Felix Hoffmann and Steven Key from Bundesliga basketball team s.Oliver Wrzburg would prefer not to talk about racism at all. But they do – even when tears flow.
Speaking slang was a thing of the past at Steven Key’s home. “Yo man, and so on, that didn’t exist,” the 52-year-old recalls of his youth in Maryland on the Atlantic coast of the USA. His mother didn’t want people who already judged him as a person of color differently from white Americans to see their prejudices confirmed. “She said I shouldn’t give you an excuse to pigeonhole myself with others,” says Key. He always followed this recommendation – and understood at the same time that it is an expression of the deeply rooted systemic racism in the USA. Like the violent death of George Floyd on May 25th of this year. As a result, when the protests of the Black Lives Matter movement reached their climax in late August, many people around the world became aware of the problem of racism. Steven Key and Felix Hoffmann agree that this topic must not disappear from the agenda now. The assistant coach and the wing player from Bundesliga basketball team s.Oliver Wrzburg speak in an interview about personal experiences with racism, how the team deals with it and the importance of sport for the protest movement.
It has recently become relatively quiet about the Black Lives Matter movement. Is that your impression too?
Felix Hoffmann: Yes. In the beginning it was a very strong topic. Mainly because in America something happened again and again at short intervals. This was widely spread in the media and, especially because half of our teammates have a different skin color, we naturally talked about it almost every day. Meanwhile, the media presence has decreased significantly, although it is a very important topic. One that shouldn’t be forgotten.
Steven Key: Racism is not a new topic, especially if you are from America. In my opinion, the fact that it received so much attention this time is due to the corona pandemic. Lots of people couldn’t go to work and sat around a lot at home. So the topic had the chance to be perceived more attentively than it might otherwise have been the case. Also because it spread through social media. What happened to George Floyd (He died because a white policeman pressed his knee on his neck for minutes, editor’s note.)is nothing new. This has happened in the US for decades. The difference is that almost everyone now has a smartphone that such things are recorded and distributed. In this way, the topic has reached a broader majority. At the same time, we will soon have a choice in the USA. This means that new topics keep popping up and quickly disappearing again. It would be so important that the Black Lives Matter movement remains in consciousness.
How can this be done?
Key: You have to pay attention to the topic even if it is uncomfortable. And this until there are rules or laws that help to eliminate the grievances. That won’t happen in a year or two. That it even gets to the point where a white policeman shoots a black man in the back while he’s escaping (For example, three weeks after the death of George Floyd, the Afro-American Rayshard Brooks was killed in Atlanta, editor’s note.), shows the full extent of systemic racism in the US. It has never been heard in the past few decades that a white American was killed in this way by the police.
Hoffmann: The good thing is, such cases can no longer be denied because there are now video recordings of them. Nobody can talk their way out anymore and everyone can form their own opinion.
Mr. Key, you have a German wife and your children (nine and 13 years old) grow up near Gieen. Have you ever had racist experiences?
Key: I do not think so. I don’t want to ask them too often, but they both know that they can come to me and my wife at any time if something goes wrong or someone says something stupid. I told them not to go into it until a certain limit is crossed. I’m 52 now, and in my experience, you can’t change another person’s mind at that particular moment.
But you can shape your opinion early on, especially as parents. Mr. Hoffmann, how important is it for you and your wife to raise your child in a cosmopolitan and tolerant manner?
Hoffmann: Very important. Our son is five and a half months old and it was clear to my wife and me from the start that he would go to daycare. Not only to have social contacts, but above all because he should grow up with children who have a different origin than him. He should learn that we are all the same, that we all have the same values.
–As a German one is inclined to think that racism mainly affects other countries. In particular, many in this country do not want to admit institutional racism. Mr. Key, you were born and raised in the USA and have lived in Germany for a long time. What is your impression: is there systemic racism here too?
Key: It exists in Europe as well as in the USA and almost everywhere in the world. Because the social system was not developed for people of color. America had slavery for 400 years. And people think that just because slavery is over, the thought behind it has disappeared too. One has to realize that whites kidnapped blacks from Africa because they thought they were of less value.
Like in European colonialism …
Key: I agree. That was basically the same thought. You drove somewhere and took other people’s possessions away because they couldn’t defend themselves. To this day, the system favors those who created it. That is institutional racism. An example from my everyday life. After France won the title at the 2018 Football World Cup, someone put a picture of the 70 percent non-white team in a WhatsApp group I was in. With the ironic comment: ‘Typically French’. Since then, I haven’t talked to these people as much as necessary. They don’t even understand what they’re doing – and that’s systemic racism.
–In contrast to this, no one would ever discuss the fact that Mr. Hoffmann is a white man.
Hoffmann: That’s the way it is. I think it’s good that the Black Lives Matter movement has helped raise awareness. (Look at Steven Key) I can tell the story, right?
Key: (nods).
Hoffmann: We played a golf tournament in Wrzburg. When we got to the square, one of our sponsors was sitting there, slapped Steven and said, ‘What’s up my boy?’ I found it totally disrespectful, even though I know he certainly didn’t mean it that way and is a really nice guy. I saw directly from the look on Steven’s face that this is not okay. But the person who said that didn’t even notice.
How did you deal with it?
Key: I was proud of Felix for noticing.
Hoffmann: (Grins slightly embarrassed) That is what I meant. You become more sensitive than Weier. I wouldn’t put my hand in the fire now either because I’ve never said anything that was discriminatory. But I know I never did that with an evil will. Every year I also ask the Americans who are new to us how they feel about the N-word. We have some, they don’t care if you use it. And others who say you died for me when you do that. It’s interesting to me how differently it is received.
Key: I never use the N word. But I just remembered another story. My son’s best friend always looked at me a little skeptically when he was with us. When his father died two years ago, my son and I did a lot with him. After about half a year he came to me and said: ‘Steven, you know what. I was scared of you in the beginning because you look different. But now I realize that you are a really good person. (Tears come to him and he turns away)
Hoffmann: It shows how much things we say can take away others. And we often don’t even notice it. That’s why I think it’s so important that the issue of racism remains present.
What can sport contribute to the anti-racism debate?
Hoffmann: Team sport is predestined to stand up against racism because we are about the team. We only function as a unit, we have to pull together, one has to be able to rely on the other. It doesn’t matter where you’re from or what skin color you have. In addition, there is the range of professional sport.
Key: (Struggles a little to calm down) But (waves away), actually I hate to talk about racism. It’s just very emotional. I don’t want to bother with it all the time. This is not an issue for me, even if I know of course that it is an issue.
Just two more questions. How important is it that whites also get involved in the anti-racism movement?
Key: Very important. We wouldn’t have had Obama as president in the United States if 20 to 30 percent of the whites hadn’t said we’d give him a chance. The majority must help the minority.
And what do you both wish for the future?
Unisono: That racism is simply no longer an issue at some point.
To the people
Steven Key (52) was born in 1968 in Los Angeles (California). He has been assistant coach at Bundesliga basketball team s.Oliver Wrzburg since summer 2018. He had already worked with head coach Denis Wucherer from 2015 to 2017 at league competitor Gieen. Key has spent most of his active career in Germany, playing in Tbingen, Bayreuth, Braunschweig and Rhndorf, among others. Today he lives with his wife, their two children and a dog near Gieen.
Felix Hoffmann (31) was born in Wrzburg in 1989. He is married and has been the proud father of a son since April. For five years the “Wrzburg Warrior” has been back on the parquet at his home club. Previously he had played at SC Heuchelhof in the regional league and at the then DJK Wrzburg as well as at TSV Breitengbach and the second division Gotha. In Wrzburg, the crowd’s favorite is something like the team’s integration officer. As such, he organizes bowling evenings or communal dinners and also takes care of the newcomers.
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