MINNEAPOLIS — It may be an understatement to say that the last few days have been extremely difficult on our country, and the epicenter of it all has been Minneapolis.
It’s a city that the Gonzaga basketball team has had connections to over the years in terms of players.
"Minneapolis has been on fire, man. Both figuratively and literally," said former Gonzaga forward Sam Dower.
Dower was one of the first Gonzaga basketball players to hail from that city, and he now resides there.
"It’s just crazy to see that us as human beings haven’t progressed enough to where we still judge each other based on the color of our skin," said Dower. "We’re still letting these things happen and allowed through our system that’s built to protect us, but apparently not if you’re black. That’s how I feel and how a lot of other people like me feel as well."
Dower, like many others in Minneapolis, protested this past week.
He witnessed from the other side of the highway one of the most scariest moments of the past few days: When a tanker drove into a crowd of protesters.
"I didn’t know what was happening," he recounts. "We were just peacefully kneeling, giving a moment of silence for George Floyd. We had one of the leaders talking and then all the sudden we hear a huge semi truck come blowing his horn and people crying, running. We don’t know what’s going on, like, 'Is this the police?' Then I see this big semi stopped where we’re at. He ended our protest. That was a terrible, terrible thing to do."
"What can we do if we can’t peacefully protest? We got people trying to run us over on a highway, on a blocked highway at that. He finds a way to get on there, coming down at 70 miles an hour," he said. "What else can we do but riot? Like what else can we do?"
"Obviously I don’t condone the fires and stuff like that, and I heard that’s people from out of town or whatever it may be," he said. "The thing is, none of that stuff would’ve been happening if George Floyd didn’t die. We wouldn’t be talking about this right now. None of this would be happening. Something has to happen so that tragic, tragic things like this don’t happen."
George Floyd’s murder also resonated with Sam for a different reason.
"It hit me hard because I grew up in south Minneapolis, and I used to stay with my grandma for a lot of nights and stuff like that. I literally used to live and stay a couple blocks away from where that happened. It hit me like man, this stuff is still happening. That could’ve been anybody in my family. I still have family there," he said.
As for what Sam wants to come as a result of Floyd’s passing?
"I hope the voices of the people in Minneapolis are heard. I hope there’s a change. I hope there’s something active that goes on, some type of plan, some type of system that won't allow things like this to happen. And when it does? It gets nipped in the bud right away. There’s no tolerance, zero tolerance. Just like zero tolerance for driving without a seat belt. Police officer sees you and pulls you over and you get a ticket. That’s the same process, same way of thinking we need for social injustice, systematic injustice, racial profiling."