinion either way.”
“Overall, it was good to start a conversation,” Wilkins agreed. “Even negativity starts a conversation to where you can be taught things, where you can learn things. And that’s fine too. So, as long as we started a conversation and we were able to help a situation, that’s cool.”
“When people start talking about things, people seem to put it into action,” Perrantes said. “Being able to make the world a better place: that’s what we wanted to be able to do.”
Both players echoed their appreciation that head coach Tony Bennett was supportive of their decision to take and publicize the picture.
“He obviously saw that we had some problems going on in this world,” Perrantes said, “and that we needed to speak out on it.”
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