The meetings about everything but basketball have come too often this summer for University of Tennessee at Chattanooga basketball coach Lamont Paris and his Mocs. The latest occurred Monday, the day after Jacob Blake was shot seven times in the back by a single policeman in Kenosha, Wisconsin.
"It's hard to know what to say to them sometimes," said Paris, an assistant at the University of Wisconsin before being hired to take over at UTC in 2017. "We talked about self-preservation, what to do if you're pulled over by the police. We talked about complying with the police officer, no matter how ridiculous you think a request is. We talked about keeping your registration and your proof of insurance in your visor instead of somewhere low so that you're reaching up instead of down.
"We told them if you're wronged, we'll work on that later. But first priority, unequivocally, is self-preservation. That's the world young Black men are living in right now."
To an extent, the whole world is dealing with self-preservation right now due to the coronavirus pandemic. That's why we're so strongly, and rightly, encouraged to wear masks. Social distance. Wash our hands. Again and again and again.
But for much of Black America, self-preservation is a different kind of potentially life-or-death issue. While most in white America see the police as our friends, our protectors, the people we reach out to in times of trouble, Black America is painfully reminded time after time how few individuals in authority they can trust.
By now we all know their names. Ahmaud Arbery. Breonna Taylor. George Floyd. Rayshard Brooks. Jacob Blake. All were Black. Only Blake is still alive, and he's expected to be paralyzed from the waist down for the rest of his life. All but Arbery were shot by law enforcement. And all those atrocities have taken place in 2020.
In as chilling and emotional a response to all this as anyone has uttered all summer, Kentucky sophomore basketball player Keion Brooks, who's Black, said Friday, "At times I feel like it's almost like we're being hunted."
Said Paris, who's also Black, "What's happening between police and Black males is disturbing. That's what has people so upset. We are up in arms about our (lack of) ability to be treated in a normal matter by law enforcement."
The deaths of Floyd on May 25 and Brooks on June 12 sparked a riotous rage throughout much of the country that's still simmering in locales such as Portland, Oregon. The shooting of Blake this past Sunday stirred a cause to action for athletes of multiple sports, a movement never before seen in this country.
Understandably led by the NBA's Milwaukee Bucks refusing to take the court against the Orlando Magic in a playoff game Wednesday - Kenosha is 32 miles South of Milwaukee - the rest of the league soon postponed all postseason play (and didn't return until Saturday) to show support for Blake and opposition to perceived police brutality and racism. Several Major League baseball teams followed suit. Tennis star Naomi Osaka threatened to withdraw from the Western & Southern Open as a sign of support if she was forced to play Thursday. To avoid that, the tournament canceled all matches that day to draw more attention to Blake.
Closer to home, professional soccer team New Amsterdam FC, which is from New York City, canceled its trip to play Chattanooga FC at Finley Stadium "as a statement of support for racial justice and against police brutality."
Staff photo by C.B. Schmelter / UTC basketball coach Lamont Paris talks to guard Trey Doomes during a home game against Tennessee State on Nov. 9, 2019.Asked if he would support his Mocs making some statement or gesture in support of Blake, Floyd, Taylor and others and against racism, Paris said, "I told them that they have a right to express themselves in something as important as this. I want to be involved in the decision process, but I will support anything our team wants to do."
Until then, Paris will keep encouraging his Mocs to practice self-preservation and to consider these questions: "Who are you spending your time with? Where are you going? What are you doing?"
He also said something a lot of us need to embrace: "When real change happens, it has to be with the support of white people. The most dangerous person out there these days is the individual who believes we currently have racial equality."
Paris was the first person in his family to attend college. He recalled once recruiting a basketball player from New York City when he was an assistant at Wisconsin, a young Black man "who had never known anyone in his neighborhood who'd gone to college. Imagine that. You're 17 or 18 years old, and you've never known anyone - other than a teacher or coach - who'd gone to college."
Told of NBA great and TNT analyst Charles Barkley's line this past week, "It's exhausting being black," Paris spoke of his own frustrations.
"There's judgment passed on everything you do, including what you wear," he said. "If you're listening to (certain music), it's cool. But if I'm listening to the same music, it's outrageous. What you say is taken completely differently than if a white person says the same thing. When that happens, it's gut-wrenching."
Paris made it clear he's not a political animal. He said he doesn't know enough about the Black Lives Matter organization to comment on it.
"But I know those three words: Black lives matter," he said. "Nothing means more to me right now than those three words."
Paris also knows something else as this long, hot summer stubbornly slides toward fall: "The most basic human right is to live and breathe. That's the most basic human right not to be taken away."
From anyone. From everyone. Because regardless of the color of their skin, no one anywhere should ever feel as if they're being hunted.
Mark WiedmerContact Mark Wiedmer at mwiedmer@timesfreepress.com. Follow him on Twitter @TFPWeeds.