Hawks coach Lloyd Pierce felt a one-two gut punch on successive days. First, the white woman in New York tried to “weaponize” her privilege by making a false claim to police about a black man threatening her life. Next, the white police officer in Minneapolis killed George Floyd by placing his knee on the black man’s neck for several minutes as Floyd pleaded that he couldn’t breathe and called out for his mother.
Those events led Pierce to do a lot of thinking, talking and anguishing. An email shared within the Hawks organization by Shari-Zhane Harvin-Langleyi, an employee in sales, spurred Pierce to take action.