The Press Stories
Floyd died in Minneapolis on May 25 after being arrested by a police officer, who had pinned him to his knees on his neck for several minutes.
Police were called after a store owner believed Floyd had used a forged invoice to pay.
“The reality is, as a black person, people are being killed on the street, people are being knocked down, and the understanding that this is not the case for all other races,” Wilson, who led the Seattle Seahawks to the victory in Super Bowl XLVIII, he told reporters.
“This is particularly so for the black community. I think of my stepson, I think of my daughter, I think of our new baby on the way. It’s amazing to see these things happening in front of our faces.”
“So, I have a heavy heart right now. I don’t have all the right answers or anything.”
Wilson revealed an incident when he faced prejudice while at a restaurant in California after winning the Super Bowl in 2014.
“I was in a place for breakfast,” said Wilson. “I was online and everything, and an older white knight told me, ‘That’s not for you.’
“And I said, ‘Eh? Excuse me?’ At first I thought I was kidding. They turned their back on me a little. I had just come out of a Super Bowl and everything else, so if someone is talking to me like that, think [a different] circumstance and how people talk to you.
“At that time, I really got back to being young and not putting my hands in my pocket and that experience. That was a heavy time for me right there. I thought, man, this is still real, and I’m on the west coast. This is really real right now. “
“The reality is that Colin was trying to symbolize the oppression that was going on in the United States and has been going on for 400 years,” said Wilson.
“The reality is what Colin was trying to do, he was trying to do the right thing, trying to stand up figuratively, because of what was happening in the United States … The reality is that we all need to help, we all need to find our own ways of how we are going to love and how we are going to make a difference.
“And everyone can do it differently. I don’t know what everyone is going to do and how they are going to do it, but it calls for people to understand what is really happening.”
Memorial services in honor of Floyd will be held in Minnesota, Texas and North Carolina over the next five days, with the Minneapolis service on Thursday.
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