CHAMPAIGN — Tim Turner received an important text message amid ongoing protests of George Floyd’s death.

It came from Nate Albaugh, the man Turner took over for as Champaign Central’s football coach once Turner was hired in 2018.

A local white man, Albaugh, reaching out to a local black man, Turner, following the May 25 death of Floyd in Minneapolis after a now-former white police officer knelt on the black man’s neck for close to nine minutes.

“His text said something to the effect of, ‘I apologize for my ignorance, and I apologize for not understanding before,’” Turner said. “And what I said to him ... is he didn’t need to apologize.

“Once we get to a world when more white people — and that’s just plain and simple, more white people — are willing to accept that and stand up and say, ‘No, this is wrong ... people shouldn't be dying in the street this way,’ then I think we have a chance to make the world change.”

Turner is the latest black local prep sports presence to make his voice heard in the wake of Floyd’s death, which on Wednesday resulted in a second-degree murder charge for Derek Chauvin, the former Minneapolis police officer who was initially charged with third-degree murder last Friday.

Last Sunday’s protests and looting at Champaign’s Marketplace Mall, on top of what already was happening across the nation in response to Floyd’s death, made Turner realize “I can’t stay quiet” on the subject.

“I’ve got to assume that ... some of our kids are out there,” said Turner, also including former Maroons in that comment. “It’s become one of those situations where you’ve got to stand up.

“And I’ve got some small platform, and I’d like to be able to use it to help. I’d like to be able to use it to help the kids, but more importantly to use it to help create some change.”

Turner believes race-related discussions can’t be danced around anymore if the United States is to avoid situations like Floyd’s death in the future.

At the same time, however, Turner said the events that led to Floyd’s death is about more than race.

“It’s about a man being murdered,” Turner said. “And, sure, it is a black man that was murdered by a white cop. But a man was murdered in the street, and as a society, we can’t be OK with that, whether he was a black man, white man, rich, poor, whatever. We can’t be OK with that.”

Turner’s Central football roster is racially diverse, and he noted that interacting with people of different color is something Champaign kids as a whole are largely familiar with.

That makes it a necessity, Turner feels, to have conversations among team members about topics such as Floyd’s death.

“We don’t sugar-coat it,” Turner said. “We keep it 100. We don’t shy away from issues with our kids.”

As other black high school coaches and athletes have expressed to The News-Gazette this week, Turner also turned his attention to what transpired this past weekend at Marketplace Mall, as well as similar scenes in other cities.

“What’s happening is mostly you’re seeing these people running out of stores with armfuls of loot, and for the most part, it’s black people,” Turner said, “and so when people look at that, I think a lot of people can make the assumption that this is something that all black people do.

“So we go and bust down Old Navy and steal a bunch of jeans. What’s that do? It doesn’t do anything, really.”

Turner said he would rather see those involved in looting exercising their right to vote when the opportunity arises. And he’d equally like to see white people taking an increased role in the more peaceful response to Floyd’s death.

“When any black people are protesting, oftentimes it just comes across as angry black people,” Turner said, “as opposed to people that are tired of seeing people that they know and love and others being killed in the streets.

“I’ve said it often: (When) people who don’t have any direct connection to black people stand up to say, ‘This is wrong,’ that’s when we got a shot.”

Colin Likas is the preps coordinator at The News-Gazette. He can be reached at clikas@news-gazette.media, or on Twitter at @clikasNG.

Colin Likas is the preps coordinator at The News-Gazette. He can be reached at clikas@news-gazette.media, or on Twitter at @clikasNG.

"

"