This past weekend, there was a round of protests at soccer matches in the German top tier with multiple games being paused to deal with the protests. The basis for the protests was the belief that the owner of one of the German teams is not acting in compliance with the unwritten rules of the league regarding funding. While the protests might be meaningful for the fans of the other German clubs or soccer fans in general, they are fairly benign in comparison to what has been seen at sporting events previously.
Without an audience, protests are meaningless, so sports offer a great window to make a statement. Now feels like a new age in sports with protests from fans and athletes seemingly becoming much more common. Our current environment lends itself to this with someones ability to broadcast their protest and message to a large audience in seconds via social media.
Generally most fan protests revolve around things in the world of sports, with protests against owners and management being fairly common. Occasionally fans will step into the political arena as Seattle Sounders and Portland Timbers fans did last year, but usually they will stick to broader statements that have a less specific message. Athletes meanwhile always seem to take on a larger social burden, using their platform to speak on more pressing and contentious issues.
It feels as if there has been a push recently for athletes to be more than just athletes. In the summer of 2016 NBA players Carmelo Anthony, Chris Paul, Dwyane Wade and LeBron James delivered a speech at the ESPYS award show where they talked about gun violence and the then recent deaths of Alton Sterling and Philando Castile at the hands of police officers. Then just over a month later Colin Kaepernick began his high profile movement by taking a knee during the National Anthem.
Activism in sports is nothing new as legends like Muhammad Ali, Jesse Owens, John Carlos, Tommie Smith and Bill Russell have all used their platform to go beyond sports. Unfortunately, the subject of the protests haven’t changed either as Kaepernick and his fellow athletes are still pushing for the same racial equality that their predecessors asked for.
As basic and simplistic as the demands of the athletes might seem, there has always been pushback against them. Those that speak in opposition of them often state how the players are rich and entitled and are therefore out unfit to comment on social issues. The irony of course is that most politicians and outspoken businessmen would fall under the same labels and yet it seems to be less of a problem when they speak out on social issues.
As much as sports seem to be an escape from reality for some people, the intersection of issues revolving around race, class and gender are hard to ignore in the athletic arena. These intersections make it impossible for athletes to just “shut up and dribble” as Laura Ingraham told LeBron James because they are confronted with the issues on a daily basis, and with how quickly news can spread it is also impossible to ignore what is happening in the world around them.
J4804 Laird 