Author Topic: Sports as a platform for protest  (Read 1718 times)

90sRetroFan

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Sports as a platform for protest
« on: July 03, 2020, 11:32:39 pm »
OLD CONTENT

In the news recently, unhinged reactionaries are burning shoes in a protest against those who protest racism, and a certain CEO who is too cheap to pay for basic healthcare for his employees has been ousted from the company he founded after complaining uppity NFL players are costing him profits (although, his outburst probably cost the company more money, considering they are no longer an official sponsor of the NFL).

Although rightists don't want to acknowledge it, it is painfully obvious why these athletes are using their time in the spotlight to protest (and why they have something to protest about in the first place):

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As the Guardian’s series on race and sports starts today – and we mark two years since Colin Kaepernick first knelt during the national anthem – I am reminded that whenever an NBA player comes close to shattering one of my dusty old records, eager journalists contact me to ask how I feel. Here’s how I feel: At the time I set those records – most points scored, most blocked shots, most MVP awards, blah, blah, blah – I celebrated them because they confirmed that all my hard work and discipline since childhood was effective in me achieving my goal of becoming the best possible athlete.

But that wasn’t my only goal. The even greater significance those records had to me then, and has to me even more now, is in providing a platform to keep the discussion of social inequalities – whether racial, gender-related, or economic – alive and vibrant so that we may come together as a nation and fix them. Historically, that has been the greatness of the American spirit: we don’t flinch at identifying our own faults and using our moral fortitude and ingenuity to become a better nation. In honoring that spirit, I pay tribute to two of my most important mentors, UCLA coach John Wooden and Muhammad Ali. It is Ali’s voice I often hear in my head: “When you saw me in the boxing ring fighting, it wasn’t just so I could beat my opponent. My fighting had a purpose. I had to be successful in order to get people to listen to the things I had to say.” All sports records will inevitably be broken, but the day after they are, the world won’t have changed. But every day you speak up about injustice, the next day the world may be just a little better for someone.

Sports is the most popular form of entertainment, with Americans spending about $56bn on sports events last year, compared to about $11bn on movies. Seventy-two percent of 18- to 29-year-olds consider themselves sports fans, as do a majority of those older. This level of popularity has made sports more than just entertainment, it’s also part of our national identity, a source of inspiration for personal achievement, and a means to teach our children valuable lessons about teamwork and social ethics. For African Americans, sports has all those values – but it also has some extra implications.

For people of color, professional sports has always been a mirror of America’s attitude toward race: as long as black players were restricted from taking the field, then the rest of black Americans would never truly be considered equal, meaning they would not be given equal educational or employment opportunities. Even after they were permitted to play, sports has been the public face of America, not what we sentimentally profess to believe when waving flags on the Fourth of July, but of our actual daily behavior. That is why whatever happens in sports regarding race, plays out on the national stage. Right now, sports may be the best hope for change regarding racial disparity because it has the best chance of informing white Americans of that disparity and motivating them to act.

The problem is that this is not the message that those who profit from disparity want the public to hear.

Over the years, I have participated in some of these protests. In 1967, when I was only 20, I was the youngest member of the Cleveland Summit, a gathering of black athletes tasked with determining the sincerity of Ali’s claim of being a conscientious objector. In 1968, a few months after the assassination of Dr Martin Luther King Jr, I had been invited to play on the Olympic men’s basketball team. I was torn because I knew that joining the team would signal that I supported the way people of color were being treated in America – which I didn’t. But not joining the team could look like I didn’t love America – which I did. Instead, I chose to teach kids in New York City how to play basketball and why they should stay in school. My decision not to play resulted in hate mail calling me, among other things, “an ungrateful ****”. That word, “ungrateful,” is the key to understanding what angers those who are so incensed at players’ protests. They want black athletes to be grateful that they’ve been given a seat at the table and to therefore ignore their brothers and sisters who have little hope of achieving that kind of success.

But I am even more energized and hopeful when I see those same athletes speak out against injustices because I know that in doing so, they are risking the careers that they spent their whole lives working towards. Their willingness to risk everything in order to give voice to the powerless – despite all efforts to silence them – makes me proud as an athlete and as an American. As Mark Twain once said, “[T]rue patriotism, the only rational patriotism, is loyalty to the Nation all the time, loyalty to the Government when it deserves it.” Athletes who speak out are proclaiming their loyalty to a constitution that demands equality and inclusiveness, not to the government officials who try to undermine those ideals by silencing its critics.

www.theguardian.com/sport/2018/aug/28/notes-from-an-ungrateful-athlete-why-race-and-sports-matter-in-america


It has been 50 years since another recognizable sports protest, but little has changed.

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Tommie Smith was once among the fastest men on Earth. During his sprinting career, he held 13 world records (11 of them simultaneously). He set the most famous of these on October 16, 1968, when his 19.83-second 200-meter dash at the Mexico City Olympics earned him a gold medal. His countryman and college teammate John Carlos won the bronze. When the two Americans mounted the podium to receive their medals, “The Star-Spangled Banner” blaring over the stadium speakers, each bowed his head and raised a black-gloved fist—Smith’s right, Carlos’s left. Around the stadium, jaws dropped and cameras flashed. Their protest, which was interpreted by many viewers as a Black Power salute, remains one of the most iconic images in the history of sports.

Smith was born in 1944, the seventh of 12 children. His father was a sharecropper, first in Texas and then in California; Smith grew up picking cotton and grapes when he wasn’t in the classroom. In high school, he played basketball and won a scholarship to San Jose State University, where he contemplated becoming a three-sport athlete before settling on track. San Jose’s team was at the time amassing top talent, earning it the nickname “Speed City.” Smith thrived, tying two world records—the 200-meter dash and the 220-yard straightaway—in his sophomore year.

Immediately after running those races, Smith headed to a protest march he knew about through a student athlete turned activist named Harry Edwards, with whom Smith had bonded over a mutual respect for education (“You can’t eat speed,” Smith recalls Edwards telling him). It was 1965, and the civil-rights movement was in full swing; inspired by Malcolm X, Edwards had decided to organize student athletes to protest racial disparities at San Jose State. Smith was an early and staunch supporter of Edwards’s movement, which quickly grew beyond campus. In 1967, as the Mexico City Olympics approached, Edwards formed the Olympic Project for Human Rights with a handful of athletes. The group threatened an athlete boycott of the Games—though Edwards says its real goal “was to change the total perception and understanding of the role that sports played in black life in this country.”

The athletes ultimately decided to attend the Olympics, clearing the way for Smith and Carlos to win their respective medals and stage their demonstration. The protest was meticulously thought out: The men wore scarves to symbolize lynching; black socks and no shoes to symbolize poverty; and gloves, Smith has said, to represent “freedom and power; equality.” They also had on Olympic Project for Human Rights pins, as did the silver medalist, a white Australian named Peter Norman, in solidarity.

When Smith and Carlos raised their fists, the stadium and the world went quiet. “For a few seconds, you honestly could have heard a frog **** on cotton,” Carlos wrote in his autobiography. “There’s something awful about hearing fifty thousand people go silent, like being in the eye of a hurricane.”

The shunning that followed the silence was even more difficult to bear. Both Smith and Carlos were barred from future international competition, effectively ending their sprinting careers. “I never would know how fast I could have become,” Smith later wrote in his memoir. “I would have just turned 28 by the time of the 1972 Olympics in Munich, and everyone has seen what runners like Carl Lewis and Michael Johnson have done as they matured.” Back home, the men were ostracized not just by white Americans but by many black people who feared being associated with them. Hate mail and death threats piled up. Smith got one letter telling him to “go back to Africa,” complete with a fake plane ticket. “I was knocked verbally and financially,” Smith told me.

After graduating from San Jose State, Smith was able to find only sporadic employment, including a brief stint on the Cincinnati Bengals’ backup squad. Smith says he could barely afford to supply his infant son with formula during this period, and the resulting stress contributed to the dissolution of his first marriage. He eventually was hired as the track coach and an instructor at Santa Monica College—positions he would hold for more than two decades—but he continued to struggle. As his second marriage was falling apart, in the mid-’90s, he was robbed of tens of thousands of dollars’ worth of jewelry and memorabilia.

By then, his notoriety seemed to be fading to anonymity. Delois, his wife, told me that when she met Smith, in the late ’90s, she had no idea who he was. (Her daughters had to look him up online.)

Kaino helped arrange for Smith to meet Kaepernick last fall, an encounter that was filmed for a documentary portion of their collaboration. “He knew about the stand in Mexico City,” Smith told me proudly. “He was on his knee and I was on my feet, but we represent the same thing. The brutality, inequality.”

After the 1968 Olympics, Smith was called a militant and his act was labeled an expression of black power—descriptions he’s been trying to shake for decades. He bristles at the mention of the Black Panthers (though Edwards, the San Jose State activist, was a member), and he insists that his protest was about human rights broadly. “I never focused solely on blacks to the extent that everything else was secondary,” he has written. “I did not want my participation to be about only one kind of people.”
Like Smith, Kaepernick has been vilified and unable to find a job (he’s suing the NFL for colluding against him). Nonetheless, Smith believes that Kaepernick’s actions could prove more impactful than shorter-lived protests by other African American athletes over the past 50 years—among them the basketball players Craig Hodges and Mahmoud Abdul-Rauf in the 1990s. “You just keep working, it will happen,” Smith told me. “I’m not broken to a point that I can’t move forward. Colin Kaepernick is going to be the same way.”

Perhaps needless to say, Smith was not invited to the White House in 1968, as many Olympians are. But in 2016 (shortly before Kaepernick first took a knee), President Obama saw fit to belatedly honor Smith by having him visit; Kaino and Delois came along. As a gift, they brought Obama a drawing of Smith passing a baton during a world-record-setting 4x400-meter relay race. On the back, Smith wrote, in part: “Most importantly, the ‘Baton’ was not dropped.”

Smith returned to the White House again later that year with the U.S. Olympic team, but says that he won’t be visiting the current president. The baton has, in his view, been dropped. “But it didn’t roll out of the lane,” he added. “You can pick it up.”

www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2018/10/tommie-smith-1968-50-years-later/568294/

In True Left spirit, protestors like these bravely risk their entire careers in order for their efforts to have as wide of an impact on society as possible. To protest against injustice and ensure the baton of the American Dream is not dropped, an individual cannot just remain silent, be "grateful", and take the money.

Malcolm X used the metaphor of the house slave vs. the field slave to illustrate the divide between oppressed individuals who were "grateful" for the luxury they received (and hence did not desire to 'rock the boat') vs. those who hated oppression to such a degree that they would risk their lives for it to end. As we can see from the current wave of sports protests, both attitudes are alive and well in the US.

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"Colin has to make up his mind whether he's truly an activist or he's a football player," Brown said. "Football is commercial. You have owners. You have fans. And you want to honor that if you're making that kind of money. ...

"You have to understand there's intelligence that's involved, OK? I can't be two things at once that contradict each other. If I sign for money, then the people I sign with, they have rules and regulations."

www.thepostgame.com/jim-brown-colin-kaepernick-activist-flag-anthem

(Spoiler alert, Kaepernick has decided that he is the only owner of his soul, and that standing up for Americans who do not have a voice is more important than remaining silent to collect a paycheck).

---

www.huffpost.com/entry/megan-rapinoe-trump-disgusting-attack-four-congresswomen_n_5d3393b4e4b004b6adb0c63a

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Outspoken World Cup soccer star Megan Rapinoe blasted President Donald Trump’s comments calling on four progressive congresswomen of color to get out of the U.S. But Rapinoe also said she was energized by the backlash against Trump.

“It’s disgusting, to be honest,” Rapinoe said Saturday on The Van Jones Show on CNN, referring to Trump’s tweets against Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (N.Y.), Ilhan Omar (Minn.), Ayanna Pressley (Mass.) and Rashida Tlaib (Mich.). “To say it’s disappointing ... doesn’t even come close.”

She also called Trump’s “send her back” chant — referring to Omar, the only one of the lawmakers not born in the U.S. — “sad and disgusting and despicable” in an interview published Saturday in The Charlotte Observer.

She added: “I think we’re one step away from just saying a racial slur on national television from the president of the United States. At every step it’s shocking. I hope people don’t stop being shocked by it all, because it’s truly the worst of the worst.”

But the co-captain and star midfielder of the world champion U.S. women’s national soccer team also told Jones that she was heartened by the negative reaction to Trump’s racism. The House voted to condemn his message — and Omar returned to cheers at the airport back home in Minnesota earlier this week.

“The more that we ... are upset about it and don’t accept that kind of behavior from all sides, then the better place we’re going to be,” Rapinoe said on CNN.
...
Asked by The Charlotte Observer if Trump crossed a line telling the congresswomen to get out of the country, Rapinoe responded: “All the lines were crossed forever ago for Donald Trump, dating back to birtherism.”

Rapinoe rocketed into the political arena when she was recorded in an interview before the World Cup saying there was no way she’d visit the “**** White House” if invited. She has called Trump a racist and misogynist, and said he “doesn’t fight for the same things we fight for,” referring to her teammates.

---

www.foxnews.com/sports/us-fencer-takes-knee-in-protest-at-pan-am-games

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“We must call for change,” Imboden said afterward on Twitter. “This week I am honored to represent Team USA at the Pan Am Games, taking home Gold and Bronze.”

“My pride however has been cut short by the multiple shortcomings of the country I hold so dear to my heart,” he said. “Racism, Gun Control, mistreatment of immigrants.”

Firstly, thank you.

Secondly, if racism is a problem (and I agree it is), then victims of racism need to own guns and be willing to use them against racists. If mistreatment of immigrants is a problem (and I agree it is), then immigrants need to own guns and be willing to use them against ICE/CBP.
« Last Edit: July 03, 2020, 11:34:36 pm by 90sRetroFan »

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90sRetroFan

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Re: Sports as a platform for protest
« Reply #1 on: July 03, 2020, 11:37:39 pm »
OLD CONTENT contd.

Good advice:

sports.yahoo.com/mario-balotelli-racist-abuse-verona-brescia-italy-soccer-171939632.html

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The latest incident, just like so many before it, occurred in Italy. Early in the second half of a Serie A match between Hellas Verona and Brescia, Verona fans hurled abuse at Brescia striker Mario Balotelli. Balotelli, who has been subjected to racism dozens (and likely hundreds) of times throughout his career, snapped as he dribbled toward the corner – and into earshot of the crowd. With the ball still in play, he picked it up and punted it into the stands.

What happened next is complicated, and unknowable from afar. The referee pulled out his yellow card, but never actually issued it. Players from both teams confronted Balotelli in varying fashions.

Balotelli himself looked like he had had enough. Looked like he wanted to walk off. Teammates and opponents appeared to try to convince him to stay. A few appeared to console him. Those heated pleas turned into tense, serious discussions over a four-minute-plus delay, during which a statement was reportedly read over the stadium’s public address system.

While the PA announcer reportedly condemned the racist chants, neither Balotelli nor any other player left the field during the stoppage.

And therein lies the problem.

Players – the majority of whom were white – wanted the game to go on. The referee wanted the game to go on. Italian soccer authorities presumably wanted the game to go on. Fans surely did.

None of them empathized with Balotelli. If they did, none had the courage to act upon their empathy. It appeared that the purpose of their conversations with him after the incident was to console him and calm him, rather than to stand with him. In doing so, they left him to fight racism alone. They sided with a sport that turns a blind eye to racism instead of siding with a peer who was suffering from it.

That’s what has to change.

Neither Italy nor Europe instantaneously developed a racism problem in recent years. Rather, players have begun exposing it. Talking openly about it. Walking off fields in response to it. Their actions are courageous and meaningful. They should, at some point, affect change.

But they need help. Help from those whose lives aren’t impacted by racism on a daily basis. Help beyond brief suspensions of games. They need allies. They need white players to put their arms around them and walk off fields with them, en masse, rather than convince them to play on.

The Balotellis and Kalidou Koulibalys and Raheem Sterlings of the soccer world deserve to be lauded. Their willingness to fight rather than fall in line, as the white majority wants them to do, is remarkable. It represents progress. But without more support from the majority, it will soon become an illusion of progress.

Because while incidents like Sunday’s continue to make headlines, they don’t provoke meaningful responses. Hellas Verona won the match and picked up three points. They won’t be docked any. Their players will be happy. The club will be happy.

The game will go on, and therefore racism will go on, until Balotelli’s teammates and opponents – and their equivalents around the world – decide it won’t.

---



---

www.nbcnews.com/news/amp/ncna1205066?cid=eml_nbn_20200512

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NFL star Malcolm Jenkins, who co-founded the coalition with retired wide receiver Anquan Boldin, told NBC News that the request for federal intervention also carries a greater purpose.

"The sad truth is that Ahmaud's case isn't unique at all," Jenkins said. "He is a representation of the ongoing level of distrust that a large part of our communities have in law enforcement and elected officials and the importance of placing reform like-minded people in office who will uphold the highest standards of the law for everyone, regardless of color."
...
Arbrey's death has resonated with Jenkins and others who say they see themselves in his shoes. He said that as a black man — regardless of his status as a pro athlete — he understands the burden of being scrutinized and the implicit bias of others when he's out in public.

"Everyday. Walking the dog, taking out the trash, just walking through my own neighborhood, you always must be conscious of what you look like," he said. "People should not have to worry about the color of their skin or gender to go out for a run in their own neighborhood."
...
enkins said the video apparently showing Arbery locked in a physical struggle with Travis McMichael was hard to watch.

"Any human being who has seen the video should connect to Ahmaud," he said. "That said, it is an extremely hard pill to swallow as a black person to watch yet another black body be shot down in the middle of the street. But the most infuriating thing is, as you mourn the loss of a life, is to have their murder justified by white fear and self-defense."
...
"The anger and frustration being expressed by professional athletes and people of color all over the country stems from a centuries-long thread of violence against the black body that goes without consequence or justice," he said. "This has been going on since emancipation."

---

https://sports.yahoo.com/why-nfl-players-kneel-reason-1-million-athletes-add-voices-death-of-black-man-in-police-custody-195251764.html



---

www.yahoo.com/news/lewis-hamilton-completely-overcome-rage-054200670.html

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Lewis Hamilton has explained the feeling behind his passionate outburst over Formula One’s silence against racism, with the reigning world champion saying that he has been “completely overcome with rage” at the sight of George Floyd’s death in the United States and saying that people of Black, Asian and mixed ethnicity backgrounds should “not feel as though we were born guilty”.

The six-time F1 world champion has taken a vocal stance against racism, having previously spoken of the sport’s white-male dominated industry given he is the only black driver to have competed, and this week he has broadened his outrage over racial inequality following the disturbing death of African-American Floyd.
...
Having seen the fallout from Floyd’s death increase the spotlight on racial inequality, Hamilton spoke out again on Tuesday night to explain why he feels so strongly on the subject, having suffered from racial abuse during his F1 career - most notably in 2008 when fans in Spain dressed up in black face and taunted him with monkey chants.

"This past week has been so dark, I have failed to keep hold of my emotions," Hamilton wrote to his millions of Twitter followers. "I have felt so much anger, sadness and disbelief in what my eyes have seen.

"I am completely overcome with rage at the sight of such blatant disregard for the lives of our people. The injustice that we are seeing our brothers and sisters face all over the world time and time again is disgusting, and MUST stop.

“So many people seem surprised, but to us unfortunately, it is not surprising. Those of us who are black, brown or in between, see it everyday and should not have to feel as though we were born guilty, don’t belong, or fear for our lives based on the colour of our skin. Will Smith said it best, racism is not getting worse, it’s being filmed. Only now that the world is so well equipped with cameras has the issue been able to come to light in such a big way.

“It is only when there are riots and screams for justice that the powers that be cave in and do something, but by then it is far too late and not enough has been done. It took hundreds of thousands of peoples complaints and buildings to burn before officials reacted and decided to arrest Derek Chauvin for murder, and that is sad.

“Unfortunately, America is not the only place where racism lives and we continue to fail as humans when we cannot stand up for what is right. Please do not sit in silence, no matter the colour of your skin. Black Lives Matter #blackouttuesday.”

On Sunday night, Hamilton called out the rest of the F1 grid and the sport itself for remaining silent on Floyd’s death, which prompted a number of drivers to show their support for the Black Lives Matter movement.

F1 finally broke its silence on the issue on Tuesday night, with the official Twitter account posting a message that read: "We stand with you, and all people in the fight against racism. It is an evil that no sport or society is truly immune from.

"And it is only together we can oppose it and eradicate it. Together we are stronger."

---

https://sports.yahoo.com/le-bron-james-turns-laura-ingraham-shut-up-and-dribble-into-a-statement-on-police-brutality-002829456.html

---

Meanwhile in Turandom:

www.kxan36news.com/ukrainian-football-fans-unfurl-free-derek-chauvin-banner-in-support-of-ex-cop-charged-with-killing-george-floyd

---

www.usatoday.com/story/sports/ncaaf/2020/06/17/texas-a-m-qb-kellen-mond-advocates-removal-sully-statue/3204526001/

Quote
Texas A&M quarterback Kellen Mond tweeted Tuesday night in support of removing a statue of former president Lawrence Sullivan Ross. The statue is known as "Sully" and has been on campus since 1919.

"LET'S NOT FORGET SULLY," Mond captioned his statement.

Ross, president at Texas A&M from 1891-1898, was a brigadier general in the Confederate Army and has faced claims of mistreatment of Black and indigenous people in Texas.

Mond's statement reminded its readers of these specific instances and noted that his role in building the university does not excuse that.

"That is like saying someone who murders half of a family, but gives the other half of the family millions of dollars and resources to be successful for the rest of their lives, should be forgiven by the family," Mond wrote of people who forgive Ross based on his university role. "Based on your ideology, not only should you forgive the murderer, but you should also glorify the murderer."
...
Mond concluded his statement by saying, "The values of Texas A&M University do not align with RACISM, VIOLENCE, SLAVERY & SEGREGATION, but (head coach) Jimbo Fisher's most prominent statement will always stick with me: 'Your actions speak so loud I can't hear what you're saying.' The Lawrence Sullivan Ross Statue NEEDS to be removed. Texas A&M University, I NEED to see action."

90sRetroFan

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Re: Sports as a platform for protest
« Reply #2 on: July 03, 2020, 11:41:07 pm »
https://www.cbssports.com/nfl/news/nfl-to-play-black-national-anthem-lift-evry-voice-and-sing-before-star-spangled-banner-at-week-1/

https://edition.cnn.com/2020/06/26/us/matt-rhule-panthers-nfl-anthem-spt-trnd/index.html

Quote
Carolina Panthers coach becomes 2nd to say he may kneel alongside his players

https://www.cbsnews.com/news/nba-black-lives-matter-courts/

Quote
NBA reportedly plans to paint "Black Lives Matter" on courts when season resumes
...
"Black Lives Matter" would be painted on the court inside both sidelines in all three arenas, ESPN reported.  The WNBA is also in discussions to do the same when they begin their shortened season at IMG Academy in Bradenton, Florida.


NBA reportedly plans to paint "Black Lives Matter" on courts when season resumes

By Christopher Brito

June 30, 2020 / 1:20 PM / CBS News

The NBA is planning on painting "Black Lives Matter" on courts when the season restarts in late July, ESPN reported Monday. The league and the players' union, the National Basketball Players Association (NBPA), reportedly agreed on highlighting the movement at the Walt Disney World Resort in Orlando.

The death of George Floyd has pushed Black Lives Matter to the forefront, inspiring protests that included some current players. As NBA leadership and its players were in discussions to return playing, some stars brought up the possibility of not playing to retain the focus on social justice issues. Now, according to the report, the NBA will use the hardwood to keep the spotlight on the movement.

"Black Lives Matter" would be painted on the court inside both sidelines in all three arenas, ESPN reported.  The WNBA is also in discussions to do the same when they begin their shortened season at IMG Academy in Bradenton, Florida.
Get Breaking News Delivered to Your Inbox

The report also said some WNBA players are considering wearing warm-up shirts with "Say Her Name" to draw attention to female victims of police brutality, including Breonna Taylor. She was killed in her home in Louisville, Kentucky by officers conducting a drug investigation in March while she was sleeping.

In addition, the NBA and the players' union are working together on uniforms with personalized social justice messages on the back of the players' jerseys, rather than their last names, according to ESPN.

Every initiative helps!

90sRetroFan

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Re: Sports as a platform for protest
« Reply #3 on: July 13, 2020, 01:04:41 pm »
https://www.sportingnews.com/us/motorsports/news/lewis-hamilton-anti-racism-messages/1lrovznkmhgqa1mgiyaj14l84d

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Hamilton, the circuit's only Black driver, first took a knee prior to the competition's return last week amid the coronavirus pandemic. While Hamilton kneeled, six drivers decided to stand. Charles Leclerc, Max Verstappen, Kimi Räikkönen, Carlos Sainz Jr. Daniil Kvyat and Antonio Giovinazzi were those who remained standing.

Sunday showed a repeat of those actions, with drivers continuing to stand alongside a kneeling Hamilton.

"The drivers spoke after the drivers' briefing this weekend about what we intended to do and some were asking, 'Why do we have to continue to do this?'," Hamilton said via AFP News. "Some felt like once was enough last week.

"I just had to encourage them that racism is here, going to be here and probably be here longer than our time here — and people of color, who are subject to racism, don't have time to take a moment to protest and that be it. We've really got to think, as a sport, what we can do because those are nice signs, but passion is needed."

While some drivers — such as LeClerc and Verstappen — who didn't take a knee prior to the Syrian GP explained their actions (or lack thereof), there is more than a bit of a disconnect among Hamilton and some of F1.

While Hamilton is calling for a better anti-racism focus, Sunday's broadcast of the Syrian GP — a race which Hamilton won comfortably — drew heavy criticism from viewers, when cameras cut away from the pre-match gesture and messages of anti-racism.

https://twitter.com/theamzi/status/1282299210260459521

90sRetroFan

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Re: Sports as a platform for protest
« Reply #4 on: July 27, 2020, 11:09:45 pm »
https://www.espn.com/nfl/story/_/id/29549338/nfl-stencil-end-racism-takes-all-us-end-zone-borders-kickoff-week

Quote
As part of the NFL's ongoing commitment to social justice programs, the messages "It Takes All of Us" and "End Racism" will be stenciled on all end zone borders for home openers, the league office informed clubs on Monday in a memo obtained by ESPN.
...
The memo also confirms that players will have the option to wear helmet decals honoring victims of systemic racism.

"Each player will have the option to honor an individual by displaying that person's name via a decal on the back of their helmet," the memo said. "Players will be offered a list of names and short biographical information to help guide their decision-making, however, they can also select a victim of systemic racism who is not represented on this list."

If coaches desire, they can honor victims of systemic racism by wearing patches on their hats.

Nice!

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Re: Sports as a platform for protest
« Reply #5 on: August 05, 2020, 12:34:22 am »
A different angle:


guest5

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Re: Sports as a platform for protest
« Reply #6 on: August 11, 2020, 11:19:14 pm »
Trump: NBA Players Are "Nasty and Dumb"

90sRetroFan

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Re: Sports as a platform for protest
« Reply #7 on: September 19, 2020, 11:23:26 pm »
https://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/ufc-star-works-black-lives-matter-every-answer-las-vegas-press-conference-b475134.html

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UFC fighter Tyron Woodley had just one point to make at a Thursday press conference: "Black Lives Matter."

The former welterweight champion showed up to his UFC Vegas 11 presser wearing a Black Lives Matter T-shirt and a red hat emblazoned with the words "Make Racists Catch the Fade Again" in the same style as President Donald Trump's famous "Make America Great" caps.

Woodley kept his answers brief and pointed, answering every reporter’s question with a variation of his chosen message.

"I'm just excited that Black Lives Matter," the 38-year-old said when asked about meeting his longtime rival, and noted Trump supporter, Colby Covington at UFC Fight Night on Saturday.

"I feel like, you know, a victory here just really shows how much Black Lives Matter," he said in response to another reporter's question.

When asked if there was anything specific that he wanted to say about the Black Lives Matter movement, Woodley straightforwardly replied, "Just the fact that Black Lives Matter. I think it's pretty simple."

Every little bit helps.

90sRetroFan

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Re: Sports as a platform for protest
« Reply #8 on: October 26, 2020, 11:00:11 pm »

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Re: Diplomatic decolonization
« Reply #9 on: December 09, 2020, 09:00:58 pm »
Racism allegations rock CL game
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PSG and Istanbul Basaksehir teams walk out mid-game during UEFA Champions League match after Turkish side assistant manager Webo accused fourth official of using racist language
https://www.youtube.com/post/Ugxo3P7bIa_mfKl_lIx4AaABCQ


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Muhammad Bilal
14 hours ago
Now a days this is normal hypocrisy of EU countries.
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Astana Vista
17 hours ago
Freedom of speech, i think it is what it is.
Just P A T H E T I C
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Astana Vista
17 hours ago
@Visum Europe's attitude along with France towards others who doesn't share the same color and religion, yet I am not judgin them cuz they are doing what their ancestors did.
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Alexander Jacobian
13 hours ago
@Astana Vista exactly, all sadness and misery on this planet is because of their ugly disgusting greedy behavior, they are simply demons with good looking appearance
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Antonio Bruno
6 hours ago
@Alexander Jacobian You act like Africans, Arabs and other groups can’t be greedy and racist. Anything you consider “greedy” that we’ve done. You would’ve done the same, we just beat you to it.

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Numinous Sun
1 second ago
@Antonio Bruno You ignorant fool no other civilization attempted to colonize the non-western world and never would. Colonialism is a purely western phenomenon.
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Numinous Sun
1 second ago
@Alexander Jacobian They only look good to non-western people because western colonialism has left non-westerners with low self-esteem.

90sRetroFan

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Re: Sports as a platform for protest
« Reply #10 on: January 07, 2021, 04:37:51 am »
https://us.yahoo.com/sports/election-wnba-appreciation-raphael-warnock-defeats-kelly-loeffler-us-senate-runoff-georgia-150907967.html

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Atlanta Dream co-owner Kelly Loeffler will no longer serve in the U.S. Senate, a conclusion to months of heated campaigning that prompted Dream players and WNBA stars to publicly support her opponent.

Loeffler, a Republican, lost the U.S. Senate runoff in Georgia in a race called early Wednesday morning by the Associated Press. She was appointed to the seat in January 2020 and had to run in a special election on Nov. 3. It went to a runoff since no one had 50 percent of the vote.

Democrat Raphael Warnock, a Black pastor at Ebenezer Baptist Church, was declared the winner on Wednesday. He had a 35,000-vote lead with 97 percent of the vote counted.

The WNBA did that. Warnock was polling at 9 percent at the beginning of August when the WNBA players began supporting him with T-shirts and interview mentions. Loeffler, who drew their ire by speaking out against the support of the Black Lives Matter movement, was polling at 26 percent at the time.

Their activism has not stopped since that moment in the WNBA bubble, which led to the league’s inclusion as one of Yahoo Sports’ Transcendent 12 athletes in 2020. As results came in late Tuesday and into Wednesday, the sports world gave their appreciation to the league and its players on Twitter and celebrated the victory.
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The rest of the sports world gave the WNBA some love and appreciation, particularly the Dream and the reigning champion Seattle Storm. Veteran superstar and four-time champion Sue Bird helped lead the way to wearing “Vote Warnock” shirts after and explained their stance on the ESPN broadcast that night. They spoke with Warnock on a video call to make sure their values aligned. Every other team wore the shirts in a calculated response and none of the players spoke Loeffler’s name in interviews the rest of the season.

A lot of tweets in the original article, check them out!

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Re: Cancel Culture
« Reply #11 on: January 12, 2021, 01:45:47 pm »
Bill Belichick Declines Medal Of Freedom From Trump
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New England Patriots coach Bill Belichick declined to accept the Presidential Medal of Freedom on Monday after last week's deadly insurrection at the U.S. Capitol.

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Re: Sports as a platform for protest
« Reply #12 on: January 19, 2021, 11:30:25 pm »
Enes Kanter Raises Awareness of Factory Farms Conditions
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Enes Kanter hopes people will consider plant-based diets in order to curb the spread of infectious disease.

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Re: Sports as a platform for protest
« Reply #13 on: January 24, 2021, 02:14:05 pm »
Ronaldo reportedly rejects lucrative offer to promote Saudi tourism
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Cristiano Ronaldo has reportedly rejected a multi-million-dollar deal to promote tourism in Saudi Arabia. #Ronaldo​ #Messi​ #MBS​


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Re: Sports as a platform for protest
« Reply #14 on: February 12, 2021, 12:11:32 am »
Mark Cuban Directs Mavericks To Stop Playing National Anthem
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Mark Cuban is directing the national anthem not be played at Mavericks games.


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Brian Cayanan
2 hours ago
I’m utterly Shockled. Not in all my years of being a semi proud American did I not take the time to wiki the National anthem. Holy jfc those words will never even mumble out my mouth ever again!!!