Toronto FC captain Michael Bradley added his voice to the outcry against the killing of George Floyd by a Minneapolis police officer last week, calling on white people to do more to combat the issues of social injustice and police brutality facing the Black community.
The death of Floyd, a 46-year-old Black man, has led to nationwide protests and a murder charge against the white police officer as well as charges of aiding and abetting a second-degree murder against three other police officers.
The MLS community has expressed its outrage in recent days, with Bradley joining the chorus after Toronto FC began small group training on Thursday.
"I have spent the last 10 days watching, listening to it all and I don't even know where to start," Bradley, who has represented the US men's national team on 151 occasions, said on a conference call with reporters. "There is so much that needs to be said. I'm horrified, angry, disgusted and embarrassed we live in a world where Black men, women, children fear for their lives daily.
"We have to find real ways to front this head-on. What we have been doing, the way we have been living is not good enough. We all have to do more, we all have to educate ourselves more, we all have to have more difficult conversations, we all, especially, especially white men, white women need to listen, need to put themselves, need to do the best that they can to understand that there is a perspective and a world totally different than the one that they’re used to.
Continued Bradley: "I have strong feelings on this. I can't pretend to know everything, and I could never begin to understand what it's truly like for Black families, but I want to understand more, I need to understand more, I need to listen, I need to read, I need to educate myself more."
Bradley also excoriated leadership in the United States, encouraging citizens to go to the polls and make their voices heard in November.
