Brooklyn student-athletes hit the streets for Speak Up and Dribble march

The student athletes marched from Greenpoint to Bedford-Stuyvesant to speak out against racism. They dribbled basketballs in one hand and held signs calling for justice in the other.

News 12 Staff

Jun 28, 2020, 10:27 PM

Updated 1,407 days ago

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The Brooklyn Youth Sports Club took to the streets with a Speak Up and Dribble march.
The student athletes marched from Greenpoint to Bedford-Stuyvesant to speak out against racism. They dribbled basketballs in one hand and held signs calling for justice in the other.
Director of Programs Damon Lawrence told News 12, "With the things that's happening around them, they want to make a difference, they want to be a part of the solution as opposed to being looked at as a problem just because of who they are."
The event started with the signing of a mural dedicated to all those who died at the hands of police, followed by the march led by the student athletes in the sports club.
Participants say they want to use the march to raise awareness about racial injustice following George Floyd's death.
"We all live with fear and we want people to know that our melanin and our skin is not a weapon," says Max Ragusa, a student-athlete. "We're going to be making noise via dribbling today and there are a lot of people in the world who believe that athletes should just shut up and dribble, so we're kind of proving a point here."
The sports club, which helps underserved student athletes in their journey to college, used Sunday's march to raise more than $10,000 to continue their efforts.
"Hopefully we can change some people's perspective that don't support the Black Lives Matter movement. We just want to show that there can be change and there should be change," says Ragusa.
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