BUZZ
Team’s kneeling began in 2020 when ‘all the young men and women Black of color were passing away from the hands of police brutality’
In response to a new mandate that athletic teams stand for the playing of the pregame national anthem, Howard University’s women’s basketball team has opted to remain in its locker room during that time.
According to The Hilltop, Howard’s Department of Athletics issued the rule following a late-December women’s game against the U.S. Military Academy, at which members of the Howard squad took a knee during the anthem.
Howard Associate Head Coach Brian Davis said the kneeling players’ “intentions were not to be disrespectful,” and the university’s basketball program “as a whole has family members who served in the military.”
Davis claimed the West Point team “kind of took [the kneeling] the wrong way and tried to take it somewhere where it wasn’t.” He added if they took it as disrespect, “we definitely apologized to them, and let them know where we stood with it.”
Davis said the team has been kneeling for the anthem since 2020 “when all the social justice things were happening” and “all the young men and women Black of color [who] were passing away from the hands of police brutality.”
Howard Vice President of Athletics Kery Davis said the new requirement “is about supporting our students’ freedom of expression while upholding mutual respect for all communities.”
The men’s soccer team held a meeting at which it debated “standing in solidarity” with the women’s basketball team or comply with the new rule, according to team goalkeeper Ireal Wyze-Daly.
He added it was his understanding a player who decided to kneel “could carry consequences” for all of Howard’s sports teams.
Ultimately, the soccer team decided to continue standing for the anthem.
“Personally, I don’t stand for the national anthem, I don’t really believe the messages within the national anthem,” said Wyze-Daly who’s from Trinidad.
“[N]ot being American, it doesn’t really align with my beliefs or morals, considering the Black history in America and the oppression that has occurred,” Wyze-Daly added. “If they can take away our right to protest, what else can they take away? [It] would basically be forced to bow down to the white oppressive system.”
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