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How Mississippi State sports community has responded to racial unrest in America

Tyler Horka
Mississippi Clarion Ledger

The streets of Starkville have stayed silent, but the Mississippi State social media scene hasn't.

Peaceful protests and violent riots have occurred across America in recent days in response to the death of George Floyd after a Minneapolis police officer knelt on Floyd's neck for several minutes during an arrest. While a peaceful protest took place in Oxford over the weekend, no groups had convened in Starkville as of Monday morning.

The administrators, coaches and players who call Starkville home, though, have expressed their feelings about the current climate of racial tension in the United States.

Mississippi State athletic director John Cohen released a statement on Twitter Saturday night. He wrote that he is having a hard time trying to process the "senseless loss of lives, racial violence and social injustice" that continues in the U.S. today. 

"I cannot presume to know the pain that the African American community is feeling, but I know it's real," Cohen said in the statement. "Everyone deserves to be treated equally and feel safe." 

Cohen wrote that everyone in America must do their part to set into motion a collective change in the way citizens of the country approach the issue of racism. University president Mark Keenum released a statement Sunday, saying racism is a reality that still threatens the country's future. 

Keenum called on the Mississippi State community to lessen the burdens young African Americans face in trying to become successful members of a society that still seems to be heavily stacked against them. 

"I challenge all of us to hold fast to MSU's core values of diversity, inclusion, tolerance, and respect for others and to strive together to assure that those values do not waver or change." 

'I am in constant prayer for protection over him'

Mississippi State football coach Mike Leach tweeted a picture that included a quote from Martin Luther King Jr. Here's what it said: 

"People fail to get along because they fear each other; they fear each other because they don't know each other; they don't know each other because they have not communicated with each other." 

Softball coach Samantha Ricketts echoed Leach's sentiments in tweeting a list of things everyone can do to sympathize with their peers. She told her followers to have tough conversations with their family and friends and to contact their local politicians to become more educated. 

Ricketts also encouraged donating to racial justice causes and registering to vote. 

Women's basketball coach Nikki McCray-Penson tweeted that she woke up Sunday with a "heavy heart." She said there is no excuse for racism and violence to still be so prevalent in the world. 

McCray-Penson said she will fight for and provide endless support for the young women she coaches, every one of whom has a minority ethnic background like McCray-Penson herself. 

"As a mom of a young black son, I am in constant prayer for protection over him," McCray-Penson said in her tweet. "Praying to God for healing for our nation and praying for those families for the senseless lives that have been lost." 

'If you're not with US, you're against us'

JaMya Mingo-Young, a rising sophomore on McCray-Penson's roster, tweeted about the issue of race Sunday evening. Her remark was much shorter than her coach's but was just as telling and profound. 

"If you're not with US, you're against us...." Mingo-Young said. She ended the tweet with the Black Lives Matter hashtag. 

Kobe Jones, a rising senior defensive lineman, took a unique approach to the situation on his Twitter account. He prefaced his tweet by saying he normally does not make his political views public because "there are a lot of fools in this world who confuse righteousness for weakness." 

But when he made his argument, he tried to explain why politics should not be the crux of the problem anyway. 

"This is not a battle between races. It's a battle between Good and Evil," Jones tweeted. "What is race anyways? Don't be fooled, and don't be scared. The only way this works out is if we work together." 

Fellow defensive lineman Nathan Pickering took a similar, shortened stance. Pickering, a sophomore from Seminary, told his Twitter followers that people constantly tell him to "quit acting white."

"This world needs to stop looking down at COLOR and start looking up at GOD!" Pickering tweeted. "I AM BLACK AND I AM PROUD!!" 

Contact Tyler Horka at thorka@gannett.com. Follow @tbhorka on Twitter. To read more of Tyler's work, subscribe to the Clarion Ledger today!