Talking about race is uncomfortable and I can admit that. People in small towns typically haven't had many encounters people of color so its understandable why they aren't fully educated on the topic of race.
Here's one of my experiences that could help others handle the situation better should it arise in the future.
I've heard enough people say they don't support BLM for various reasons. Whatever, that's fine, I'm not going to make it my life goal to change their mind. Just respect me and we'll go from there.
I was apart of a team that wanted to put Black Lives Matter or something along those lines on the back of our warm up shirts. One girl was uncomfortable with that as she doesn't support BLM, so we changed it to where a certain amount would have Black Lives Matter, a certain amount Unity, and Equality, or things along those lines.
I had talked to some girls on the team as I believed whoever wanted Black Lives Matter on the back should be able to have it - it was supporting me and I didn't feel like there should only be a set number of girls allowed for it. I then had to go talk to the coach about my thoughts and we eventually agreed that having the set number for each would work.
I asked if I could know who it was that was uncomfortable just so I could talk to her - I've had plenty of encounters with those that don't support it, I just wanted to know why and make sure that we would be cool. The coach said it wouldn't be fair to her as she doesn't need a target on her back.
After leaving the coach's office, a couple thoughts came into my head. Why was she able to hide behind not supporting BLM? It's obvious that I'm one for it, I can't hide that as it shows on my skin.
The other thought I had was that I was singled out. The coach in a way sided with the other girl. To make sure she didn't feel left out by being the only one with a different phrase than "Black Lives Matter" on the back, we changed the entirety of the shirts. But how was I supposed to feel about this? I wanted everyone to have Black Lives Matter on their shirts but that couldn't happen because one girl, who I wasn't even allowed to know the identity of, didn't want that.
I don't blame the coach for this at all - they did what they thought was best. Some girls were still able to get Black Lives Matter on the shirt so it's not like we just completely forgot about it. I could've easily gone back in and talked the coach about it because I know they would've listened. It's just not a comfortable conversation and I didn't feel like it was really worth the hassle.
Had this been a bigger issue, the conversation would've had to happen. There are issues worse than this that happen with other sports teams or schools so it's just something people need to be aware of when handling topics about race. Be sure to look at every scenario from different perspectives to make sure the it's being handled properly.
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