Pete Carroll calls on white people to listen to Black people in impassioned speech
SEATTLE -- The Seattle Seahawks canceled their scheduled practice Saturday after a lengthy team meeting. Coach Pete Carroll gave an impassioned speech while addressing reporters later in the day.
"Our players are screaming at us: 'Can you feel me? Can you see me? Can you hear me?'" said Carroll, who is white. "They just want to be respected. They just want to be accepted. Just like all of our white children and families and want to be. It's no different because we're all the same.
"And there's a lot of people that don't see it that way, but there's a lot of people that do."
Carroll spoke for more than 14 minutes about the need for white people to gain a better understanding of racism in America.
"We followed economics and rich white guys making money, and they put together (a) system of slavery, and we've never left it, really. It's never gone away. The really amazing thing I've learned is Black people know the truth. They know exactly what's going on. It's white people that don't know. And it's not that they're not telling us. They've been telling us. We know what's right and what's wrong. We just have not been open to listen to it."
Carroll said all of the Seahawks players would register to vote by the end of the day, and the team later tweeted it had accomplished that goal.
Watch the full speech:
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