DeAndre Yedlin has been one of the most vocal American soccer players amid the Black Lives Matter movement, and the former Seattle Sounders Homegrown star and Newcastle United defender continued to voice his thoughts on a Monday interview with NBC Sports.
Among other topics, Yedlin discussed what he feels is a need to change the US education system to highlight Black history, which he says was lacking for him growing up. The issue in his mind, Yedlin said, is not the teachers who are just teaching the curriculum they've been given, but with a system that doesn't make a point of teaching students events throughout history that may be troubling, but are vital to our understanding of what Black people have experienced.
"First and foremost, I think when I was taught history, I didn't realize at the time, but now looking back it, there's clearly an agenda," Yedlin said. "I never learned about Black Wall Street, I never learned about Tulsa, I never learned about the Tuskegee Experiment. There's little things that have happened in our history that, they're not pretty, and they might tarnish this whole idea of the American dream and the American idea of 'Land of the Free, Home of the Brave' and alters the perception of people of what America is.
"But the reality is there's some really ugly things that have happened in America. Really ugly. And it's unfortunate that those things are not being taught to us, especially as a young Black male because that's part of my history. I want to know what my ancestors had to go through to get to where I am today and to understand who I am today. For us to not be taught those things, I think is wrong. I don't blame the teachers, I blame the system."
Watch the full interview below.
