After watching in horror as violence unfolded at the nation’s Capitol on Wednesday, 76ers coach Doc Rivers turned the tables on reporters by asking them a question: “Can you imagine if those were all black people?”
Answering his own question, Rivers predicted the violent protest — which ended when police used tear gas and flash bombs to disperse the crowd — would have gone down a lot differently. “That to me is a picture that’s worth 1,000 words for all of us to see and probably something for us to reckon with again,” he says. “No police dogs turned on people, no billy clubs hitting people, people peacefully being escorted out of the Capitol. So it shows that you can disperse a crowd peacefully, I guess, would be the one thing.”
Regardless of the protestors’ races, Rivers said Wednesday’s chaotic display puts the United States in an unflattering light. “It’s a sad day in a lot of ways, not good for our country, more across the borders, that people see this,” he says. “But it’s part of what we are and so we have to solve it.”
Do you agree with Rivers? Would you be embarrassed to visit a foreign country after this?