There’s been plenty of talk about social equality in 2020.
Jaylen Brown has been one of the most outspoken NBA players when it comes to the subject. And he has a new message he wants to get across about the issue: It’s time to retire the word “reform” from the conversation.
“Reform, we hear it a lot and we’ve been saying that for a long time. Years,” Brown told reporters Wednesday during a video press conference, as transcribed by CBS Boston. “If I wanted to reform my house I might upgrade my kitchen, I might change my garage, I might even do something outside. But the house is still the same. So I think we need to start using different words other than reform, because it’s not the right energy that we are trying to convey.
“I think that ‘recreate’ and ‘dismantle’ and things like that are words we should maybe use. It’s obvious that this incrementalism in this system has just been stringing us along. Year after year after year, reform has been a topic of conversation and some of the same things have happened. Black people are still being killed in their houses, in their backyards, outside of places they spend time at.
“Reform is not the word, so we need to find a new word.”
Brown has gone to great lengths to encourage and impact change in recent months. The 23-year-old, as you likely remember, made a 15-hour trip to Atlanta earlier this year to participate in a protest following the death of George Floyd in Minneapolis, Minn.
He spoke up again a few months later when the NBA shut down briefly after players began protesting and boycotting following the Jacob Blake shooting in Kenosha, Wisc. on Aug. 23. He reportedly defended the Milwaukee Buck’s decision to boycott Game 5 of their first-round series and was one of the cooler heads during the subsequent all-league meeting.
Thumbnail photo via Ashley Landis/USA TODAY Sports Images
