Super Bowl Unity Summit brings pro-athletes together against hate

Story and Photos by Aaliyah Brown Data News Weekly Contributor

Over 100 student athletes across New Orleans universities came together for a Special Super Bowl Unity Summit that featured Rapper and Activist Meek Mill in conversation with close friend New England Patriots CEO Robert Kraft. The summit spotlighted the efforts of Black and Jewish athletes in pro-sports to push back against hate both of their communities’ face and in light of recent comments by Rapper Kanye West.

“This is still, with all our faults, the greatest country in the world, and we’re gonna make sure everyone has an equal opportunity to experience it,” said Kraft, as he addressed student athletes from Dillard University, Loyola University, Tulane University and Xavier University of Louisiana on Feb. 7, 2025, in Xavier’s University Center ballroom.

Dillard University’s women’s basketball team meet WNBA forward
Dearica Hamby.

Kraft’s Foundation brought together a panel of professional athletes spotlighting work that brings communities together. This included Brigham Young University Quarterback Jake Retzlaff, who is the only Jewish Quarterback in college football, Super Bowl Champ and NFL Running Back Leonard Fournette, NFL Kicker Greg Joseph, who is Jewish, and Dearica Hamby the Los Angeles Sparks Forward in the WNBA. The group shared how racism and anti-Semitism affected them growing up and in their professional lives. They are now using their platforms as athletes to ensure all human beings are treated the same.

“We’re just human beings who want to be loved, who want to be cared for, and who want to love others,” said former WNBA Player and Basketball Hall-of-Famer Nancy Lieberman, who shared how support from the Black community and her lifelong friendship with Black athletes like Muhammad Ali is why she also fights to end racism as a Jewish woman in sports.

The Unity Summit was a Super Bowl version of Unity Dinners, a partnership with the United Negro College Fund and Hillel International, with support from Kraft’s Foundation to Combat Anti-Semitism. Students engage in conversations on college campuses to better understand the challenges their communities face.

NFL Champ and New Orleans Native Leonard Fournette and WNBA Hall of famer Nancy Lieberman fist bump as they share stories about working to end hate.

“One of the main and common denominators that we do this work, is over a meal. Whether it’s Shabbat dinner …or Sunday night dinner, food has always been a centerpiece of connection in both of our cultures,” said Xavier student Aarinii-Parms-Green, a Baton Rouge native, who spoke at the summit. Parms-Green co-founded the Still We R.O.S.E. Initiative with three of her Xavier peers in 2022 to address mistrust between Black and Jewish communities. She has collaborated with the Unity Dinners Project which has taken place in across other HBCU college hubs.

“I noticed in Atlanta there is a large Black community and a large Jewish community, and both communities do a lot of good work but not necessarily together,” said Dr. John Eaves, who leads the Unity Dinners, which originated in his hometown Atlanta, Georgia. The goal of the dinners is to take a step closer to educating both communities on anti-Semitic and racial discrimination and putting a stop to it, Eaves said. Eaves discovered that being a Black and Jewish man there are many similarities within the inequalities both groups have experienced. The dinners break down stereotypes, so that young people are not misjudged simply because of who they are.