During the Miami Heat’s virtual town hall meeting on Friday, All-Star Jimmy Butler shared a painful moment when he experienced racism.
“I’m walking out of a Walmart and a white man and his son that’s no older than maybe six,” Butler recalled. “I’m walking with my brother. And we hear the kid turn around and say, ‘Hey dad, those are those n words that you were telling me about.’ And in my head, the kid doesn’t know any better. Kids just do stuff. They just speak their truths. So my initial reaction was just turn around and just look at the look that was on his father’s face.”
Butler, 30, is one of the primary leaders on the Heat. He is on a team that has been extremely active and vocal about the social injustices around the nation.
As a matter of fact, the Heat designated the unofficial holiday of Juneteenth as a permanent paid day off for their employees. Juneteenth, which recognizes and celebrates the end of slavery in the United States, takes place on Friday.
One of the other voices of the Heat has been franchise icon Udonis Haslem. The team’s all-time leading rebounder has conducted speeches, interviews and multiple social media posts.
Soon, the entire Heat squad will be together in person to prepare for the resumption of the 2019-20 season. Miami holds the No. 4 seed in the Eastern Conference.
The 2019-20 campaign resumes in late July in Orlando, Fla.