Last November, the Syracuse basketball team donned warm-up shirts that bore the slogan "#NotAgainSU" in support of a campus-wide movement after racist graffiti showed up in several university buildings. But it was only for one game, the annual home game against Cornell.

Six months later, SU senior Bourama Sidibe finds himself protesting racism again, but this time he's looking to make it last.

"In order for people to understand what's going on, it takes more than one day," he said. "If it was only one day or two days, it would be changed by now, because these things have been going on for a long time."

Sidibe, who was born in Africa, says he first experienced racism when he was attending St. Benedict's Prep in Newark, New Jersey. He and a group of teammates drove into an unfamiliar neighborhood, where they were confronted by an unwelcoming resident.

"The guy harassed a couple of my teammates and said that we're not supposed to be there at that time, that's not our neighborhood," said Sidibe, who moved to America when he was 17 years old. "For that moment, I didn't know much about racism here, but a couple guys on my team, they felt different, it hurt them."

After spending about five years in this country, unfortunately Sidibe now knows all too well about racism. He attended a protest honoring George Floyd in New Jersey last week with his girlfriend and his former teammate, Tyus Battle. Bourama says more people are getting involved with the current movement because, in his words, history keeps repeating itself, and everyone has a responsibility to be part of the solution.

"They don't want to stay quiet, because if they stay quiet, they're not failing just themselves, they're failing the whole world," Sidibe said. "We're here to love each other, and treat each other equally, and they're not seeing that, so they feel they have to go out and show their support."

Entering his final season, and as one of only two seniors on the roster, the 22-year-old is also feeling the responsibility to be a leader when he returns to campus later this month. He says the NCAA can do a better job of promoting racial equality and togetherness by showing more unifying messages during commercial breaks of televised games.

Sidibe also says he and his teammates can do better, and the same goes for every student-athlete at Syracuse.

"We failed last protest as athletes, not only the basketball team, but as a whole, we failed, because we didn't come out together and say something about it," he said. "Those students, many people, are waiting for us to say something as high-profile athletes at this school. If we stay quiet, as we did last year, it won't change that much."