‘We’re doing the right thing’: Jelani Williams’ long-awaited season at Penn goes beyond basketball

Jelani Williams sat in protest with most of his teammates during the national anthem before his first basketball game in nearly five years.

Penn’s season opener on Nov. 10 against Florida State was the senior captain’s first game after persevering through three ACL tears and a COVID-canceled 2020 Ivy League season. Their protest, meant to bring attention to social justice issues, was met with racist taunts and slurs from the crowd.

“That was my first game ever playing in college, so that was definitely something a little crazy for me,” Williams said.

“Usually, when we go to play places and even play here, when I have been on the bench and stuff, I haven’t really heard anything like that. I thought it was interesting that some of those things started to come out from the crowd after we decided to make the statement that we did.”

The reaction didn’t ruin his return to the court. Instead, he said the fans’ response emboldened him.

“For me, it illuminated the issue more,” Williams said. “It made me feel again like we’re doing the right thing here, and we’re steering the conversation in the way it needs to go.”

» READ MORE: Penn men’s basketball players who sit for the national anthem explain their protest

After the killings of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, and Ahmaud Arbery in the first half of 2020, Williams and co-captain Lucas Monroe facilitated team conversations about racial justice for more than a year. They created a space for their teammates to discuss their reactions to the killings and protests and share their personal experiences with racism.

“I think a lot of people think that we’re just sitting because we didn’t get our opportunity to do it last year, but it’s more than that. We just want to continue the conversation,” Monroe said.

“At a lot of locations that we’ve been to, they haven’t really liked what we’ve done and they’ve expressed it. But in our mind, even if we had a few people in the crowd go home and research it and maybe change their mind or learn about what we’re sitting for, then we pretty much accomplished our goal.”

The protest has not come without local opposition. In response to the team’s decision to sit, James Maguire, a Penn benefactor, sent a letter to Penn president Amy Gutmann, announcing that his foundation would not renew any standing or future donations to the university.

A St. Joseph’s alumnus, former Vice Chairman of the university’s Board of Trustees, and a donor to the school, Maguire called for his alma mater to cancel its game with the Quakers on Dec. 8.

“To openly support disrespect to our country and to our flag is wrong and I do not want to be part of this disrespect,” Maguire, a veteran, wrote in a letter to St. Joseph’s president Mark Reed.

St. Joseph’s declined to cancel the game and defeated Penn, 78-71.

» READ MORE: One Penn benefactor says he’s pulling his donations because of national anthem protests

“I had to do some research to see how he had the power to call for a basketball game to be canceled,” Williams said. “Obviously, he’s done a lot of philanthropy which is great, but he’s benefited a lot from the G.I. Bill, which historically kept Black American veterans out of getting free education, getting good housing, and things like that.”

Williams, a 6-foot-5 guard, is averaging 6.1 points and 25.5 minutes per game. His father Kyle, who coached him with his AAU program, Team Takeover, is enjoying his different perspective of his son.

“It’s been so amazing to watch him transform into a man,” Kyle Williams said. “I watch the game differently. I’m not even looking at him to try to fix his game or anything because I am watching a man play as opposed to a child.”

Kyle Williams is also trying to spark meaningful conversation about race and social justice issues. In June 2020, he developed A Long Talk About The Uncomfortable Truth, an organization that aims to teach anti-racism through productive conversation. In its first 18 months, A Long Talk has engaged with more than 3,000 people through Zoom and met with more than 40 organizations, including St. Joseph’s, Villanova, Temple, and Penn.

“Athletics has always been a prime space for this conversation because we know the only way to have successful teams, there has to be equity, there has to be quality, they have to be able to support each other,” Kyle Williams said.

Williams is halfway through his fifth and final season as a Quaker, but Monroe believes the social change they are making within the Penn community will last.

“I think that’s what our program is kind of about,” Monroe said. “In a lot of ways, it ‘s much bigger than basketball. This is one of the topics that we are very passionate about from the coaches all the way down to the players.

“Even when Jelani’s gone, we’re still going to be participating in things like A Long Talk and doing community service, trying to continue to facilitate the conversation as much as we can.”

» READ MORE: Penn’s Lucas Monroe is a basketball star and a ‘big basketball nerd’