Toronto Raptors' Serge Ibaka wants the world to know Black lives matter everywhere
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00:00Black Lives Matter.
00:03It's become a rallying cry around the world to demand the end of racial inequality and the oppression of Black people.
00:11In North America, it means ending racialized violence, police brutality, and systemic racism.
00:18But the words reach far beyond the borders of the United States and Canada.
00:22It's a message Serge Ibaka wants heard around the world.
00:27This is one thing I want people to understand.
00:30What is going on in the United States is what is going on everywhere.
00:35Maybe in different ways.
00:37In the United States, you can see what is happening directly, how the police is killing somebody.
00:44But in the Congo, in Africa, and all the countries in Europe, it's happening too in different ways.
00:50So the fight we're fighting here is bigger than the fight people are thinking.
00:56Because if we can win this fight here, we're going to change a lot of things around the world.
01:03Ibaka is from the Republic of Congo, one of the poorest countries in the world where over 40% of the population lives below the poverty line.
01:14Next door to the Republic of Congo is the Democratic Republic of Congo, where Ibaka's mother is from.
01:20For over 20 years, it's been the site of one of the deadliest wars in human history.
01:26Over 5 million people are estimated to have died in a conflict between 1998 and 2007.
01:33It's created terrible inequality and poverty throughout the country, where over 77% of the people live on less than $2 a day.
01:44Sexualized violence is pervasive in the DRC, with 51% of women over the age of 15 said to have experienced some form of sexual violence from an intimate partner.
01:56That reality is why Ibaka is trying to draw attention to the region.
02:01The things happening in East Congo. Do you know how many women are getting killed every day?
02:10We know why. The reason that's why we're fighting this fight is because of those reasons. You know, we need change everywhere.
02:18For those who emigrate from the area, racial discrimination follows them throughout much of the world.
02:24You know, and at the same time, when we go emigrate out there, they know us to be there. You know, so they treat us like nothing.
02:34That's why Ibaka will wear the French translation of Respect Us on his jersey tonight.
02:39He wants everyone to know that Black Lives Matter everywhere.