I’m not here to relive or re-litigate November 2015. The issues that led to it, the execution and the response were different four-and-a-half years ago than they have been over the last ten days. But racial tension is back front and center across the country, and the response to that tension took center stage for Mizzou athletics again on Wednesday afternoon.

A number of Mizzou student-athletes, along with coaches and administrators, marched from the columns in front of Jesse Hall to the columns near the Boone County courthouse. The idea was that of sophomore safety Martez Manuel, but there were more than 200 people in the group by the time they started the walk.

“Our players were not asking for permission,” head coach Eli Drinkwitz said. “They were seeking support."

Upon arrival at the courthouse, all took a knee for 8 minutes and 46 seconds in recognition of George Floyd, who died after Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin knelt on his neck for that amount of time. When they stood up, the Missouri contingent entered the courthouse and 62 athletes registered as Missouri voters.

On Thursday morning, Georgia Tech announced that its nine teams that will be in season on November 3rd will hold no mandatory activities in order to give the athletes and coaches every opportunity to vote in the national election.

Five years ago, Missouri was in the national headlines for racial demonstrations on campus. Today, it’s back there. But this time, praise is being heaped on Mizzou.

Again, the situations aren’t completely analogous. But the message is pretty similar: Change needs to happen and the student-athletes are ready to make their voices heard in making it.

“I know in the past Missouri has not always been a great place for minorities,” linebacker Nick Bolton said. “But since I’ve been here, it’s been open arms.

“Change doesn’t happen if you don’t express yourselves.”

Missouri is far from the only place this is happening. College coaches and athletes all over the country have spoken out. Late Wednesday night, Florida State star defensive tackle Marvin Wilson took to Twitter to say that the Seminoles would not be participating in offseason workouts until further notice over a disagreement with head coach Mike Norvell’s statements about talking to his players in the wake of Floyd’s death and the ensuing protests. By early Thursday afternoon, Wilson had posted a video on Instagram saying “Took a stand we got what we wanted and are moving forward.”

“We have a platform,” senior defensive end Chris Turner said. “It’s our choice and our decision if we use it or not. I feel like a lot of people listen to what we say.

“Most of my teammates, they’re black guys. We’ve all seen crazy stuff. We’ve all been affected by it and we all want to see a change.”

I’ve talked to Mizzou head basketball coach Cuonzo Martin and football color analyst Howard Richards this week about these issues. Both are black men who have seen racism in various forms for all of their lives. Both have spoken up and spoken out forcefully this week.

“We're in our world and the stuff's going so fast,” Martin said. “You got games, you got the season, you talk about it, you talk behind the scenes. I think we've got to get past behind the scenes. We have to start to get uncomfortable, get out in the forefront of it and I'm the first to admit that. I can't speak on nobody else unless I'm doing a good job of it on my own.”

Again, these aren’t new issues. Martin talked about Harriet Tubman and Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Richards talked about growing up in the Civil Rights era and being spat on and treated poorly in Texas in the 1980s. The names Trayvon Martin and Eric Garner and Tamir Rice and many others preceded those of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor and Ahmaud Arbery. But the reaction seems different this time.

“I have thought to myself, why now and what took so long for people to finally say hey this is wrong, this shouldn’t be happening,” Turner said. “I’m not sure what took so long, but I’m happy that it is (happening) now.”

“It does feel different,” Richards said. “The actions of people have stood out. There are people nationwide that are fighting for this struggle. People of color, Caucasians, Asians. There are people that are fighting for what’s right. They believe in justice. It’s a proud moment.

“Maybe this case is a tipping point.”

For Martin, the why now is pretty simple.

“I think more than anything, this was a clear shot,” he said. “You can sit there and say these other cases, this happened, this happened. Well, this was a clear shot so the whole world could see it. It was a good shot. I don't know what else to tell you.”

Five years ago, maybe we weren’t all ready to listen. Maybe it’s because of a video. Maybe it’s because there are so many more voices across the country than there were then and there is safety and comfort in numbers. Maybe we just get a little smarter every year. But it seems different. There is proof of that not just in the fact that so many people are speaking up across the country, but also in the way we are receiving their message. And that’s true right here in mid-Missouri as much as anywhere else.

Nobody has all the answers. I probably don’t have any of them. What I’ve chosen to do this week is to ask questions. I’ve asked them of Cuonzo Martin and Howard Richards, of Chris Turner and Nick Bolton. I’ve asked them of the African Americans I’ve gotten to know and respect in my profession over the last 20 years. Their answers to my questions have helped me think about what I can do going forward, what I haven’t done enough of or have done too much of in the past. My generation, I’d like to think, is less racist than my parents’ generation. My children's will be less racist than mine. We aren't there yet, but maybe we’re slowly getting there.

“Change is not a sprint, it’s a marathon,” Drinkwitz said. “It’s time as a nation to call out right versus wrong.”

Has anything changed? We won’t know for a few years. It seems like it has. We hope it has. Time will tell. Too much has passed already. We can all choose to be part of the problem or part of the solution. Plenty at Mizzou are trying to be part of the solution. They need all the company they can get.

“Have we made progress?” Martin said. “Yes. But this is the land of the free. If you balance the scales and they tip one way, then that's not balance. Everybody has the right to be successful.”