Etan Thomas, a former NBA player, visited Oswego State Oct. 22 to discuss the topic of his book, “We Matter: Athletes and Activism,” which was released in March.

Brian Moritz, an assistant professor in the communications department, hosted Thomas and moderated the discussion on his experience with activism as an athlete, when he played basketball for Syracuse University and the Washington Wizards and then after his retirement from the NBA.

Moritz and Thomas discussed athletes like Colin Kaepernick who used their voices to advocate for or against prominent issues occurring in the U.S., such as police brutality. Thomas compared this generation’s issue of Kaepernick kneeling during the national anthem to when Muhammad Ali refused to enlist in the military during wartime in the 1960s.

“There was this push of why aren’t athletes speaking up? But then you see when they do speak up, like Aaron Green, Colin Kaepernick, [Thomas] and other people, there’s immediate criticism of them,” Moritz said. “It was very noteworthy when Muhammad Ali died; lionize this great American figure, and they were writing a lot of negative stuff about him when he was being active.”

Thomas said the viewpoint on Kaepernick will evolve in the coming decades and he will be described differently, just as Ali is now in comparison to decades prior.

“You have to have thick skin, but you also have to be prepared to defend your position, because when somebody disagrees with what you are saying, that is when there’s an issue. When they agree with you, there’s no problem,” Thomas said. “When they disagree then it’s like, ‘Oh, this athlete doesn’t even deserve to speak,’ ‘You should stay in your lane,’ ‘You should shut up and dribble.’”

In his experience as an athlete and an activist, Thomas said athletes have always been expected to stick to sports and be apolitical, rather than express their opinions and use their status to voice them.

Thomas recounted when he interviewed the brother of Trayvon Martin, a boy who was killed by George Zimmerman in 2012, that the boy expressed to Thomas he was appreciative to athletes who spoke out after the fact because it was only at that point that the incident get media coverage.

Thomas also said fans often group black athletes in a protected bubble and do not realize  they also face racism and police brutality.

“You don’t stop being black after the game is over,” Thomas said. “The issues don’t stop when you’re playing basketball or football.”

He recounted a time where he was driving his son and his son’s friends home, and he was pulled over by a police officer for having one of his taillights out.

“Immediately when we get stopped, I roll the window down, turn the music off, put the interior light on, take my wallet out and put it on the dashboard, take out my registration, put my phone on record and put my hands on 10 and 2,” Thomas said.

He recounted that he slowly spoke to the officer, making sure to clearly say that he was reaching to get his license from the dashboard, and the officer on the other side of the car followed Thomas’s hand with a flashlight.

“That process was what I felt like I had to do in order to ensure that we’d get home safely,” Thomas said.

He then explained to his son and his teammates that it was necessary for him to “deescalate the situation [he] didn’t escalate in the first place.” He said it was not about what it should be, but the reality of what it is.

Thomas also spoke about the influence media can have on the perspective of how people view an athlete practicing activism. He discussed how Kaepernick said his actions were not intended to disrespect the U.S. flag or the military, but to stand against police brutality, systematic racism and the political process.

Thomas said when someone does not like the message an activist is sending, they will twist the words to morph others’ views on it to go against the original message. Each side of an issue will focus on personally attacking the other by discrediting them, he said.

“You have to be prepared to be able to passionately defend it in a way when you first came out with it because the naysayers or people who want to prove you wrong will try to squash your position,” Thomas said. “If you’re not able to follow up that second question or be able to eloquently speak about your position, [the media] is going to make you look like a buffoon, and that will hurt the cause even more.”

Thomas said social media has transformed the way activists get their message out to everyone that follows them on social media, in contrast to when Thomas played for the NBA and athletes had to wait for reporters to ask a question and then hope they conveyed those feelings correctly.

During media coverage, Thomas said he believes the “why” factor is often ignored in regards to when an athlete performs an act of activism, and instead uses headlines that will result in the most number of clicks. Moritz, who teaches journalism classes, said oftentimes writers do not write their own headlines, and instead, the responsibility is with the editor, whose word choice can distort what the actual article is about.

Thomas said there is a specific relationship between athletes and reporters. Once someone writes a negative article about the athlete, they automatically lose trust and start getting generic responses, disrupting the relationship.

“We have younger athletes now that are being inspired by things that Lebron is doing and Kaepernick is doing, using their voices. And my advice to them always is to be prepared for the criticism that is definitely going to come,” Thomas said.

Thomas has contributed to The Washington Post, Huffington Post, CNN, ESPN, Hoopsype.com, slamonline, MSNBC and WPFW 89.3FM, the Collision.

“[My biggest takeaway was] definitely how important it is for athletes to speak their minds and to be open about what you believe and say, no matter who you are,” said Oswego State student and basketball fan Justin Kraus.

Photo by Kassadee Paulo | The Oswegonian