Over the last few weeks one thing has become certain, 2020 stopped for a reason. I am still trying to fully grasp and learn from those reasons, but as far as I can see it, it stopped so we were faced to deal with issues that have been issues for far too long. The corona virus pandemic has caused us to look at health in a whole new way. But, another pandemic of even greater importance that we were forced to see head on is racism in America.
The last few weeks the world has been in understandable uproar about the injustices toward the black community and we, as a people, we as a whole, are fed up. The world is at war against injustice. We hear you and we see you.
I, being a white female, do not know everything and I won’t even begin to act like I do. Forgive my ignorance and help me learn. I, thankfully, have been fortunate to have an amazing mentor in my life the last few years. Riccardo Stewart was my pastor at Redemption Tempe for the past 4 years. He is now the Defensive Analyst for the University of Nevada. Stewart has always had a way with words to where you sit up in your chair and grasp onto every word he says. He admits he doesn’t know everything, he is just trying to be Riccardo Stewart and learn like the rest of us. He explains to Sports360az his encounter with racism, where we go from here and what the media can do better to support black athletes we are so fortunate to cover.