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OU Athletes BLM Protest: “Racism Is Also A Big Pandemic”
By: Claudia Cisneros
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ATHENS, Ohio (WOUB) — As the pandemic enters its fifth month, anti-racial protests resist dying out in Athens. A group of about thirty student athletes from Ohio University summoned a ‘Peaceful Protest at the Courthouse‘ for Saturday, August 8 at noon.
“We’re here today to show support with our Black teammates and other athletes,” says Maggie Nedoma, a volleyball athlete, “America needs to do better with them, systemically.”
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Bobcats Lead Change has been organizing rallies in support of the Black Lives Matter movement amid the pandemic. This is their fifth protest in Athens city.
Basketball player and one of the organizers, Kaylee Bambule, says that they continue protesting because they want to make sure that the message still gets out. “This is a small town, so we want to make sure that people here know this is still a problem.”
Bambule underscores that the protests are just on part of the job that Bobcats Lead Change do. “Our group is doing a lot more than just protesting. We’re making sure that we’re a getting people to vote,” but mainly educating people is their goal “as we’re at a campus full of a lot of white Americans.”
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“Obviously we have a big pandemic going, but racism is also a big pandemic in the United States,” says Drummond who like the other athletes wears a mask and is social distancing “to let people know that black lives matter, today, tomorrow and forever.”