News Americas, NEW YORK, NY, Fri. June 5, 2020: A US basketball coach is weighing in on the current state of the US amid protests, admitting that much of his perspective on racial issues comes from his wife, the daughter of Caribbean immigrants.
Frank Martin, the men’s basketball head coach at the University of South Carolina, wrote on his Twitter account that sometimes athletes and coaches can be blinded to the hold the effects of racism still have in the United States.
And he admitted that he leans “real hard” on his wife Anya, the daughter of Jamaican immigrants, to help him prepare his children and players for the future.
Mrs. Martin, nee Forrest, was born in Queens, NY and was a track and field scholarship at Massachusetts where she excelled as a hurdles and relay specialist to earn a bachelor’s and then a master’s degree. Now, she helps her husband raise their three biracial children.
“Seeing life through her eyes and experiences has allowed me to be a much better human being in helping me to understand her different cultural experiences,” Martin wrote. “This moment is not about us, but in trying to stand up for people that look like our family, the people we grew up with, and for all of our African-American teammates, former players and present players. We have both experienced the pain that others’ ignorance causes because of the color of our skin, the annunciation of Francisco Jose Martin or speaking the language we first learned (Anya’s Jamaican accent or Frank speaking Spanish).”
“Hate does not drown hate; you need love to do that,” he added. “To earn love, we have to listen to the concerns of others and give love.”
