Justin Bethel talks about issue of racism and Confederate flag
Arizona Cardinals cornerback Justin Bethel was born in South Carolina. The recent shooting at the historic black church in Charleston, South Carolina really hit home for Bethel. His father, Chris, is a minister and musician who performs at churches across the country.
“It’s definitely scary,” Justin Bethel said, via ESPN.com. “You’re in church and you’re praising the Lord and you’re trying to enjoy that moment with your fellow Christians, and you don’t ever think that’s a place where you’ll be attacked at.
“It definitely could put fear in a lot of people. If I can’t be safe at church, where can I be safe? It can happen anywhere. There’s no place off limits.”
Bethel said the Confederate flag to him and “a lot of African-Americans”, it represents racism for a war where they wanted to continue slavery.
“It might mean something good or positive for a group of people but when there are so many people who are affected by it in a negative way and it has such a negative connotation toward a group of people, really what’s the point in keeping it up?” Bethel asked.
“It’s really dividing a state into putting people against each other. So, at this point, with the shooting in Charleston, it’s definitely time to come together and see from everybody’s point of view and see that there are so many people it’s affecting in a negative way that it should be taken down.”
Bethel went on to say that racism has been around this country for a long time. This one act of violence is nothing new.
“It just happened to be shown on that big of a scale,” Bethel said. “It’s been there but it hasn’t come out to where [everyone] knew about it. It was under the radar and stuff has been happening but not to that extent.”
Bethel would like people to come together and teach one another to help end racism. He goes on to say that it is important for each generation to teach the next about not judging people by the color of their skin.
“It’s something that, as a state, we have to come together and support each other and realize that it still is a problem and there are people out there that are like that,” Bethel said. “They have a lot of animosity toward people of color and I feel like the only way we’re going to stop that as a country, as a state, as individuals is awareness and raising our kids to not see people for color, not raise them to think if you see a black guy he might rob you or things like that.
“Start by raising our kids to not judge people, not to stereotype people as a group. ... It takes time. We’ve come a long way from where we used to be, but it’s still not where it needs to be. It takes time and each generation can be the generation that progresses us forward and changes the outlook that people have on society and individuals in our society.”
(h/t ESPN)