A Message From Heather Lyke
To Our Pitt Student-Athletes and Staff:
I wanted to take this opportunity to connect with you about our major national crisis: civil unrest sweeping across the country in response to injustice, racism and class disparities. I have some pained thoughts to share and also want to encourage you to reach out to me if you want to continue the conversation.
This past week has been intensely sad. The grief and anger on display throughout our nation—including Pittsburgh—exploded following the inexcusable killings of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, Ahmaud Arbery and numerous others. We should recognize that the origins of this grief and anger run very deep—structural racism has threatened African Americans and people of color for far too long.
These recent tragic occurrences are not new. Sadly, these crimes are centuries old, but now are being brought to a deeper light due to technology like cell phone cameras and social media.
So what do we do? How will we respond? What do I do? What can we do? I’ve battled with this over the past week. As just one person, I felt powerless and frozen. I am not black and I am not going to pretend to be able to completely understand what many of you are feeling. But please know I am committed to gaining a deeper understanding through actively listening and engaging with each of you. I am blessed to work with Pitt’s extraordinary student-athletes, coaches and staff. I learn from you and am inspired by you every single day. Working together, I am confident we can make the world a better place by committing to love, respect and empathy.
As part of our Pitt Athletics TEAM, we all have a platform of influence, not only individually but, more importantly, collectively. We have the opportunity and responsibility to message against racism not only through our words but more importantly, our actions. We must model respect, love, acceptance and understanding of all people and we can set the expectation of how we conduct ourselves as Panthers.
I want you to know we are all here and dedicated to you, our talented young men and women of all races, ethnicities, religions, sexual orientation and socioeconomic backgrounds. I have tremendous empathy for all of our African-American student-athletes, coaches and staff I am honored to serve within Pitt Athletics. As a Pitt Athletics Family, we support and care for each and every one of you.
I am hopeful there will come a time when love and respect for every person will be common behavior in our nation.
Be Safe and Love One Another.
H2P
Heather
I wanted to take this opportunity to connect with you about our major national crisis: civil unrest sweeping across the country in response to injustice, racism and class disparities. I have some pained thoughts to share and also want to encourage you to reach out to me if you want to continue the conversation.
This past week has been intensely sad. The grief and anger on display throughout our nation—including Pittsburgh—exploded following the inexcusable killings of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, Ahmaud Arbery and numerous others. We should recognize that the origins of this grief and anger run very deep—structural racism has threatened African Americans and people of color for far too long.
These recent tragic occurrences are not new. Sadly, these crimes are centuries old, but now are being brought to a deeper light due to technology like cell phone cameras and social media.
So what do we do? How will we respond? What do I do? What can we do? I’ve battled with this over the past week. As just one person, I felt powerless and frozen. I am not black and I am not going to pretend to be able to completely understand what many of you are feeling. But please know I am committed to gaining a deeper understanding through actively listening and engaging with each of you. I am blessed to work with Pitt’s extraordinary student-athletes, coaches and staff. I learn from you and am inspired by you every single day. Working together, I am confident we can make the world a better place by committing to love, respect and empathy.
As part of our Pitt Athletics TEAM, we all have a platform of influence, not only individually but, more importantly, collectively. We have the opportunity and responsibility to message against racism not only through our words but more importantly, our actions. We must model respect, love, acceptance and understanding of all people and we can set the expectation of how we conduct ourselves as Panthers.
I want you to know we are all here and dedicated to you, our talented young men and women of all races, ethnicities, religions, sexual orientation and socioeconomic backgrounds. I have tremendous empathy for all of our African-American student-athletes, coaches and staff I am honored to serve within Pitt Athletics. As a Pitt Athletics Family, we support and care for each and every one of you.
I am hopeful there will come a time when love and respect for every person will be common behavior in our nation.
Be Safe and Love One Another.
H2P
Heather