Just because it doesn't directly impact you doesn't mean it's not prevalent.
Although she's still very young, Carolina Hurricanes defenceman Jaccob Slavin is worried about the racism his daughter, whom he adopted and is Black, might experience one day.
"Right now she's a very adorable little Black baby. But one day she's going to grow up and people aren't going to see her as a cute baby anymore," Slavin said via TheScore from his place in Carolina.
"We want to make sure that when she does grow up, that our country is in a much better spot, where they respect her just as much as anybody else walking down the street or sitting in their own home."
Slavin has watched the news and kept a close eye on the police brutality and systematic racism that has plagued the United States for centries. The Erie, Colorado product mentioned that name of Breonna Taylor, who was shot down in her own home after the police mistakingly identified her as a drug dealer in a raid.
"For myself and my wife, we hate that it took having a Black daughter to open our eyes to everything that's going on. That was kind of our starting point. "We're learning, we don't know everything, but we definitely want - as white people, as people with a platform - to make sure we're standing together with people of colour to end the injustices and the racism that's going on."
Although Slavin knows people don't necessarily mean to say offensive comments, he firmly believes people need to change the way they communicate when interacting with people of colour.
"It's not necessarily racism towards Emersyn herself but it's the comments people make," Slavin said. "And they may think they're making them with no intention to be racist, or if you asked them they probably wouldn't say they're racist, but you can see their heart behind some of the things they do ask."
Like many of us, Slavin is doing his part in listening, reading and understanding the hurdles black people face in the United States.
"The first step is to educate yourself and learn from Black people what they've been experiencing and have been experiencing their whole lives," Slavin said.
