UFC middleweight champion Israel Adesanya used his platform as one of the world's best fighters to deliver an impassioned speech during a Black Lives Matter rally in Auckland, New Zealand.
Wearing a black cap and a black hooded top, Adesanya took the mic in front of a large crowd outside the United States Embassy in his home town and highlighted the differences and difficulties black people have to cope with on a day-to-day basis.
"I'm p*ssed off," he said.
"Wait. Hold up. How many of you walk into a store and have to put your hands behind your back just so they don’t think you’re stealing?
"How many of you walk down the street and have to kind of smile and try to make you see the person who already is scared of you, you make them feel comfortable?"
Also on rt.com Mayweather Jr to PAY for funeral of George Floyd after reaching out to familyDespite being one of the country's top sportsmen – he was voted the 2019 New Zealand Sportsman of the Year in the prestigious Halberg Awards – Nigerian-born Adesanya admitted to the crowd that he still feels those racial tensions, even though he has recently moved to a new area in his adopted home town.
"I just moved to a spot," he continued.
"I’m at the top. I go in the elevator, three times already I’ve had to have racist, scared white people jump when they see me, so I smile at them. So now I gotta go to the side and let them walk through just so they don’t get scared when they see me.
"Why? Because I’m black. Just because I’m black. What did I do? I didn’t have a choice. If I had a choice, I’d still be black."
But, rather than use his speech to further the divide between people of color and white people, Adesanya instead hailed those white people present at the rally, and empowered them, and other white people watching, to become agents of change in a bid for racial equality.
"We’ve been talking for so long. We’ve been marching for so long. But it’s not about us now," he explained.
"Shout out to all the white people, all the people of different races being here, because we need you. We need you to speak up.
"We need you to say something, because... I’m sick and tired of seeing those faces get killed because, guess what? I see myself in them. And it’s heartbreaking, man. I’m p*ssed off."