Lewis speaking out on racial injustice, but has hope for future
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On the 57th Anniversary of The March on Washington, Florida student-athletes and coaches joined the Gainesville for Social Protest last Friday.
UF hoops star Scottie Lewis led the march down University Avenue to the Bo Diddley Community Plaza, where he addressed a crowd of more than 200 protesters.
“I think my message is extremely universal,” Lewis said this week. “It's just simply to spread peace, love and positivity throughout our world, not only in the United States. There's discrimination everywhere, there's hatred all over the world, and we're trying to limit that as much as possible. But obviously, it starts in our backyards.
“Football guys (postponed) their scrimmage to come to the protest, which I thought was awesome. We had volleyball out there, soccer out there, baseball out there. You had regular Gainesville natives out there. It was a mixture of people and a beautiful sight to see.”
Surrounded by teammates and fellow Gators, Lewis shared his concerns and fears about racism and police brutality, as well as his hopes and solutions for a better future. Lewis said he decided to become more vocal and use his platform after putting himself in the shoes of African-Americans who’ve been unjustly killed by law enforcement.
“It could have been me if I wasn’t dribbling a basketball,” Lewis said, “If I get pulled over by the cops, they’re not going to care that much. They’re going to treat me the same way they’re going to treat someone else that looks like me. They’re not going to ask, ‘Do you play here?’, unless I have something on.
“I can’t wear Florida stuff 24/7. We just don’t get that much gear, so I don’t have that shield around me all the time. When I’m in regular clothes and happen to get pulled over, there’s certain protocols and rules you have to follow — and it shouldn’t be like that.”
Lewis said his outspokenness comes from his mother, Shavasha Smith, a “powerful, strong-willed” woman who raised five children on her own. When they lived in New Jersey, Lewis remembers his mom teaching him about social rules he had to follow “as a Black kid growing up.”
“There were certain things I couldn’t do, and when I asked my mom why, it was simply because I didn’t look like my friends did,” Lewis recalled. “I couldn’t stay out past a certain time. I couldn’t drive my car in Wald, New Jersey, or in other places because of the racism.”
Lewis called it a large-scale, 400-years plus problem that needs to be addressed not just through social activism, but education and police reform. Lewis understands that using his voice will make him a target, but he’s willing to “give myself up and sacrifice” to help set a strong foundation for generations to come.
“When you go to protests and you look out to the crowd, you see a very diverse group of people all fighting for one thing,” he said. “I guess in retrospect it's bigger than African-Americans. It's involving the LGBTQ communities, black people, white people, people of color all over the world who have felt less human simply because of what other people say about them.
“Policies can be passed and laws can be created and certain rules and regulations can be set, but if people don't intrinsically feel respected and loved by everyone none of that really matters. … The more people who have voices that are able to spread as much love and spread as much education on the uniqueness and the individuality and the diversity of all people, I think the better.”
What did Lewis learn most from the protest last Friday?
“That there’s a lot more things to be hopeful for than I thought,” he said. “The fact that you can look out to the crowd and see a little white boy holding up a sign that says ‘Black Lives Matter’. You know, that’s a whole entirely different generation than mine.”
