Ohio State athletic director Gene Smith issued a statement Sunday on the ongoing Black Lives Matter movement, and the involvement of Buckeye athletes. You can read it below in its entirety.
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Racism has been declared a public health crisis; hate has no place in civil society.
Over the past decade, Buckeye student-athletes have proactively engaged in issues that have resulted in a shift in our departmental culture; issues that were manifest at the same time in the larger society and reflected in the actions of the student-athletes.
In recent years, several young men in the sport of football made the decision to publicly discuss their personal mental health challenges as a way to help demystify the larger societal conversation about mental health.
Concurrently, student-athletes in the sport of men’s hockey asked the department to support the NHL’s initiative entitled: If you can play, you can play. This effort advocated for support for student-athletes of all sexual orientations.
Student-athletes from many departmental teams have engaged in outreach efforts to support young people in underserved parts of the community. This service has become embedded as part of the departmental culture and is often carried into the NBA, NFL, NHL, MLB and WNBA by Buckeyes in their professional sport careers.
All of this activity is initiated and lead by student-athletes. When student-athletes and/or teams come to us with issues with which they want to engage, we provide them resources and support.
Now, our student-athletes have expressed a desire to engage in the Black Lives Matter movement that has grown from Minneapolis, across the nation, and around the world.
The department will continue to support our student-athletes as they participate in activities to eradicate hate and racism in our society. Recently, student-athletes have been active on social media platforms denouncing racism, participating in attention and awareness videos promoting Black Lives Matter, holding peaceful demonstrations (Kneel for Nine) and participating in video calls with their teammates and others.
The Ohio State Department of Athletics supports the Black Lives Matter movement. We will continue to support our student-athletes as they participate in driving positive change in America so that every person is respected regardless of the color of their skin.
Sorry, I still hate Broccoli.
I agree that hate has no place in society. But I’ve seen more hate on the streets lately than I’ve ever seen before in my life
How about obey the law matters! If you don’t want to deal with the police then don’t break the law!
Buck68. The article is from Gene Smith, so the “he ” to which I refer is Gene Smith. If there is imbedded racism and homophobia and a whole list of politically correct conditions that we have to remove from civil society, who is to blame. Well, first let us try the athletic director who has been at Ohio State for years and in college sports back to his day at Notre Dame. This didn’t happen yesterday, hold him accountable and don’t let him get away with sanctimonious, feel good statements like this.
I saw a quote from an Iowa football player that said if I can’t support the players’ protest, then I shouldn’t watch the games. Well the games are not a favor from a 20 year old, black or white, to me that he can take back.
Women are raped every day. Why not a protest for all of the evils. How about taking a knee on all first down plays to end rapes in civil society? That won’t end rape any more than taking knee during the national anthem will erase the other ills. This is just a catch phrase to make some people feel like they are actually doing something, when they are not.
I agree 100% with Todd. OSU football players should be focusing on football and not getting involved in all these political issues going on right now. The more the coach, AD and players talk about it, the more I’m thinking about not watching and supporting OSU football. All lives matter, even the unborn!
Checked some ‘education history’ recently with a few ‘experienced’ teachers.
It seems as if ‘progress’ has rendered grammar rules… obsolete and ‘out of touch’.
Asking several people, including foreigners who speak English, to define ‘modifier’, ‘adjective’, and ‘adverb’ resulted in ‘interesting’ answers. Asking people to define ‘colors’ from black to white produced interesting responses.
Simply and basically, i no longer wonder if or why the phrase ‘black lives matter’ reveals so much conflicted ignorance, accusation, blame, and hate – across the political and social spectrum.
And it validates an old saying about our common human condition: ‘what goes around, comes around’. This addresses the perception of ‘progress’.
Dis this little inquiry make me ‘better’? No, it made me ashamed. Now…what am I going to DO about my shame? This post…is a start… for a continual ‘race’… to life, for life.
Todd is right; Rick is wrong. The black community wants racial equality and justice for all. However, the phrase “black lives matter” is both racist and hypocritical. Hypocritical because on one hand they want racial equality but on the other they are promoting themselves above all other races. Personally, I don’t care. My parents raised me to treat all people equally, which I have done all my life. If you called any of my black friends, they would all tell you what a great guy I am (no brag; just fact). For racial equality, the signs should read: “ALL LIVES MATTER”.
I guess he has to get in line with the mob to survive. Which BLM movement does he support, the one in Kansas that invited the police to participate in a cookout, or the one in Minneapolis that wants to defund the police department? Here is an idea, refuse all police presence at the next football game. Keep the police from moving traffic on Lane Avenue on Saturday mornings. Get rid of the campus police department.
Listen, Bunker Boy. It’s time to grow up and act like responsible adults
Way to go, Gene!
Stan, who are you addressing as “he”?
Here’s an idea: find common ground [where you agree] and start there.
For example, in these slogans that ‘erupt’ from time to time… is there also agreement? In a negative expression, can we convert it to a positive without avoiding/denying the premise?
Black Lives Matter,
Lives Matter,
what Matters?
i suspect we – i.e. all of us – have plenty of thinking and working to do.
How do we do that… together?
that makes no sense Rick…all lives DO matter and i’m sick of these little catch=phrases..the BLM group itself is pretty out there with it’s own agenda of wanting to de-fund police, which is ridiculous in its own right…singling out one group to me is racist in and of itself and BLM is pretty racist..I have seen racism go both ways and it is all wrong..the police officer was wrong in this case, the looters and rioters are wrong…I could care less if someone is black or white, female or male–how one is born should NEVER affect how others treat them….but the BLM movement is something totally different and that group has its own agenda and no school should be aligning themselves with them. There are no facts to show that the majority of people are racist..just some idiots who have biases and prejudices. BLM and some of the media try to create hysteria–once again–with their own agendas. the facts also do not at all back up there is “systemic” racism in the police force or otherwise..we can’t let a few idiot’s actions cause all this chaos–but some people and groups love the chaos and love having these little PC memes /cause while completely ignoring the facts..Look up how many unarmed black and white people are killed by police of different colors..the facts do not lie. Most police are honest , non-racist people so why let the few dictate these things and cause all this chaos and bitterness..?! Ohio St. is wrong to support the BLM group itself..they are 100% correct to be against racism of any sort.
There you go again Todd, making another reactionary statement before thinking. Of course “all lives can’t matter” until black lives matter, that is just a logical statement. And of course black lives don’t matter when you look across a broad spectrum of socio-economic statistics, AND how they are treated by the system and individuals. Do you even know what most people who advocate for defunding the police are saying? As to whether you are racist, won’t know until a “situation” arrives. I am sure Amy in the NYC park thought she wasn’t racist, and then she calls the cops on the African American man. I bet all the Karens out there vehemently state they aren’t racist until their encounters with people of color. You are very wrong when it comes to your statement that there is no evidence of systemic racism in the police. Quite the contrary, there are a host of studies that document this. I live in a VERY blue state. They did a study of pull overs by the police, and people of color were pulled over more often, and after being pulled over, received tickets more often than white. People of color receive longer prison terms. We even added race into the mix by making crack a much worse offense than cocaine. Is there systemic racism within our country? Only someone with their head in the sand would deny this.
PS Bet you thought slavery ended in 1985, right? Nope, continued until the beginning of WWII. Try do some reading about other people’s experience.
Once again I’ll ask, Do all Black lives matter? You make very valid points, but the media isn’t soning ur tune of too many pull overs.. There are many more facts that counter your cherry picking of evidence.
Once again I’ll ask, Do all Black lives matter? You make very valid points, but the media isn’t soning ur tune of too many pull overs.. There are many more facts that counter your cherry picking of evidence.
Remember Todd, never debate a leftist. They are immune to facts, logic and reason. Your point is spot on.
Our universities push us and themselves to do better. All lives cannot matter until black lives matter.
Rick: [after re-reading tOSU ‘vision statements’.]
Where does tOSU recognize, let alone define, the value of morals and application to fundamental [essential] human standards of right and wrong?
Literally, the absence of morals is ‘amoral’. The ‘civilized’ consequence of amorality is certain people declare and tell others what to feel, think, say, do. The tOSU “educational” term for this is “push”. The pushers ‘can do nothing wrong’.
Yet is seems that pushers [imposers] care…enough to addict others just as they please.
So, if you want to know what ‘better’ – or anything – ‘means, GOTO your fav pusher,,, or a pusher will GOTO on you.
Which black lives?