John Wall is considered wealthy. The Washington Wizards guard is in the midst of a near $171.2 million extension. However, Wall understands his ability to live lavishly doesn’t exclude him from the fears many blacks feel with racial discrimination and social injustice.
Appearing on the Athletic’s Hoops Adjacent podcast, Wall expressed he is “terrified” of being pulled over by police.
“If I get pulled over right now, I’m terrified. To be realistic. If I’m in a dark area, or a back street, I’m not stopping. I’ll go to a high-speed chase to get to a spot where it’s a grocery store, or somewhere where’s there’s a lot of lights at, because that’s how terrifying it is.”
John Wall / Hoops Adjacent podcast
Wall grew up in Raleigh, North Carolina. A place, where Wall understood the separation of communities by race and culture. Wall may be the Wizards’ franchise player, but the racial barriers he experienced through life have a lasting impression.
“You’re telling me if I want to be a black kid to jog in a neighborhood, and I say, ‘Ok, I want to cut through this white neighborhood, this rich neighborhood,’ and then all of a sudden, I’m targeted to get killed? Because I don’t belong there? Those are the kind of things I grew up with, like you wouldn’t go to this side of town where you wasn’t allowed. Why? We breathe the same air.”
Wall continued
The death of George Floyd has sparked outrage, protests and conversation among many in the nation about the social injustice blacks have been forced to endure for generations. Floyd died in the custody of four Minneapolis police officers. The four have since been fired and charged with second-degree murder, including Derek Chauvin who placed his knee over Floyd’s neck for nearly nine minutes.
But Floyd’s death isn’t alone. Most recently, Breonna Taylor was killed in her home in Louisville when police shot her at least eight times. Ahmaud Arbery was shot to death by a white father and son while running in a Georgia neighborhood.
“It’s devastating, and it’s kind of frustrating. Sometimes people want to go out there and act with their anger and do things. But sometimes the best way to do it is to speak with your words and not be silenced … I just feel like the most important thing we really all want to see is justice. I think that’s really what we want.
A lot of us have gone out here and protested, and doing it in a peaceful manner and in the right ways, getting people to kneel and all those type of things. But I just think we want justice. That’s the fact of it; we want justice. And the scary part about it is, I feel like this has been going on for decades, been going on for so much longer than the time that I’ve been on this earth. But if we didn’t have social media or camera phones right now, we wouldn’t be able to see this act going on.”
John Wall
Wall along with his Wizards teammates released a united statement against racism and social injustice. The six-time NBA All-Star added that the players agreed to partake during a group chat.
Wall has been a pillar in both the Raleigh and DC community. Most recently, he launched 202 Assist, a rent relief program for residents of DC’s Ward 8 in Southeast affected by the COVID-19 pandemic. Twitter’s CEO, Jack Dorsey, pledged $200,000 to Wall’s cause.
