Former West Indian player Michael Holding broke down into tears while talking about racism in a recent interview. He gave a 4-minute long an impassioned speech on racism.
Michael Holding appeared on Sky News program with Mark Austin and went emotional when talking about racism faced by his parents. When the host asked how he felt about that moment, Holding could not stop from crying.
“To be honest, that emotional part came when I started thinking of my parents. And it’s coming again now,” said Michael Holding when he began to talk about racism
Michael Holding broke down into tears
Holding paused, before continuing: “Mark, I know what my parents went through. “My mother’s family stopped talking to her because her husband was too dark.
“I know what they went through, and that came back to me immediately,” Holding said, wiping tears from his eyes.
He recalled a time when he faced racism over the years. He mentioned the incident when he and his white friend were assumed not to be booking the room together in a hotel in South Africa.
Former West Indies cricketer, Michael Holding breaks down on live television as he recalls the prejudice his parents had to go through.
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“We laugh about it when not living in that society, and sometimes I grimace in my head and I move on. But I cannot keep on laughing, grimacing, and moving on,” he said.
“It’s time for a change.”
Now he hopes that institutional racism will not be brushed under the carpet. He urged for better education on black history. Michael Holding it cannot continue like this. Michael Holding said he attended the Black Lives Matter protests as well to be a part of the change.
Impassioned speech of Michael Holding on racism
West Indies former pace bowling legend Michael Holding delivered a moving speech on black racism on Sky Sports on the day 4 of the first test match between West Indies and England in Southampton, UK.
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“Education is important unless we want to continue living the life that we are living and want to continue having demonstrations now and again and a few people saying a few things. When I say education, I mean going back in history. What people need to understand is that thing stems from a long time ago, hundreds of years ago,” Holding said on Sky Sports.
"Until we educate the entire human race, this thing will not stop."
Michael Holding delivers a powerful message, explaining why #BlackLivesMatter. pic.twitter.com/2jiATkOqQ4
— Sky Sports Cricket (@SkyCricket) July 8, 2020
“The dehumanization of the black race is where it started. People will tell you that’s a long time ago, get over it. No, you don’t get over things like that and society has not gotten over something like that,” he added.
Racism crept religion
Michael Holding pinned education as a crucial tool to end tackle racism in society. “How do you get rid of that in society? By educating both sides – black and white,” the 66-year-old bowling legend of the 1970s and 1980s.
“We have been brainwashed and not just black people, white people have been brainwashed in many ways. Think about religion… I am not a very holy person, not a very religious person but that is what we were taught.
We played this on our show yesterday, but Michael Holding on racism should be part of the national curriculum. pic.twitter.com/LsTrrP8xE1
— Stig Abell (@StigAbell) July 10, 2020
“Look at Jesus Christ and the image of Jesus Christ – pale skin, blonde hair, blue eyes. Where Jesus came from, who in that part of the world looks that way? Again, that is brainwashing to show you what the image of perfection is. If you look at the plays of those days, Judas who betrayed Jesus, he’s a black man. Again, brainwashing people to think ‘he is a black man, he is the bad man,” he observed.
The world should remember who invented the filament
Michael Holding that the world acknowledges Thomas Edison for inventing the bulb. But they should also remember the black man who invented filament because he is ignored due to racism.
He continued, “These lights are shining on us. You can tell me who invented the lightbulb – Thomas Edison invented the lightbulb. Thomas Edison invented a lightbulb with a paper filament – it burned out in no time at all.”
“Can you tell me who invented the filament that makes these lights shine throughout? Nobody knows because it was a black man. I was not taught in schools – Lewis Howard Latimer invented the carbon filament to allow lights to continuously shine. Who knows that?”
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The cricketer said schools end selective teaching- that is white men are good and black men are bad. He said he was never taught a good thing about black men in the school.
“History is written by the conqueror, not by those who are conquered. History is written by the people who harm, not those who are harmed. We need to go back and teach both sides of history,” said Michael Holding while concluding his speech on racism. Meanwhile, both England and West Indian players took a knee down ahead of the start of the test match to express solidarity with the Black Lives Matter campaign.