- November 4, 2024
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Amid the racial controversy from the various police shootings around the country, Matanzas’ Madison Mlinac expressed his thoughts with a Twitter meme from the “Remember the Titans” movie, in which Julius Campbell, the black captain of the integrated football team, went into the hospital to visit Gary Bertier, the white captain, who had just gotten into a bad car crash. When Bertier’s nurse notified Campbell that only family was allowed in the room, Bertier replied, “Alice, are you blind? Don’t you see the family resemblance? He’s my brother.” Mlinac had Pirates’ co-captain Tahiem Shakir, his “brother,” in mind.
Mlinac and Shakir grew up around the other race. Mlinac says that he’s played basketball all his life, and he made black friends as a young person. Shakir has always been colorblind in the way he sees people, which shows even now. Every day, he says that he hugs a white girl with Down syndrome because “she loves it, and she’s such a sweet girl,” but according to Shakir, all of their peers don’t accept their friendship.
“There are certain groups that will make smart comments and black jokes about some of the things Madison and I say or do,” Shakir said. “I try not to let it affect me. I just smile and keep it moving.”
The two don’t understand the racial disconnect in America. To them, the color of skin isn’t worth missing out on a potential life-lasting bond, which they share.
“I feel like all these fights and the racial slurs are beyond stupid, and they shouldn’t be used in any sense,” Mlinac said. “It is completely unnecessary; it’s just a color. We are the same inside, just different colors, but that shouldn’t change the way we think of each other.”
Shakir remembers two separate relationships he had in high school with girls of the opposite race that were going well until the girls’ parents realized he was black.
“The parents ended our relationships before they even had a chance because they didn’t like black people,” he said. “It angers me that adults are like that. Neither of their parents met me, but they never gave me a chance, based on the color of my skin.”
Unlike those girls’ parents and the kids who make nasty remarks, Mlinac and Shakir gave each other the chance at friendship through sports, and they have gotten closer as the years have passed. The two became friends during their freshman basketball season. Mlinac says that he began to grow closer to Shakir because Shakir didn’t take his jokes as seriously as his other friends did, and when he would go to school sporting events and scream, Shakir would join in, and they would cheer together. It’s not unusual to see the pair in a Matanzas fan section screaming, showing their support. Madison was voted leader of the Pirate Nation this year.
After basketball season, the two will become Matanzas’ high jumpers, where they say they spend the entire meet day motivating each other to perform well.
“Everyone needs someone like Madison to keep your head up and to motivate you like we do for each other,” Shakir said. “No matter what skin color or what other people think of you, people can fight through all the hate and be friends.”
