The UH football team did not hold practice on both Saturday and Sunday and instead held conversations between student-athletes and coaches. | Kathryn Lenihan/The Cougar
The UH football, men’s basketball and volleyball teams released statements on their social media platforms expressing messages of unity for social and racial justice on Monday.
The Houston football account posted two different graphics on Monday, the first coming in the morning, which had four bullet points that promised to cultivate meaningful change, promote a diverse and inclusive culture at the University, fight against racial and social injustice and support the voices of the community.
The graphic ends with the words: “WE ARE STRONGER TOGETHER!”
We Stand Together as One. pic.twitter.com/2nZMSIHakA
— Houston Football (@UHCougarFB) August 31, 2020
The football team’s second graphic was tweeted out on Monday afternoon and included six action plans that the University plans to take to support its student-athletes.
On behalf of our team. #BlackLivesMatter pic.twitter.com/OJNdZYP5YE
— Houston Football (@UHCougarFB) August 31, 2020
The men’s basketball team shared a video on Monday with each student-athlete on the roster saying their names followed by the sentence, “my life matters.”
The 38-second video ends with an all-black screen and three words in a white outline:
“Black Lives Matter”
We See You.
We Hear You.
We Stand with You.#BlackLivesMatter pic.twitter.com/IXWVxjmx1F— Houston Men's Hoops
(@UHCougarMBK) August 31, 2020
The volleyball team posted a 32-second black and white video that had junior outside hitter Alexis Cheatum talking about how the program had committed to making change in June.
It's time to #BeSomeone and take action. pic.twitter.com/N3o4HeZhK2
— Houston Volleyball
(@UHCougarVB) August 31, 2020
In the video, Cheatum says that Houston athletes will participate in a march to bring awareness to the issue of racial and social injustice.
Threaded to the original tweet, the volleyball account also posted four graphics on how to reach out to officials that involve three different cases of police incidents with Black citizens.
On Sunday afternoon, football head coach Dana Holgorsen posted another graphic on Twitter that read that the team had chosen to forgo practices on Saturday and Sunday to join the ongoing protests across the nation from both professional and collegiate teams.
Instead of practicing, both the football student-athletes and coaches held an open dialogue on how to unite the country against social and racial justice the graphic read.
#Equality #BlackLivesMatter
Make A Change! pic.twitter.com/T714DuIBMt— Dana Holgorsen (@Holgorsendana) August 30, 2020
The men’s basketball team also took Thursday and Friday off from workouts, and the coaching staff provided a forum for players to discuss and share their emotions on what was happening around the country after the shooting of Jacob Blake, a Black man, by police in Kenosha, Wisconsin.
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“UH athletic programs release statement on social, racial change” was originally posted on The Cougar