On Father’s Day, Atlas LC midfielder and former Loyola star Romar Dennis decided to use the opportunity to describe frequent encounters with racism that his dad, Roberto Sr., experienced after immigrating from Panama to the United States in 1978 to play in the Yankees’ farm system. Romar’s mother, Marleny, came to the United States in the early 1980s from El Salvador to escape the country’s civil war. 

Below is Dennis’ Instagram post, accompanied by a Q&A in which he discusses his encounters with racism on and off the field, where he sees the greatest areas for growth in the sport and what it means to him to be an Afro-Latino lacrosse player. 

How and why did you decide to write the Instagram post on Fathers’ Day about your dad’s encounters with racism after he came to the United States in 1978?

I knew I had to and wanted to get into my individual experiences with racism. So many people I see are denying the fact that these problems are systemic or institutional, and I know a lot of people aren't familiar with my ethnic or racial background. Race, ethnicity and nationality have been so important to my family with my parents being immigrants. There isn't a day that goes by that we don't think about it and talk about it. My dad has been able to get through things he wouldn't even consider adversity, so I had to drag it out of him. He doesn't know what a microaggression is or anything like that, but I wanted to start from the roots and show what it's like to be a prominent black father figure, because you have to deal with a lot of s---.

How did you learn about race as a child?

A lot of it came through dealing with other kids. I'd hear someone say something ignorant, and I'd come home and ask my parents about it, and they'd tell me, ‘That is wrong.’ They always made sure I had a strong racial identity. I would do a lot of research on it, too. When we did lightly touch on civil rights activism in school, I dove really deep and felt really passionate about it because it affected me so much. As much as the attention is on racism towards black people, I've also heard it all on the Hispanic side as well. I've heard tons of ignorant slurs and comments about my Latino background.

What are some of the most impactful instances of racism you’ve encountered on or off the field? 

I actually had to write some of these down because there are so many. I heard my older brother [Roberto Jr.] get called the N-word many times in middle and high school, but what stuck with me was that there were many parents who didn't care about it. Other parents were visibly angry at their kids for having relationships with black kids. Stuff like that made me really mindful of it. When I got to high school at a predominantly white school, it was rampant. Kids would shout the N-word. When teachers caught on, they would make up different slurs. A lot of upperclassmen my freshman year would yell “r-----,” which was just the N-word spelled backwards. A lot of crude racial humor. A lot of really ignorant statements around the Obama-McCain election. I heard it every day. I became even closer with my black friends at school because we were vastly outnumbered. It wasn't that every white person was saying this, but a lot would hear it, stand by and not say anything. 

My junior year of high school, my best friend and I were walking out of school, and he asked this girl who was walking beside us, “Do you want to take my friend to homecoming?” 

“Why?” she asked, kind of scoffing. “He's a n-----.” 

She probably wouldn't even remember that, but those are the type of things that stick with you and I've heard plenty of times.

Upperclassmen would come up to me and say this kid is going to be the next Reggie Harvey, and he just happened to be the last black kid on the team. I was offended by that. I heard things like, “Oh, I have the black kid,” when kids are checking up on defense. In speaking to Myles [Jones] and Kyle [Harrison] and Trevor [Baptiste] about this, our experiences are different being prominent players on the teams we've been on. Whereas the kid who is kind of on the end of the bench, the one black kid, might be more exposed to stuff like that because his teammates are less afraid of offending someone who isn't a starter or an All-American. 

How did your parents instill pride in your ethnicity and heritage?

That's just the way Latino people are. They're very prideful. You see a lot of flags waving and they are not subtle about it at all. Every single member of my family is extremely extroverted, too, so they love talking about it.

You said on the podcast “Unbuckled Chinstrap” with Paul Rabil that Shamel Bratton was one of your favorite players growing up, yet you worried about mentioning him in previous interviews. Why was that the case?

I thought he was one of the most exciting and best players I have ever seen. As of a couple years ago, black participation in lacrosse at the Division I level was around 2.5 percent, I believe. It's such a little sample size that when you're the face of it, everyone gets painted with that same brush. I think Anish Shroff said something similar to that. The narrative became that as soon as Virginia kicked the black kids off the team, they became good. The Brattons became associated with that stereotype of laziness and selfishness. There's a lot of lacrosse stigma that dates back and sounds eerily similar to the first black quarterbacks. You always hear when people talk about a black player, they’ll say, “Oh, what a talented athlete, so raw,” but they'll never give him credit for making a lacrosse IQ kind of move. I heard that a lot with Shamel and Rhamel. No one would ever talk about their lacrosse IQ and their skill. They'd only talk about their raw athleticism as if black athletes just jump out of bed and are fast, strong and don't have to work at it. That paints that stereotype of laziness and that they’re somehow lacking the complex thinking of a white athlete. I think there are a lot of deep stereotypes in lacrosse that people don’t even realize they are feeding into. 

What are your thoughts on the lacrosse community’s response towards racial inequality in the wake of the deaths of George Floyd, Ahmaud Arbery and Breonna Taylor? 

I think it's great. Recently there's been a lot of criticism about athletes speaking out, but athletes always have, dating back to Jim Brown, Muhammad Ali, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar and Arthur Ashe. As lacrosse players, all of us have four-year degrees, and we're just as educated as any other person who can speak out about it. I see a lot of comments saying, “Oh, you're not a civil rights expert or an economics expert,” but if we have four-year student-athletes who have gone to these great schools, I think we know as much as anyone and we have a bit of a platform, so I'm glad we're speaking out on it. 

What steps or actions are necessary for the sport of lacrosse to become more inclusive and where do you see the biggest opportunities to create positive change?

There's this attitude when things are exclusive, where people believe, "I treat everyone equal, and if you show up to this interview, I will judge you just based on that.” But the stop signs are way before you get there. There are the overpriced club and travel teams that few parents in minority communities can afford. The same way coaches at these really expensive high schools are grooming kids to be great collegiate athletes, they need to take a huge effort to be more involved with these Harlem Lacrosse, Charm City Lacrosse, Denver City Lax kind of organizations, and lend their expertise to people who have zero access to it. That starts at the grassroots. 

Do you plan or have heard of any other players’ plans to use the Premier Lacrosse League Championship Series as a platform to show support for the Black Lives Matter Movement?

Absolutely. I think we all are. The black players who are playing in the Championship Series have all been in contact in the weeks leading up to this, and we've been working on a few things. There are also a lot of white players who are on board with it. I think that's how progress will be made — from allyship — where it’s not just those in the marginalized groups speaking out, but people in the larger group, acknowledging, speaking out and offering resources. The league itself is extremely progressive, and Mike and Paul [Rabil] are not afraid to take hard stances to denounce homophobia, racism or sexism. You'll see some of the symbolism that you've seen in the other sports that have already started playing again, and I think you'll see a lot of support for the Black Lives Matter Movement. 

What does it mean to you to be an Afro-Latino lacrosse player?

I'm proud. I feel like I am a trailblazer. I think about my recruiting trip with my parents to Loyola. It's just us three and [Coach] Toomey. We were walking in the locker room and my dad and I were focused on all the gear and how state-of-the-art everything was, but my mom said, "I don't see any Latino names on the lockers." I couldn't believe she said that, but it didn’t seem to catch Coach Toomey off guard. "Well, you could be the first one," he responded. That stuck with me, and it makes me think I am playing for a lot more than myself. I fall into a lot of small groups that I am proud to represent and don't want to let a lot of people down, especially my family.