Over the course of Black History Month, visitors of yorkulions.ca will read Student-Athlete Spotlights, which will profile prominent Lions student-athletes of colour. They will discuss the success they've achieved both on and off the field of play. 
 
Andrew Tauhid is in his fourth year with the Lions men's volleyball program, and has become one of the most reliable, high-impact players on the roster over the course of his career. In the 2019-20 season, Tauhid ranked 16^th in the OUA and second on the team with 3.1 points per set and also had 1.21 digs per set, good for fourth on the Lions. He is a one-time OUA second-team all-star, earning the honours in 2018-19. Outside of Lions volleyball, the Toronto native coaches youth sports with the Venom Volleyball Club in Markham, Ont.
 
Tell me about your long-term career plans.
 
So currently I'm studying Law & Society. Immediately after I'm done school I'd like to pursue a career in professional volleyball overseas for a couple years for however long my body holds up. Once I have passed the point where I can play volleyball, my goal is to return home and become a police officer. My goal originally was to be a detective, but as I've gotten older and done some research I've come to understand all the other branches that are within the police forces. So my goal is to do something in law enforcement.
 
Is there anything in particular that led you in the direction of law enforcement?
 
Yes. I read a book called Monster, and it was about an interaction an individual had with the legal system. In the book, he perceived himself to be innocent and the book was his account of interactions with people in the law enforcement system. When I was a kid, I remember student resource officers coming into our elementary schools and interacting with us, and since then I've learned that these kinds of appearances are about more than just introducing police officers to students, it's about establishing trust with people at a young age so that there's trust when they're older. They want younger people to think about police officers as people they can trust. I saw that, I watched documentaries, read articles, and saw how the actual law enforcement system works. They consider police officers to be the front-line workers of the legal system, and that's another appealing thing to me. Essentially, there isn't any other career I could imagine.  
 
You clearly have a pulse on law enforcement. Given that, what are your thoughts on the social justice events that prevailed over the course of the last year?
 
I've understood for a while that there is a stigma around policing. The public perception of officers has been salted because of bad apples. And I will preface this by saying that there are bad apples in every profession – but there are certain jobs where you can't afford for that to be the case. A good example of that is professionals in healthcare who are responsible for people's lives. It's the exact same thing for police officers. They are the ones who decide if someone is able to see their family later that night. They're responsible for whether someone is arrested, let go or dead. Some people see policing as a form of income rather than an occupation that effects outcomes in our society. In terms of what happened down south last summer, people will often ask me how I felt about that situation, and they ask the question as if this was the defining moment for Black Lives Matter. In reality, Black Lives Matter was established in 2013. But with everything occurring in the world during 2020, people had the time to make this their focus. I remember the day George Floyd died. I honestly thought people would forget about it after a week. But when Minnesota was set on fire, I realized this was going to take the world's attention. Finally the issue would get the attention it deserves. And it made me want to be in law enforcement even more in order to have the opportunity to change things. Not only how policing is viewed in society, but how the system works from the inside. Michael Jackson famously said, "If you wanna make the world a better place, take a look at yourself, and then make a change!" So I want to start with what I can do.
 
The point of the protests are to makes change. What are some of the positive outcomes you would like to see from the Black Lives Matter movement?
 
It starts from the top and works its way down from there. We saw it on Jan. 6 when the head of the snake said "let's do this," and the rest of the snake followed. And that's how powerful leadership can be. Imagine the influence that office would have on advancing Black lives if they said anything about that. That's what we're looking for with Black Lives Matter. Not only accountability, but we're looking for leadership. A guy like NDP leader Jagmeet Singh – he is a person of colour, so he understands what it's like to be discriminated against. He gets it. And he understands how to make change in the system, but it seems like he's being silenced. For example, when he was ejected from the House of Commons for calling another MP racist. That is an example of white privilege using the existing rules to fit their agenda. But it's that kind of statement that results in change. Those are the kinds of steps that need to be taken. The fact is that if you have 400 years of advancement on the backs of another races, you're going to have a level up on society. And so the result of the movement needs to level Black lives with everyone else.
 
This month is about Black Excellence. Given that, I want to ask you what you feel your greatest achievement is.
 
This is less of an actual situation and more about goal setting. I think my greatest achievement is my academic growth. Growing up, I wasn't the greatest academically. Some people are early bloomers, some people are late bloomers. I was a five-minute late bloomer. I was very athletically involved but otherwise I always did what I needed to get by. And because of that, I was a little closed-minded with all the things I did. But when I got to university, I was able to learn a lot about myself. I became more mature. But it took a lot of failure. A whole lot! Perseverance and persistence were very valuable – working through injuries and things like that. And also on personal growth, if I were to be involved in an incident because of the colour of my skin, before I wouldn't know what to do or how to react. Now, I can name it, and I'm able to react properly to those situations.
 
Who inspires you?
 
I have a lot of inspirations. I'd say my role model is Bradley Beal [NBA player with the Washington Wizards]. Not only because of how well he's playing basketball right now, but just because of the adversity. He is currently not in the greatest playing environment, and I'm one of the people who would like to see him leave his current team. But as a player, you don't want to leave. You want to be able to work out your situation. The worst thing about that is when you're trying to work out your situation, and you are constantly losing – and it's even when you're constantly losing but still playing well. And he's in the same conversation as Michael Jordan right now [Beal is coming off 17 straight games with 25 or more points to begin the season, besting Michael Jordan's previous record for the longest streak since the NBA/ABA merger]. How does he deal with that adversity? How does he deal with the growing pains of wanting to be successful, but being out of reach? He could score 100 points in a game and still lose. So I get my inspiration from watching him play through that adversity.