Two years ago as a sophomore in college, Mynk Richardson-Clerk placed herself in the middle of a national debate when she knelt during the national anthem prior to a lacrosse game for her North Central College (Ill.) team.

It was two years after Colin Kaepernick of the NFL’s San Francisco 49ers began polarizing the nation when he began kneeling for the national anthem in protest of racial inequality and police brutality. That, coupled with the inspiration of her mentors, motivated Richardson-Clerk to kneel.

She continued to kneel through the 2019 season. She said that she received negative comments and endured backlash both from opposing teams and within her own campus. She said she felt isolation from her locker room, and she eventually cut her North Central career short.

Now a graduate of North Central, Richardson-Clerk is looking to continue her advocacy for racial justice. She earned her degree in political science and philosophy and plans to attend law school after getting a master's in England. She is still considering finishing her lacrosse career with another year of eligibility remaining.

In the wake of George Floyd's death, Richardson-Clerk has taken part in protests and continues to speak out against racial injustice on her social media accounts.

Now, with the country facing another racial conversation, she reflects on her decision to kneel and the reasons that led to it in this honest Q&A.

How are you?

“There has been a lot going on, especially in the month of May with Ahmaud Arbery, Breonna Taylor, Sean Reed and ending with George Floyd. It has been a heavy few weeks, and it just hit really hard. I haven’t seen the video of George Floyd. I just physically could not watch it. I’ve seen clips of it, and it’s just super triggering. It’s the same with a lot of my black friends. We couldn’t really eat or sleep. It was just unnerving seeing that, but on the flip side, it’s been so good to see the outpouring of support from so many people and communities. We have people out there really pushing for real change.”

Can you share some of your background with us?

“I grew up mostly in Hoffman Estates (Ill.). I got into lacrosse in my sophomore year of high school. I did track my freshman year and it was terrible, so I was looking for something to do in the springtime, and my friend was the manager of the wrestling team, and the head coach was also the coach of the lacrosse team. The coach got her to play lacrosse and she convinced me to play. I tried it and it was really good. I had college coaches recruiting me my first year. I ended up going to varsity and I really clicked with lacrosse. Basketball and lacrosse paired with one another and when I got better at one, I got better at the other.”

When were you first confronted with racism in America?

“We had incidents that happened in high school where we had parents and white dads, white moms of the opposing team, they would yell at my mom because she was cheering. They would yell at me, their daughters would come at me extra hard. That created a hostile, racialized environment. I was the first female black midfielder and captain to play in that district.”

When did you first start thinking about kneeling during the national anthem?

“I really started finding my voice when I got to college. I really had good mentors that were student leaders. I watched them and I watched how they formed protests and spoke out and led meetings. I was inspired by that to really start speaking up and learning how to do that. Taking a knee was something that had been on my mind. It started my freshman year and I thought about it, but when sophomore year hit, that was when I said ‘OK, this is something I need to do.’ If you think about the national anthem, you think about the fact that it was written by a racist, anti-abolitionist who advocated for slavery. That is our national anthem. When you think about it, that is wild.”

What made you eventually decide to kneel?

“What kicked it off was fall term of my sophomore year, I was in marching band. There was talk that members of the football team were going to kneel during the national anthem, so all the student leaders on campus, they were all talking about kneeling along with the football team. I couldn’t go to the meetings because I was in marching band, but I heard all about it. I had, for years prior, stopped playing the national anthem with the band. With each act of racial injustice by police, I got closer and closer to kneeling. The day came around and it was a huge football game. I’m like ‘Ok, we’re all going to take a knee together.’ Then, one-by-one, everyone bailed. The team had had a meeting where they were talked out of taking a knee. The I just remember being so angry thinking that there were so many athletes of color on that team, and they had so much support from each other, so by the time it came around for my season, I said ‘You know what? I’m going to do it because it’s an important issue and it’s not being talked about on campus.’”

You kneeled for the first time in 2018. What did that moment feel like?

“Leading up to it, I felt really nervous but also a little excited. My mom and I had a few friends that were with me in the stands. As I did it, it felt powerful. I was taking back control. I wasn’t being forced to stand for this hypocritical song. It was a way for me to demonstrate breaking from this toxic patriotism that is ingrained since elementary school, from saying the pledge of allegiance at school to doing the national anthem at games. It was me breaking away from that and causing a disruption in the normal way we think about things. You think about Martin Luther King Jr. and Malcolm X, they were disruptors. They got in the way of things. This was me doing that, as well, on campus.”

Did the backlash make you feel more or less confident to keep kneeling?

“All the backlash I got it, it just proved my point. There was so much going on that people aren’t aware of or don’t want to be aware of, they’d rather just sit comfortably and ignore it. It’s not just police brutality, it’s the microaggressions. The way that my teammates antagonized me. It just reinforced why I was doing what I was doing.”

How do you see racism still present in lacrosse and in society?

“There’s a really pervasive ideal that being color blind is good. That ignoring all differences and other things is good. ‘You might be black or Hispanic, but I’m just going to ignore that, so it doesn’t matter.’ That’s not the goal. The goal is to see people in all their diversity and celebrate that. There is a lack of that celebration because of how white the sport is. Sometimes the lacrosse community doesn’t even recognize where the sport comes from. It comes from Native Americans. It’s often not acknowledged all the ways in which people of color have contributed to that sport. There is a whole denial of what’s going on in the world. It’s like what that reporter said to Lebron James. It was ‘Oh, shut up and dribble.’ I feel like that’s what happens to athletes of color in sports. We are told to ignore everything else and deny our blackness and don’t ruffle any feathers. Just shut up and cradle.”

What can we do to combat this problem?

“Getting more coaches of color and black coaches in the sport. When you are hiring coaches, make sure they have the ability to have these conversations. Having social awareness, because so many people lack it and don’t even know what to do or say and it could snowball into something it doesn’t need to be. Not just coaches, but athletic departments at all levels, need to be actively anti-racist and not just tolerant. Celebrate everyone’s differences and don’t just do it because it’s trending or it’s #BlackoutTuesday. Keep that conversation going and keep that same energy when it’s not trending. We need to fundamentally rethink what it means to be an American. We need to think about these traditions that we cling to and these ideals that we cling to. Protests are important, but we must continue to challenge and dismantle the inherently racist traditions and systems that we cling to as nation, or we’re going to keep having George Floyd’s and Sandra Bland’s and Trayvon Martin’s.”

How do you plan on making your voice heard going forward?

“I have been out at the protests and I have been involved with that. I will continue to be active even when all of this dies down and people go back to their normal lives. I’m an activist through and through and that’s why I majored in political science and philosophy, so I could have the knowledge and skills to talk about these things. I’m going to continue my education in political science and go to law school in the next few years so that I can have the knowledge and skills to fight this at a systemic level. I don’t believe my time in lacrosse is over. I plan on getting my master’s in England and playing lacrosse over there. I still have some eligibility, so when I come back to the states, I want to play lacrosse again. The end goal will always be to continue to fight for justice and equity for black people.”