Mets’ Dominic Smith on racism in America: ‘The most difficult part is…people still don’t care’
The New York Mets player spoke on Wednesday night about continuing injustices in the country and what else can be done to strive for equality.
Video Transcript
DOMINIC SMITH: I've been very emotional. Yeah, just to kind of see this, you know, continuously happen. So-- I mean, yeah. It was a long day for me. So kind of wasn't there mentally, but we'll be all right. I mean, I think the most difficult part is to see, like, people still don't care. And for this to continually happen, I mean, it just shows just the hate in people's heart. And, I mean, that just sucks, you know? And being a black man in America, it's not easy.
So, I mean, like I said, you know, I just-- I wasn't there today, but I'm going back. I'll be fine. I think we're doing a good job at, you know, trying to push that message, you know, this year. Especially this year. I mean, a lot of people more open to hearing about it. A lot of people are more open to learning about it. And that's all you can ask for it. And I think, you know, us as athletes, we're being a lot more vocal than normal.
And, you know, just to see what the NBA did, and, like I said, three other baseball teams did is very powerful. I mean, that's stuff that, you know, this morning I didn't think would even happen. And just to see it happened, you know, it just brings the emotions out of me. So we're headed in a good direction. But, you know, to just see the constant stuff that reoccurs, I mean, it's just terrible. You know, my heart goes out to their family.
And, I mean, I just don't want to see it happen to my kids. And that's the thing that I fear. It's a lot of, you know, things we can do in the inner city to just bring, you know, happiness to children. You know, there's a lot of kids in poverty. You know, we can-- I mean I have a foundation-- you know, Baseball Generation Foundation where, I mean, we're in inner cities working with these kids. And, I mean, for me on the baseball side, we could do tons of things that way.
I like to set up Toys for Tots drives during the offseason, especially for the Christmas time. Do stuff for, you know, Thanksgiving. Give back to, like, the homeless. I like to just give my time because that's the thing. Like, money is material things. And, you know, I didn't grow up with money, so that shit doesn't mean nothing to me. If you could your her time, I mean, that's the thing that matters. So that's why I feel so emotional about it because, you know, people get their money, and they leave. Can do that. You've got to be there for the children that's coming up after us. So, you know, I think that's the biggest thing is if you give your time, that's the only way we can change.
