The main organizers of Saturday's Clemson Community Peaceful Demonstration -- Mike Jones, Trevor Lawrence, Cornell Powell and Darien Rencher -- took part in a media teleconference a while ago to discuss the event and their thoughts on everything that led to it.
Here's a rundown on what they said:
Rencher: Wanted to respond to our community and the world at large. Wanted to come up with something that says Black lives do matter, and to unify our community. Been awesome to see everyone in the community come together in the shadows. Hopefully it will be a pivot moment as we fight for equality.
Lawrence: We really wanted to do it the right way. Need to recognize everyone before us that has come together to make a difference. We want to bring people together. We don’t want to divide further. Not just athletes. It’ll be open to the whole community, which is awesome. We’ve had constant communication with the leadership, which has been really cool.
Mike Jones: My heart felt the need to do something and everyone came together. The whole community is behind us. I felt it was something we had to do.
Cornell Powell: A great way to use our platform and get our message out that we want equality in everything we do as a black community and stop police brutality. This is really going to bring the community together and do justice for us.
(On what the last couple weeks have been like amid so much unrest nationally)
Rencher: As a young black man it’s been draining. Can’t remember the last time I’ve been this emotionally drained. All your emotions are flooded with what’s going on, constant images of the evil in this world. There is reason to be angry and to rage, but it’s been cool to see my white friends and others not just listening but believing the stories of what it’s like to be black in America.
Jones: Personally was heartbroken at first because growing up it feels like I’ve seen it over and over again. But right now I feel more hopeful than I have in my entire life. I’ve had tough conversations that have shown me the whole world cares right now. We’re about to change the world.
Lawrence: At first you have something in your gut that you need to do something. Then you get overwhelmed wondering what you can do. It has been exhausting but cool to see everyone come together. Step 3 of this has been let’s figure out what to do and be united in doing it. Amazing that we can get this many people on the same page to do something.
(On senior meeting with Coach Swinney)
Powell: The meeting was basically about him being able to listen to us and hearing our pain and our frustration with what’s going on around the world. The black players on the team are really hurting from what’s going on and he did a great job of listening and hearing our thoughts. In the end he gave some great feedback and great discussion for us. It was really good for us to get our feelings out as a group. We then did it with the whole team. And we grew as a team and moved forward.
Rencher: That was probably my most impactful meeting over my four years at Clemson. For the first time I feel like people actually want to listen to us. Coach Swinney and Kathleen just wanted to listen and hear our hearts. You can’t really blame somebody for how they grew up.
(On criticism of Dabo Swinney and how he’s handled it)
Powell: He’s been amazing to me and my family. He’s such a genuine and loving guy. Every player he’s coached can back that 100 percent. He’s handled this perfectly. He’s communicated to us.
Rencher: We can all be educated on how better to handle a situation. The best thing he’s done is consult the seniors and staff. We don’t want anything to divide us. We want to unify everyone on our team, staff, players. For us to even have this event, that’s him empowering us players and giving us more of a voice.
Jones: He’s been an awesome dude since I met him. The good thing is he’s trying to understand the things that are different from me to him. He identified that there needs to be change, and now he’s asking how to do it.
Lawrence: He’s shown an effort to learn. I’ve had a lot to learn and it’s been cool to learn from these guys. For people that don’t know Coach Swinney it’s easy to judge, but the biggest testament comes from the people who are around him every day.
(Trevor, on his social-media post and how important it was to use his platform)
I think just realizing my part in all this, realizing I do have a part to play. Even though these issues don’t affect me it does affect the world I’m living in. I want my kids to live in a world that’s equal.
(Mike Jones, on the conversations with white friends and whether they have a better understanding)
100 percent. People need to realize that when we see this stuff on TV it affects us in a big way. The conversations have been hard at times, but hard conversations is how you make change.
(On the most powerful and revealing thing they’ve seen from Dabo Swinney during this process)
Rencher: Coach Swinney came from a hard background. He came from nothing to become who he is. But at the same time, being black we didn’t get to choose it. For him to acknowledge that people can from a tough place, if you’re black you’re still behind. I think he’s understood that the whole time. We’ve shed tears and he does understand that black lives do matter. He’s verbally told us over and over again: I love you guys and support you guys, and I want to educate myself and devote resources to your cause.
(On Nuk Hopkins and others saying they want to see all references to Calhoun and Ben Tillman removed from campus)
Rencher: He also said how much Swinney has meant to him as a man. I think Nuk represents a lot of people who think black people should be a forethought, not an afterthought. Everyone is trying to move that ball forward, and Nuk is trying to play his part and see his university be the standard for what it looks like to support black people and black players. More than ever, Nuk has been more supportive of Clemson as he sees the changes we’re trying to make.
Powell: I think he was saying being a black student at Clemson and seeing an honors college named after Calhoun is really not promoting change. That’s how I took it.
Rencher: Being in conversations with people at the university, I know it’s a priority. That’s on the list to fight for stuff like that. We’re seeing it’s doable. Hopefully in the days to come we’ll see more stuff like that happen.
(On what it means to be backed by Trevor and white teammates through this)
Jones: Personally it means literally the world to me. It showed me things have to change because the support has never been like this my whole life. It shows me we’re more than just football players.
Powell: It was big for me, seeing them want to be educated and wanting to understand my pain and my teammates pain. Using their platform to speak out was really big. They care about me and how my life is affected by all this.
Rencher: Talking to my grandparents and parents, there is a difference in the world right now. It’s really become a humanity vs. inequality thing. Everyone is coming together to fight for the rights of black people in America. Before, a lot of people didn’t even listen to the stories. But now they’re listening and believing. It’s real. It’s true. Everybody has a role in this thing to move the ball forward.
(More on the meeting at Dabo's house and whether the Pearman situation came up)
Rencher: We definitely addressed it. Obviously it wasn't right. Like everybody is learning from things like this, it got brought up during a time of heightened racial tension. I feel like it really happened between those two guys. I was on the team then and nobody knew about it until it got whispered out. D.J. is close with Pearman and comes back to games. It was a really sticky situation for it to come out now with everything going on because it painted it like Coach Swinney didn't handle it the right way. Even a topic like that was touchy and it was good we discussed it. It was a family talk and I think it was good.
Powell: Coach Pearman's and Greenlee's situation should speak volumes on that situation. DJ's dad works for the football program. They continue to communicate and DJ comes to the games. Everything is still intact with the individuals involved. They took care of it and moved on from it.
(On why not just be a football player)
Trevor: We still have values and beliefs as humans, and you want to make things right that aren't right. That's really where I'm coming from.
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