ATLANTA — A Democratic candidate for one of Georgia's U.S. Senate seats is weighing in on his opponent's stance on the Black Lives Matter movement - saying the issue is about more than just politics.
“The folks at the WNBA, NASCAR, NBA and NFL are all trying to find themselves on the right side of history. She's finding herself on the wrong side of history,” Rev. Raphael Warnock said of current Republican Sen. Kelly Loeffler's statements denouncing the WNBA's plan to honor Black Lives Matter during the upcoming season.
Warnock is one of many challengers running against Loeffler in the upcoming November election.
Loeffler, who is a co-owner of the WNBA's Atlanta Dream, went public with her thoughts on the league's plan to feature the slogan on team's warm ups and on the courts during the season, urging it to instead display the American flag. She called the union an example of politics in sports that she believes has no place in the league.
“And I'm not going to let a political movement tear our country apart,” Loeffler said.
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But Warnock called her statements the worst kind of politics.
“People are literally dying on the streets and she's playing politics," he said. "The politics of division and fear. Black Lives Matter seems to affirm the humanity of all citizens to uplift the American creed of equal protection under the law.”
Warnock said instead of the division, it's time to turn toward each other - not on each other "through the politics of bigotry and hate."
He said that also goes for the recent upswing in shootings and violence seen in the City of Atlanta that resulted in the death of an 8-year-old girl killed by gunfire over the Fourth of July weekend.
But Warnock - who spoke about the social justice movement just weeks ago while delivering the eulogy for Rayshard Brooks, killed by an Atlanta Police Officer - said he believes an increase in policing is not the answer.
“Justice is what love looks like in public," he said. "We've got to listen to the most marginalized members of the human family, parents who are struggling trying to make a way out of no way. Now is the time for us to turn towards each other."