Gators HC Dan Mullen Stresses Education in Response to Social Injustice

Florida Gators head coach Dan Mullen opens up about the Jacob Blake shooting and social injustices in the United States.

The Sunday shooting of Jacob Blake in Kenosha, Wis., and the protests that have been sparked in reaction have begun to take over the sporting world in a similar vein as the police-involved killing of Minnesota man, George Floyd, only a few months ago. On Wednesday, player-led strikes caused the postponement of NBA playoff games and multiple MLB games, with NFL practices across the country halting Thursday as well.

It didn't stop the Florida Gators from practicing football on Thursday, but it led to conversation and a yearning to educate.

"We've talked about it as a team," Gators head coach Dan Mullen told the media via Zoom on Thursday. "You know, look at our team here, we talked about this today. You see guys that have a lot of respect for each other, and they're less concerned about where you're from, what religion you are, what your socio-economic or racial backgrounds are. Very concerned about you go hard and do things the right way...You know, if you do that, you have great respect for all your teammates."

Blake, a 29-year-old Black man, was shot seven times in the back by white Kenosha police officer Rusten Sheskey as officers attempted to arrest him, for reasons unspecified. Law enforcement has said that Blake acknowledged his possession of a knife in his car, which led to Sheskey shooting Blake as he leaned into his driver's side door, with Blake's three children in the car according to Blake's attorney Ben Crump. Blake has been paralyzed from the incident.

Protests that have occurred since are surely not the first in recent months due to similar events. Floyd, a 46-year-old Black man in Minneapolis, Minn., was killed by police on May 25 after officer Derek Chauvin knelt on his neck for about eight minutes while Floyd pleaded that he couldn't breathe, which sparked national outrage. Police were attempting to arrest Floyd for allegedly using a counterfeit bill.

The killings of 26-year-old Breonna Taylor in March and 25-year-old Ahmaud Arbery in February, both also Black, by police and former members of law enforcement, respectively, have also led to national demonstrations.

The demonstrations have been met roadblocks and terror, with United States President, Donald Trump, calling the Black Lives Matter mural painted in front of the White House on in Washington, D.C., a "symbol of hate". Kyle Rittenhouse, a 17-year-old white man, was arrested and charged with first-degree intentional homicide after he allegedly fatally shot two protesters with a long rifle on Tuesday night in Kenosha.

In response to such events, Mullen believes it's of the utmost importance to educate others and to educate yourself on these matters.

"I think it's really important that people educate themselves," Mullen continued. "You know, there's a lot of ignorance in the world. That doesn't mean, being ignorant, people don't look at people and say 'This person is a good person or a bad person,' there's good, there's bad people in the world. There are a lot of bad people in the world. There's also a lot of ignorant people in the world and one of the best things we can do is try to educate ignorant people, the best thing you can do is try to educate yourself and try to understand other people, and try to become educated.

"Obviously, those are obviously terribly scary things, and I've never been in that situation, thankfully. And I hope I never am and I think it's terrible that people that are in those situations are even in them. And I think the better we can educate ourselves, the better off we'll be."

Mullen made note that along the way, as these events have occurred, he's learned a lot himself from the conversations he's had with his team and research he has done. 

"When Black Lives Matter comes out and people want to fight and say All Lives Matter and, you know, right?" Mullen continued. "You look at that and say 'Okay, I can see how that makes sense', and then you go educate yourself and go back and think about different things. Someone wrote an article, I don’t know, I saw somewhere where the Boston Marathon bombing came out, oh the Boston Strong shirts came out, right, well, 'Why isn’t everybody strong, why does it only get to be Boston that gets to be strong,' right? When you think about, to me in the terms of that, where it does, of course all lives do matter, but that’s not what we’re talking about right now.

"When you say Black Lives Matter it doesn’t mean I’m forgetting about other people. It means I’m focusing on the social injustice issues that we currently have in our country and let’s focus on that. "

Mullen wouldn't speak on behalf of UF's players, but several have shared their thoughts across social media for some time and specifically regarding Blake's shooting and the strikes that have occurred across sports in the aftermath.

We need change .. I am more than an Athlete❗️My color does not define me❗️#BlacklivesStillMatter

— Trevon Grimes (@trevongrimes8) August 27, 2020

EDUCATE YOURSELF ‼️ SPREAD LOVE NOT HATE‼️

— Jonathan Odom (@Odom_87) August 27, 2020

We’re target practice to these cops😪 they have no remorse or no sympathy... Its heartbreaking

— Zachary L Carter (@_Zachattacks__) August 27, 2020

"They speak for themselves and we encourage them to do that," said Mullen. "We encourage them to, we have a great platform, we have a platform just by the world we’re in. We can help people better understand things... People have to try to get a little uncomfortable and people to have to try to go learn about other people."