NORMAN — Jordan Thomas wishes he could ditch the long-sleeve black shirt and the ankle-length black tights under his practice uniform.
He isn't being forced to wear them, but for more than two years, they have been his standard garb. They're great in the winter when the temperatures drop, but during the first few months of practice when the humidity soars and the sun swelters, the Oklahoma cornerback nearly melts.
"I don't wear this for fun," he said after practice late Thursday morning. "I don't come out here and sweat my life out because I want to look cool.
"It's a statement."
A statement that started after fraternity members on campus were caught on video singing the most vile and racist of songs.
A statement that is every bit as important today.
In the days after white supremacists reminded us of the racism and the hate that still exists in our country, we are left looking for answers. How do we fight this madness? How can we help in the healing? How should we band together in these times?
What should we do?
Jordan Thomas provided an unexpected answer.
Unexpected because when I asked him why he wore the all-black undergarments, I thought he was going to say it was a mind-over-matter thing, a way for him to get tougher mentally or some such thing. I thought it was a fun question that would show a bit of his personality.
Did it ever.
Thomas said he started wearing the gear after that video of Sigma Alpha Epsilon fraternity members at OU surfaced in March 2015. In the days after, the football team took a lead role in the discussion. They marched in silent solidarity. They wore head-to-toe black.
"I didn't want it to die right there," said Thomas, who was only a few months removed from his true freshman season at the time. "To this day, I still wear all black to make the statement that it's not gonna go away."
Unfortunately, it seems racism is never going to go away either.
"It's not unheard of, and it's very open, and it's very real in this world," Thomas said.
He knows that all too well — racism raised its vulgar, repugnant head on his own campus — and yet, Thomas was still saddened about what happened last weekend in Charlottesville, Va. The chants. The torches. The flags. The violence. The injuries. The lost lives.
There were people marching through the streets of an American city flashing swastikas and using Nazi salutes.
Lest you've forgotten, this is 2017.
"It's painful to know and to see this is where our world still is today," Thomas said. "I don't understand why it's so difficult for us to be one and be unified. I don't understand why it matters why I look the way I look and you look the way you look.
"I don't understand how you can dislike a person because of what they look like. What kind of logic is that? It's sick, and it's twisted."
Thomas talked for several minutes about what happened in Charlottesville, about the images that he saw, about the things that he felt.
Finally, he stopped himself.
"I don't want to sit here and talk about it all day because I would get upset and emotional because it's sad," he said.
But isn't it OK to be emotional? Isn't it healthy to have strong feelings about what happened?
"Y'all have cameras in my face," Thomas said, "and I don't want the world to see me cry."
From the look on his face, you knew those words weren't hyperbole.
That's in part because he still struggles with the lessons of the SAE episode. He wants to share with younger teammates about what he took away from those days, but he wrestles with what to say.
"You learn that it's tough," he said. "Being an African-American male, you don't understand it and don't understand the logic behind it. You can't learn from it because, like, what can you really take from the situation?
"Don't be in the wrong place at the wrong time?"
Thomas knows he doesn't have all the answers. He didn't a couple years ago, and he doesn't today.
And as a major-college football player, he's aware that his time is limited. He's a full-time student, and he's a full-time athlete. The harsh reality is that he doesn't have a ton of time on his hands to rally or protest or do much of anything beyond the load that he's already carrying.
But he knows he can still take a stand every day.
That's why he puts on those black tights and that black shirt every time he practices. They are his statement — no matter the hate, no matter the heat, Jordan Thomas isn't about to melt.
