Ray comments on the NBA’s Building Bridges Program
Kelley D. Evans writing for The Undefeated informs about the NBA’s Building Bridges Through Basketball program that aims to connect youths in communities and law enforcement through basketball in Charlotte, NC. This program was launched at the Naomi Drenan Recreation Center, at the same site where Stephen and Seth Curry spent hours practicing basketball before becoming professional basketball players to the NBA. The 10-week Building Bridges program ambitions to build trust and bridge divides in the community. So far, 11,500 youths and members of law enforcement have come together in the initial six Building Bridges Through Basketball programs.
Faculty Associate Rashawn Ray commented about the recent opening of the program; “I tend to think that the NBA is definitely doing something that’s proactive,” Ray said. “Obviously these cities have troubled histories, as well as troubled things that have happened in the present. … Particularly to have police departments at the table, when they are not telling someone what to do on the street, but instead are simply having a conversation to see, particularly black and brown youth in cities, as simply another human being. I think part of what 10 weeks can do is it can start to form a new baseline. It is not the ending, instead it’s a big beginning,” he said.