“If you have a platform and you’re not speaking, I’ve got a problem with you.” Four-time Olympic gold medalist Michael Johnson delivers as he called on sportspeople to use their platform to fight against inequality and to show support to the Black Lives Matter movement. “Prior to this whole movement that we see right now, I would have said that it’s up to the individual,” Johnson told in an Instagram Live. “But being silent right now, that’s hurting people. “There are a lot of people out there sacrificing, doing incredibly hard and difficult work to highlight this matter and to keep the focus on the inequalities in this country and around the world, and the systemic racism that exists. “They’re not famous, they’re out there marching, they’re out there organizing, they’re out there highlighting these issues. If you have the ability, you have a platform and you’re not using it, then you’re hurting people and you’re complicit.”
Michael Johnson says he has “a problem” with any sportsperson not currently using their platform. ‘As Black people, we’re tired. Just really tired’. Johnson said the killing of Ahmaud Arbery, “gunned down while he was out running” hit him particularly hard. Johnson added that he thought the incident in Central Park where White woman Amy Cooper called the police on Black birdwatcher Christian Cooper was “the most impactful thing.” Johnson said that the movement is not about changing the minds of racist people, saying: “That’s who racist people want to be. We may be able to change some of them, but this is about getting people who have privilege who aren’t racist, per se, but have the privilege and who don’t understand that your privilege is at the expense of someone else.”
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