Russell Wilson: “I have a big heart right now,” says the Seattle Seahawks striker
Floyd died in Minneapolis on May 25 after being arrested by a police officer, who pinned him to the ground kneeling on his neck for several minutes.
Police were called after the store owner believed Floyd had used a counterfeit bill to pay.
“The reality is that as a black person, people kill me on the street, people get executed and the understanding that this is not the case with any other race,” Wilson, who led the Seattle Seahawks to victory in the Super Bowl XLVIII, told reporters.
“It’s especially for the black community. I think of my stepfather, I think of my daughter, I think of our new boy on the way. It’s amazing to see these things happen in front of our faces.
“So I have a big heart right now. I don’t have all the right answers or anything.”
Wilson discovered the incident when he faced prejudice while at a restaurant in California, after winning the 2014 Super Bowl.
“I was at the breakfast spot,” Wilson said. “I was fine and all. The older white gentleman told me, ‘That’s not for you.’ “
“And I said, ‘Huh? Excuse me?’ I thought he was joking at first. My back was somehow turned. I just got off the Super Bowl and everything, so if someone talks to me like that, think about it [a different] circumstances and how people talk to you.
“At that point I really came back young and not putting my hands in my pocket and that experience. It was a tough moment for me there. I was like that, man, this is really still real, and I’m on the west coast. This is right now. “
“The reality is that Colin was trying to symbolize the oppression that has been going on in America and has been going on for 400 years,” Wilson said.
“The reality is what Colin was trying to do, whether he was trying to do the right thing, trying to figuratively oppose what was happening to America … The reality is that we all need help, we all need to find our own ways to love each other and how we will make a difference.
“And everyone can do it differently. I don’t know what everyone will do and how it’s going to work, but it invites people to understand what’s really going on.”
A memorial service in Floyd’s honor will be held in Minnesota, Texas and North Carolina over the next five days, and a service in Minneapolis will be held Thursday.
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