Ricky Jean Francios's words of wisdom

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Jean-Francois went to LSU and has been watching the events in Louisiana closely and also everywhere else, including in Minnesota and Dallas. He's been glued to the news, watching every development. "There's no line to tread for me," he told B/R. "You have to be yourself at the end of the day. You have to say what you feel. [Muhammad] Ali said what he felt, and all athletes should do the same.

"I know some athletes are worried about losing their jobs or having fans come after them for speaking out. Things are so bad right now, we should all be speaking out. Every professional athlete should be talking about this. How will things change if we don't speak out?"

He was just getting started.

"I hear about Black Lives Matter, and I understand why that is," he said. "But I don't care about the 'black lives' part. I care that every life matters. We are having our sons and daughters die. We are having police officers die. You put a bullet in someone's head, you are taking them away from friends and family. That's all that should matter.

"One of the things that needs to be done is that more people have to look at things from the other person's perspective. How would you feel if that was your brother or sister shot to death? And put yourself in the position of the police. You shoot the police or hate the police—they are the same people who will run into a burning house to save you, or expose themselves to danger to save you."

We can debate Black Lives Matter versus All Lives Matter versus Blue Lives Matter on another day. But Jean-Francois' words are nonetheless smart and measured. There are more.

"Racism is just stupid," he said. "What makes me different from you? My skin color? That's it? I walk like you, bleed like you. We are the same." He added:

"The rest of the world is laughing at us. They see all this violence and all these killings, and they are laughing at us.

"The shootings and the killings have to stop."

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The only difference between this and Fournette though is that more people on this site will agree with RJF's words.

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