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West Indies cricket legend, fast bowler Michael Holding, wants people to be educated on racism.
Holding made his emotional plea on the morning of the opening Test between West Indies and England, illustrating his comments with examples of what black people experience.
A lot of discussion on Black Lives Matter has taken place leading up to the series, with the players taking a knee, a protest against police brutality and racism before the match.
The t-shirts the players wear also have “black lives matter” written on them. George Floyd’s murder in the US by a white police officer two months ago has created a wave of emotion concerning the treatment of black people.
During a pre-match discussion on TV Sky Sports, Holding said, “Education is important unless we just want to continue living the life that we are living and continue just having demonstrations every now and again with a few people saying a few things.”
“When I say education I mean going back in history.”
“What people need to understand is that this thing stems from a long time ago, hundreds of years ago. The dehumanization of the black race is where it started. People will tell you, ‘That’s a long time ago, get over it,'” the cricket legend says.
“No, you don’t get over things like that and society has not gotten over something like that.”
Holding says black people have been constantly portrayed in a negative light.
“We have been brainwashed and not just black people, white people have been brainwashed in different ways…look at the image they give you of Jesus Christ – pale skin, blonde hair, blue eyes…that is the brainwashing to show you this is what perfection is. This is what the image of perfection is.”
On the other hand, Judas who betrayed Jesus, was a black man. People are brainwashed that because Judas was the black man he was the bad man, Holding says.
When he went to school in Jamaica he was never taught anything positive about black people, Holding says.
People say there is nothing called white privilege, but from where he stands, Holding says this is not the case.
“Give me a break. I don’t see any white people going into a store on Oxford Street (in England) and being followed.
“A black man walks in somebody is following him everywhere he goes. That is basic white privilege, whether that white person went there to rob the place or not he is not going to be thought of in that way and things like that have to change.”
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