Men’s basketball player Shackylle Dezonie ’22 was 11 years old when African American high school student Trayvon Martin was killed in a gated community while visiting family in Sanford, Fla.
“It’s been a recurring cycle ever since,” Dezonie said. “Philando Castile, Tamir Rice, Eric Garner, Breonna Taylor, Sandra Bland, and unfortunately the list goes on. Now, with the murder of George Floyd, I can only hope that this time there will be a different outcome, and we can get justice for these families that have been affected by these unjust killings.”
Seeing a need for action, Dezonie and three of his teammates, Jordan James ’21, Gabe Ravetz ’22, and Antone Walker ’21, grouped together to organize an outreach program through social media called Athletes Taking Action (ATA). The four basketball players began networking with other student-athletes on campus and found widespread interest in other teams wanting to make donations in support of the Black Lives Matter movement.
“We got notes back not only telling us that their team was now collecting donations but that their teammates wanted to share the initiative with athletes they knew at other schools,” Ravetz said. “This is when we realized the true impact a concept like this could have.”
Athletes Taking Action provides potential gift-makers with a list of 81 organizations taking donations and an additional list of 48 people who are matching donations to organizations supporting the Black Lives Matter movement. But if teams are so inclined, the Wesleyan men’s basketball players have made it known that individual teams retain the autonomy to donate to an organization of their choosing.
Read more →