Cuonzo Martin unfiltered on race and an awful week in America

Following a week of unrest and racial tension across the country after the death of George Floyd at the hands of the Minneapolis police, PowerMizzou.com spoke with Missouri head basketball coach Cuonzo Martin on Monday morning.

Martin grew up in East St. Louis and just completed his 12th season at his fourth school as a Division One head coach. Few in college athletics are more qualified to discuss the issue at the center of the country's focus the last few days than Martin. He is often outspoken on societal issues, is active with the National Association of Basketball Coaches and a voice among the coaching fraternity and has a personal story that puts experience behind his words.

At the end of a conversation that lasted about 20 minutes, Martin had just one request: "Write it to the best of your ability. Because you have a voice. Whether you know it or not, you have a voice."

So what better way to do that than to simply allow you to read everything Martin said? Below is our complete, unedited conversation with Missouri's head coach.

Martin: "When you were a young guy, what you could see as a young guy, you would think that that person did something bad. Because you didn't know what your parents knew. Of course, what we're living right now, my mom and her parents went through. My mom didn't raise me to think people were bad. We didn't talk a lot about that when we were young. But as you get older, you start to see because you're in those environments. Now as a father, the first thing I think about are my sons. I don't think so much what could happen to my daughter; you're seeing black women are being murdered as well, but I think what could happen to my sons. So my wife and I, since my sons were younger, but old enough to really recognize and realize what we were saying, we would talk about police brutality. We didn't necessarily say a color. It wasn't about that. It was just about when you start driving you do this and you do that. There's a protocol, when you encounter a police officer, this is the way you're supposed to act. First and foremost, always be respectful. You find yourself giving those type of speeches as if it's a final exam before they leave the household, which that shouldn't take place. More as a parent, just really concerned my sons, if they go out walking or go out jogging, 'What time are you getting back?' It shouldn't be that, but instinctually that's what we do."

Martin: "Yes, but you have to understand, East St. Louis when I grew up was a hundred percent black. That was my world. So I didn't see what was going on in some other country, or more or less other states. It wasn't like I was watching the news every night. East St. Louis was my world. There was talks of be aware as we got older. It wasn't like we were five, six, seven years old. I can't recall my mom talking about that. We grew up wanting to be police officers. That was a great thing. I have friends in East St. Louis that are police officers. The police officers when I was young, I looked up to those guys. They were good men. One of the guys that comes to our games here at Mizzou was a police officer, he's an assistant coach for my high school team and a wonderful man. So I didn't look at them like they were bad people. I think when you see all this, you're sitting there saying I"m a parent now and what happens is you can become desensitized when you're removed from those environments. Often times we think it's because a person is in a rough environment. That's not the case. You look around the country, men and women being murdered, it's all over. My mom, she talked about it, but it wasn't like you're leaving the house, it's an exam, be prepared. It wasn't like that. We learned a lot of lessons growing up in the streets of East St. Louis."

Martin: "I think more than anything it's reality. You get past depressing. It's exhausting. It leaves you in a state of hopelessness. If you've ever been hopeless, you know how it feels. We do Zoom calls every Sunday with the Martin side of my family. My mom, uncles, aunts, nephews, nieces, you're talking about a lot of people, generations. My mom yesterday, she talked about, she said, 'Sorry, the word sorry can't bring a mother's son back.' You can't bring her son back by saying I'm sorry. Like she said, most mothers pray for a protective fence around their sons. My mom, she probably still prays for my brother and I like we were 10, 11 years old and I'll be 49 in September. Now it's more with my brother, the nephews and, of course, all of her grandkids, but more the boys when it comes to that piece. I just think we have to come to a place where we stop valuing tranquility over progress. I think that is the most important thing. In order to make progress, we have to get uncomfortable in order for us to move forward."

Martin: "There are a lot of things and there are a lot of things that I'm doing with other people behind the scenes helping. Where we have to be strong, I have to do my part in the state of Missouri because this is my home. Of course, Columbia, but the state of Missouri and then it spills over to the Illinois side because I'm from East St. Louis. We have to do a great job where we live. What I've always talked about, what I'll continue to talk about more, I think the powers that move the country, in my opinion, just my opinion, outside of family members, your loved ones, the most important people are the school teachers. They impact young lives and young minds. So it's very important that a teacher don't judge, don't cripple, don't demean. Accept whatever the kid is at this point because you're such a powerful voice. I can remember each one of my teachers.. I can remember their faces, I can almost remember some of the words that they said because they had such a major impact on my life. Our teachers are very, very important.

Then the other part, our police officers, those are valuable, valuable people in our community, our society, our world. They have to do a job. Every police officer, their whole mission is to get home safely to their family. They have to have that same mentality when they're dealing with situations, especially when it's not hand to hand combat. When you look at probably 95, if not 100 percent, of the deaths of these black people over the course of years, rarely is there ever hand to hand combat going back and forth. It's one person with a gun. So now you think about it, it goes back to sorry cannot bring my son back.

We talked about police officers, school teachers. I think the other entity is the ministers, the priests, the bishops, the pastors and churches. There's an interaction with people. The churches have to come together. Just like what I saw with the coronavirus. Yes there were financial struggles with a lot of people but the churches have to be able to sustain those blows because we are the community. Some people tithe what they don't have to churches because they lean on them. You're the closest thing, in my opinion, to God, so I lean on your every word. So now, all I have, I've given it to you. Now I need, the churches have to be there."

Martin: "Oh yeah. For me, I've had several people on all levels when they ask me about these things they say 'What are you saying to your players now?' Well you can talk to each one of my players, this is normal conversation. Not just police brutality because I respect police officers, but we talk life stuff all the time. So when something hits, it's not as if okay, 'let's get prepared, let's gather the kids, let's do some research on it.' We've done that. We've talked about that. These are things that we talk about all the time. For our guys, I would always go back to Martin Luther King's speeches, I listen to many of them, but he always talked about 'What is your life's blueprint?' I think he gave this speech in Philadelphia. What is your life's blueprint? Number one it has to be the belief in your own worth and your own dignity. You have to believe you are important. Don't allow anybody to make you think that you're not important. You have to always feel like you count and your life matters and you have to have a place and a piece of significance. And then the other thing, you have to be strong to achieve excellence. I say to our guys, 'Even if you're treading water in the Pacific Ocean with a weight vest--not a life vest, a weight vest on--you have to fight to achieve excellence. Then the last thing we talk about you have to commit to the eternal principles of beauty, love and justice. I think if you live that way you have a chance to lead a successful life. Everything I just said took color out of the equation. That's love and life and people. He used to always use one of Langston Hughes' poems. 'If you can't fly, run. If you can't run, walk. If you can't walk, crawl.' By all means, get there. That's what we have to do as a people. All walks of life, we have to get there."

Martin: "I've never met with my team since I've been doing this and split it in half. The team, we're family. And there will be uncomfortable situations, but if it' a black issue I never wait where the white players aren't a part of the conversation. We're in this together. I've never pulled six black guys to the side and said 'Hey guys, here's the topic.' I've never done that. Everything is about team with me. Either I don't say it at all or if I have to say something I'll send a video to guys, but I've never pulled one or the other outside. We're all in this thing together."

Martin: "Not surprised. Not surprised. Again, if you knew him in high school he was that kind of guy. He was about that. As a young guy he was understanding Martin Luther King, Malcolm X. He understood that and he lived that. I don't think anybody in the NBA is surprised about it. I think if it was somebody else they've have been startled, but I think that's not surprising because that's who he is. I think he's a guy that at some point, if he chooses to be that, can be a guy that's like the NBAPA President, that sort of thing, if he chooses that world. I've also said he's one of those guys that could be done playing after eight years, start his own school, start his own University. He's one of those type of guys. Wasn't surprised at all."

Martin: "I don't think so. I don't think so. Because what happens is, you know, when you see protests and you see stuff burning, you've got to understand. A lot of times it's hard for people to understand something. You remember how many miles Harriet Tubman had to go to get to, I think it was Philadelphia, final destination. I mean, can you imagine, a strong woman for freedom, can you imagine, she went back for families, think about how tough that is in those days? You fast forward, Martin Luther King, well, we were walking, we were talking, all of a sudden, dogs after us, people throwing stuff at us, water hoses, you've seen those videos. We were just walking. We were respectful. Rodney King riots. That verdict hurt everybody. This is how we speak.

So, now, if I don't have a voice, how do I speak? Because if I don't say anything, it continues to happen. So the way I speak, though some might think, 'why are they tearing up their own stuff?' No, it's not that. This is how I speak. It's frustrating. It's almost like as a baby that can't talk, they cry all the time. They cry out because they can't talk. They're saying to mom or dad, 'I want my bottle, I want something to eat.' But this is how they speak. They cry. This is the same thing. You're talking about a race of people that is crying out because of the violence that continues to happen. This is a case where it looks like murder. When a black person murders a black person, people always seem to say, I get this all the time, 'What about, you're not really speaking on black on black crime?' Wait, wait, wait. When a black guy kills another black person, he's charged with murder, he goes to prison for the rest of his life. Murder can't be a color. Murder is murder.

I speak about black stuff in the community all the time. I do that all the time. I'm from that. We can't say what about this? That's not what this is about. I go back to Colin Kaepernick. He kneeled. That was respectful. That man wasn't disrespecting. But we want to make that the narrative so we can stop looking at this. That man didn't disrespect, he said, 'This is what's happening.' He said it back then. And every black person in those areas knew what he was talking about.

My question, then, to the other races outside of black: How do we stop this violence? I'm all ears. I'm listening. I don't want to hear all that negative stuff. Don't comment, I don't want to deal with that. If you don't have a solution I do not want to talk to you. I don't have that kind of time. Nobody has that kind of time. If you want to sit down at a table, I'm all ears. Whether we're dealing with the government, the local (officials), whatever we have to do to solve this problem, it has to stop.

All I would want as a man, all I would ever want to do is be respected. To be able to provide for my family so I can have a job to live, to be successful for life. What is wrong with that? This could be a beautiful country. It has tremendous resources. But we can't say what's going on is past. No this has been going on. Let's get this truthful. The only thing that has changed, the coronavirus has made time stop so we can see it. Now we don't have a pit stop where there's a sporting event the next day or there's a basketball event or something to cover it up. This is it."

Martin: "I've been doing this for a long time. I go home and I support and I do all these things. What happens is, I think for all coaches, we're in our world and the stuff's going so fast. 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. I can't say why isn't this guy doing that? I've got to be consumed with what's going on around me. I think you have to. The virus has allowed us to slow down, think and say, okay, this is not right. I think more than anything, this was a clear shot. 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."

Martin: "Oh yeah, no question. Without a doubt progress has been made. But the whole thing is this is the land of the free so every man should have the same opportunities. You probably have other races and nationalities outside of black and white that have come into the country and had a tremendous amount of success. The black race, you go back to the cotton industry. At that time, that was a billion dollar industry. Well, who's picking the cotton? That was a billion dollar industry and who was picking the cotton? But they haven't reaped any benefits of picking the cotton. Have we made progress? 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."

Martin: "I just think the most important thing that we have to be clear about, you have people saying 'I got white friends, I got all kind of friends, all colors.' This is not a black and white issue. This is everybody against racism. That's what this is. If you're a racist person, we have to remove that. This is not black against white. This is everybody against racism."