All men's and women's Big East basketball programs have unanimously agreed to wear Black Lives Matter (BLM) patches on uniforms throughout the 2020-21 season, the conference announced Wednesday.
"For all of us in the extended BIG EAST family, 'Black Lives Matter' is not a political organization or ideology, but a fact," the conference's statement read. "For us, BLM means that the safety, dignity and wellu2010being of all Black people are nonu2010negotiable rights and that intolerance and repression because of skin color cannot be tolerated in our world."
The patch initiative was first suggested to the Big East by Coaches for Action, a coalition of 21 ethnic minority Big East men’s basketball assistant coaches formed to "help raise awareness in the fight against racism and to develop a sustainable action plan to dismantle prejudice, discrimination and oppression in Black, Brown, Indigenous and minoritized communities.