David Fizdale will not stop talking about injustices and symbols of oppression in America. The Memphis Grizzlies head coach isnt showing any signs of backing down or switching up his stance anytime soon.
Recently, Fizdale spoke out on two Confederate statues that are in public areas in Memphis. The statues are of former Confederate president Jefferson Davis and Confederate general Nathan Bedford Forrest, a founding member of the Klu Klux Klan and a major societal figure in post-Civil War Memphis.
My agenda is simple I want those things out of our city, out of public view, Fizdale said by phone Saturday.
Im not even saying tear them up and melt them down, he said. Put them in their proper context in history. Their proper context is in a civil rights museum, where you could put them in context and talk about how awful they were. I just feel our citizens should not have to see that involuntarily. You have Sun Studios (where Elvis Presley and other early rock n rollers cut their records) on one side of the (Health Services) Park and the University of Tennessee Medical School on the other side. How is that a good look, with people eating their lunches down there and people come down to that area to sightsee?
Mina Kimes on Twitter
wow, this david fizdale interview…read the whole thing: https://t.co/Ph6u5ODtoZ
Fizdale has been as outspoken as any NBA coach regarding racial oppression and police brutality in America.
I think they support me for the most part, he said. Obviously, its edgy. It makes people uncomfortable. But thats good. I want people to be uncomfortable. Our owner (Robert Pera), the owner of FedEx, our white owners of all the companies in the city, theyre the ones who have to step up and clean this out of our city. Money talks. What says more than people stepping up and saying were not going to have this in our city? People have stepped up and bought tickets and supported them. Im asking them to support us.
