Kyle Kuzma Pens Essay For The Players' Tribune: 'Keep demanding CHANGE'

Kyle Kuzma penned an essay for the Players' Tribune in which he opens up about the racism he experienced as a biracial child growing up in Flint, Michigan, and encourages people to keep demanding change. 

Kuzma's mother is white and his father is black, and he said as a child he struggled to fit in. 

"I’m sure a lot of biracial kids have that kind of similar story of not being black enough for the black kids and not being white enough for the white kids," Kuzma wrote. "As a kid, you don’t know the history behind all that. You can only really see the situation like the black community is telling you, 'You’re only half of us.' While to the white community, you’re just black, or worse — you’re a n*****. (They actually said stuff like that in front of me when I was in high school.)"

Kuzma called race the nation's "thing that we just do not want to talk about," but added that has finally changed after the murder of George Floyd, an unarmed 46-year-old black man who died after white police officer Derek Chauvin knelt on his neck for over eight minutes despite his many pleas that he couldn't breathe in Minneapolis on May 25. 

The 24-year-old detailed how racism is a systemic problem and white privilege is so much bigger than the individual. 

"The best analogy I’ve heard that explains white privilege is that it’s like an invisible backpack that every white person wears," Kuzma wrote. "If you’re white and you’re ever in a situation where you might need help, you can take that backpack off, open it up, and pull out all sorts of shit. Get Out of Jail Free card. Job opportunities. Health benefits. Housing loans. Don’t get me wrong. Black people can get those things, too, but it’s a lot harder."

Kuzma personally saw how economic and natural disasters disproportionately hurt the black community. He grew up across the street from a GM plant in Flint and witnessed firsthand the devastating fallout from the Great Recession in 2008.  

"When the recession hit, it seemed like most of the people in Flint lost their jobs — close to 20,000 in a city with a population of just 100,000," he wrote. "A lot of people who lost their jobs were black.

"...Ever since the recession, there’s really no hope there. There’s no financial give. The place where I grew up has been hurting. Growing up in a place like Flint — or probably any middle American small town — really shows you how race and economics go hand-in-hand."

Kuzma said that after slavery, laws put black people "in a kind of ditch that would be tough to get out of." He also pointed out how The War on Drugs during the Richard Nixon and the Ronald Reagan presidencies targeted black people. 

"Not because all drugs are super, super harmful to society, but because drugs were something very prevalent in black communities," Kuzma wrote. It was how people put food on the table for their families in neighborhoods where people were frozen out of jobs. So, what happened next? Let’s crack down. 'Zero Tolerance.' You’re a prisoner now. From having just a gram or two of weed. See the connection? That’s what people are talking about when they speak about how racism is systemic."

Kuzma said that even though he's in his third season playing for the Lakers, he still worries whenever a police officer pulls him over. 

"If I’m driving and I see a cop, I’m checking my rearview mirror for like the next five minutes," he wrote. "That is the epitome of what this has done to us as black people, living in a racist society. That’s what we have to fear: the people who are supposed to protect us."

Kuzma said after Floyd's death, there was a shift in white people starting to "really understand and grasp" that things need to change. He pointed out that the protests against racism and police brutality have included people of all colors, a stark contrast to the protests that followed Trayvon Martin’s death in 2012.

"If you ask me, this is the most the United States has actually been 'united' in a long time," Kuzma wrote. 

Kuzma encouraged people to effect change by voting, adding that he's in the process of developing something to make information more accessible. 

"I’m launching a voting campaign that’s going to help get people’s eyes on where primaries and elections are being held in every state this year," he said. "I’m dropping something very soon."

Kuzma added that this is only the beginning and people need to keep fighting against racism.

Things can't return to normal in a few days. This time, there must be a shift.  

"Shit has to be different this time," he wrote. "For that to happen, we have to do two things at once — KEEP UP the noise. Keep protesting, marching. Keep demanding CHANGE in the STREETS."