Athletes advocating for social and political issues
Athlete activism in the United States refers to using one's platform as a professional athlete to advocate for social and political issues in the United States of America. It has been an aspect of American sports culture for decades, dating back to the civil rights movement of the 1960s, with athletes such as Muhammad Ali and Tommie Smith using their fame to speak out against racism and discrimination. In recent years, athlete activism has gained renewed attention as athletes have used their platforms to address issues such as police brutality, racial inequality, and LGBTQ rights. The intersection of sports and social justice has been a contentious topic, with some praising athletes for using their influence and privilege to bring attention to important issues, while others criticize them for being too "political" or "divisive."
49ers players following in Colin Kaepernick's footsteps in protest for Black Lives Matter
Colin Kaepernick was one of the first activists in the Black Lives Matter movement in the NFL. During the 2016 postseason, in response to several incidents of police brutality, Kaepernick protested during the national anthem. Initially, Kaepernick sat on the bench during the national anthem, but after conferring with other players, he moved to kneeling. Commissioner Roger Goodell responded to the action by saying that he didn't "necessarily agree" with Kaepernick's actions. On the 2016 season's opening day, many players followed his lead, with some kneeling and some raising a fist. These actions garnered criticism from several public figures, including then-President Donald Trump. These protests continued into the 2017 and 2018 seasons, generating controversy. When he went unsigned in free agency, Kaepernick hired attorney Mark Geragos and filed a lawsuit, claiming that NFL owners had conspired against him in violation of their collective bargaining agreement.[1]
Initially, the NFL ruled that players could not protest during the national anthem, but could remain in the locker room. In 2018, the league announced it would not punish players for protests during the national anthem. After the murder of George Floyd, similar protests began to emerge.[1]
Olympics
During the 1968 Olympics, two African-American athletes, Tommie Smith and John Carlos, raised their fists in a salute to Black Power on the podium.[2] The assassination of Martin Luther King Jr, the advancements in the U.S. Civil Rights Movement, and the Tlatelolco massacre were cited as influencing the pair to make this decision. The Olympians wore black t-shirts to cover the USA on their uniforms and raised a black glove in the air as "The Star-Spangled Banner" played. Reactions to the action were largely negative and near-instant. Smith and Carlos were banned from the US team and the Olympic village and ostracized upon returning home.[3] In 2008, President Barack Obama acknowledged the men's protest and asked them to become U.S. Olympic Committee ambassadors in 2016.[4]
Similar protests made a resurgence in the 2022 Beijing Winter Games. Some athletes were unhappy with the International Olympic Committee's decision to place the winter games in China, since the country has a history of human rights violations and censorship.[5][6] Protests became more subtle, as the IOC had learned from experience with them. From athletes skipping the opening ceremony to some athletes turning away from the flag during the national anthem, the IOC's controversial Rule 50, which prevents all forms of peaceful protest on the podium, has made it riskier for Olympians to make a political statement, as it has led to termination and controversies for those who participate.
Major League Baseball
Jackie Robinson was the first Black man to play in the MLB, breaking the racial boundary.
Some athletes in Major League Baseball (MLB) use their platforms for advocacy involving social and political issues. One of the players
credited with starting activism within Major League Baseball is Jackie Robinson. Robinson became the first player to break the color barrier in the MLB on April 15, 1947.[7] Once established in the MLB, Robinson found friends, to whom he would communicate his feelings about specific civil rights issues such as lynching or the passing of particular legislation.[8] Although he became frustrated with democracy and the amount of influence the Civil Rights Movement had made during his time, he continued to work for justice throughout his life. Robinson's actions influenced other sports as more African-American athletes began to advocate against social injustice.
Roberto Clemente also advocated while in the MLB. Clemente was the first Latino Hall of Famer in baseball to receive 12 Golden Glove awards, over 3,000 hits, 15 all-star appearances, 2 World Series titles, and the 1966 MVP award.[9] After leaving his home in Puerto Rico to go play in the MLB in 1955, Clemente noticed the segregation and racism within America, as Jim Crow laws were in effect. Clemente began to work against inequality in multiple ways, such as by boycotting bus trips with teammates to “all white” diners during road trips or by forcing the Pittsburgh Pirates general manager to buy station wagons for non-white players to travel in during away games. Former MLB player Carlos Delgado followed in his role model’s footsteps by continuing to advocate for minority rights and other issues of social justice.[10] Clemente created a new form of activism against social injustices within the MLB, which has influenced the league.
National Basketball Association
LeBron James, a player in the NBA, has faced racism during his career. Since Kaepernick "took the knee", James has followed in his footsteps, but in his own way and by using his sport. Despite being told to "shut up and dribble", James has continued to be an activist against racism by discussing it on social media and during the pregame of NBA games. His platform allows more people to hear about his activism. At the 2016 ESPYs, James and a few fellow NBA players used the occasion to express their support of the Black Lives Matter Movement.[11] James has used his platform more every year as his popularity has increased.[citation needed]
National Hockey League
The National Hockey League (NHL) has taken part in movements involving anti-racism and LGBTQ+ inclusion.[12] As the National Hockey League has tried to promote these movements, issues have occurred amongst players and teams, causing complications to the activities that the league is attempting to implement.
Beginning in 2020, the NHL and NHLPA (National Hockey League Players Association) announced that they would partner with the Hockey Diversity Alliance (HDA) to administer training and education on anti-racism within the league, which the players and NHLPA staff would partake in. The HDA is attempting to "... eradicate systematic racism and intolerance in hockey"[13] by having its partners and associations sign its pledge, stating their commitment to:
Create policy and rule changes to make the culture of the game more inclusive
Establish specific targets for hiring, promoting, and partnering with Black individuals and businesses
Execute educational programming to increase awareness of racism in hockey
Fund social justice initiatives
Starting in 2013, the NHL became an official partner of the You Can Play project, which was designed to fight homophobia within sports through events such as pride nights, which include jerseys made by members of the LGBTQ+ community, and stadium performances. Similar events and uniforms across multiple sports have begun to receive backlash from players on the teams participating.[14] This has caused the league management to reconsider the effectiveness of these events, as well as their possible discontinuation, due to the pressure of multiple political facets that has caused negative responses to events, which are meant to promote outreach and support for the LBGTQ+ community. Some players from Russia opted out of these events due to political and religious beliefs. Ivan Provorov, a Philadelphia Flyers defensemen, chose to opt out due to his Russian Orthodox beliefs; Kirill Kaprizov, a Minnesota Wild wingman, also chose to opt out due to his difficulty returning home to Russia because of Russia's ban on "gay propaganda" that has begun to evolve into law within the country;[15] the ban is described as "... [prohibiting] sharing positive and even neutral information about lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) people, and publicly displaying non-heterosexual orientations, with hefty fines for noncompliance."[16] However, other players from Russia, such as Evgeni Malkin of the Pittsburgh Penguins, did not decide to opt out of the pride nights.
Social media
With technological advancements in the last few decades, professional athletes can reach and engage with a global audience.[17] Athletes are now sources of entertainment as well as activists for social change, using social media to spread messages and influence opinions.
Social media's platforms provide an avenue through which athletes can engage directly with the public. These platforms have also become the main area for sports consumers to interact with one another, share their opinions, and respond to athletes themselves, creating an ongoing conversation between sports organizations, athletes, media sources, and audiences. Social media is also a tool in activism outside the sports sphere.[18]
LeBron James is one athlete who has used social media to impact change. He had about 53 million followers on Twitter and 144 million followers on Instagram as of February 2023. James uses his social media presence to share opinions regarding politics, social justice issues, and other activist movements. He once stated, "We know it's bigger than us. It's not about us. I'm going to continue to do what I have to do to play this game I love to play, but this is bigger than me playing the game of basketball."[19]
In June 2020, a group of NFL players created a video titled, "Stronger Together." The video was made to condemn racism and police brutality following the murder of George Floyd in May 2020. The video includes athletes such as Odell Beckham Jr., Patrick Mahomes, Deshaun Watson, and more. After each player (and others not featured in the video) posted the video on their platforms, the media circulated through social media. Due to the attention and engagement the video received, it was eventually re-posted on behalf of the National Football League.
Sexual harassment, assault, discrimination, and judgment based on sex have impacted women and sports played by them for hundreds of years. In sports, women have faced challenges when attempting to be seen as equal to their male counterparts because of a stereotype in the sports industry that says that women are unable to be as physically strong or capable as men.[20] Because of this, female athletes competing in sports have used their public outreach to spread awareness of the discrimination they face; women have also worked to exceed societal standards and expectations through public displays and by outdoing men in certain sports.
In the 1997 Olympics, Kerri Strug competed as a US gymnast. She was four-foot-nine, weighing in at ninety pounds, and was doubted by fans and fellow competitors.[21] In the middle of the competition, Russia was ahead of the United States, so the team depended on an impaired Strug. Her coach encouraged her to complete the final vault to bring home the gold medal for the United States, which she executed successfully. Following her win, the United States women's team, oftentimes referred to as the "Magnificent Seven", refused to walk on the stage without their injured teammate, so they carried her out. After her time in the Olympics, Strug was inducted into the International Jewish Sports Hall of Fame; she is still involved in sports as a spectator and leader.[22]
In her article written for the University of Tennessee's independent newspaper, The Daily Beacon, Erin Gwydir states, "Sports bring out the primitive overvaluing of men’s physical nature to women’s into a relation to patriarchal representation, strength, and overall respect."[23] The statement refers to continued discrimination towards women in national sports. As of late, women are using their influence on the public to speak out about discrimination and harassment that they have faced during their time in the sports industry. The MeToo movement is a social movement that focuses on the sexual abuse, harassment, and discrimination that women have experienced and which allows them to address the public about it. Olympic gold medal gymnast Aly Raisman has been to universities and conferences to talk about her personal experiences with sexual abuse and discrimination, which she has endured since she was fifteen years old.[24] Namely, she recounts incidents of sexual abuse from Larry Nassar, a former United States Gymnastics physician. Following her initial statement in 2017, several other gymnasts, including Gabby Douglas and Simone Biles, followed in her footsteps.
In the late 1960s and early 1970s, feminism was centralized around equality and promoting the idea that women are able to compete with men.[25] Today, Western feminism is believed to focus more on the differences between men and women, which may increase gender inequality. Some people are waiting for activism that furthers women's equality in sports in the future.
Related Research Articles
The National Hockey League is a professional ice hockey league in North America comprising 32 teams—25 in the United States and 7 in Canada. The Stanley Cup, the oldest professional sports trophy in North America, is awarded annually to the league playoff champion at the end of each season. The NHL is one of the major professional sports leagues in the United States and Canada and is considered to be the top ranked professional ice hockey league in the world, with players from 17 countries as of the 2023–24 season. The International Ice Hockey Federation (IIHF) also views the Stanley Cup as one of the "most important championships available to the sport".
The participation of women and girls in sports, physical fitness, and exercise has been recorded to have existed throughout history. However, participation rates and activities vary in accordance with nation, era, geography, and stage of economic development. While initially occurring informally, the modern era of organized sports did not begin to emerge either for women or men until the late industrial age.
Ice hockey tournaments have been staged at the Olympic Games since 1920. The men's tournament was introduced at the 1920 Summer Olympics and was transferred permanently to the Winter Olympic Games program in 1924, in France. The women's tournament was first held at the 1998 Winter Olympics.
Women's professional sports are a relatively new phenomenon, having largely emerged within the latter part of the 20th century. Unlike amateur women athletes, professional women athletes are able to acquire an income which allows them to earn a living without requiring another source of income. In international terms, most top female athletes are not paid and work full-time or part-time jobs in addition to their training, practice, and competition schedules. Professional organizations for women in sport are most common in developed countries where there are investors available to buy teams and businesses which can afford to sponsor them in exchange for publicity and the opportunity to promote a variety of their products. Very few governments support professional sports, male or female. Today there are a number of professional women's sport leagues in the United States and Canada.
Racism in sports has been a prevalent issue throughout the world. In particular racism towards African Americans has been especially severe throughout the history of sports in the United States and around the world
The Olympic Project for Human Rights (OPHR) was an American organization established by sociologist Harry Edwards and multiple Black American athletes, including noted Olympic sprinters Tommie Smith and John Carlos, on October 7, 1967. The purpose of the group was to advocate for civil rights and human rights for Black people in the United States and abroad, along with protesting racism in sport in general. The OPHR proposed a complete Black athlete boycott of the 1968 Summer Olympics in Mexico City to achieve its goals. While the OPHR advocated for a boycott backed by all Black Americans, the group did not actively include women in its discussions and in the end was mostly composed of track and field athletes.
Colin Rand Kaepernick is an American civil rights activist and former football quarterback. He played six seasons for the San Francisco 49ers in the National Football League (NFL). In 2016, he knelt during the national anthem at the start of NFL games in protest of police brutality and racial inequality in the United States.
Issues related to race and sports have been examined by scholars for a long time. Among these issues are racial discrimination in sports as well as the observation that there are overrepresentations and underrepresentations of different races in different sports.
The history of Canadian sports falls into five stages of development: early recreational activities before 1840; the start of organized competition, 1840–1880; the emergence of national organizations, 1882–1914; the rapid growth of both amateur and professional sports, 1914 to 1960; and developments of the last half-century. Some sports, especially ice hockey, lacrosse, curling, and ringette enjoy an international reputation as particularly Canadian. Although typically thought of as American, the origin of the sport of baseball began the Canadian town of Beachville, Ontario, and American football was initially developed by Canadians at McGill University before two different playing styles emerged, American football and Canadian football. Canadian sports attract large numbers of participants and huge audiences; hockey, played by 1.4 million Canadians, has become part of the national identity.
Sarah Nurse is a Canadian professional ice hockey player with PWHL Toronto of the Professional Women's Hockey League (PWHL) and the Canadian women's national ice hockey team. She made her debut with the national team at the 2015 4 Nations Cup. In 2018, she represented Canada at the 2018 Winter Olympics where she won a silver medal. Her success continued as she scored the opening goal in the 2022 Gold medal game where Team Canada defeated the United States 3–2.
The Movement for Black Lives (M4BL) is a coalition of more than 50 groups representing the interests of black communities across the United States. Members include the Black Lives Matter Network, the National Conference of Black Lawyers, and the Ella Baker Center for Human Rights. They are endorsed by groups such as Color of Change, Race Forward, Brooklyn Movement Center, PolicyLink, Million Women March Cleveland, and ONE DC, and the coalition receives communications and tactical support from an organization named Blackbird.
Beginning in August 2016, some American athletes have protested against a variety of perceived injustices in the United States by kneeling on one knee while the U.S. national anthem is played. Beginning in 2017, many players also protested against President Donald Trump's criticisms of those involved in the protest, and some against Trump's policies during his time in office. Some observers have described the protests as being politically motivated and/or patriotic and they have also praised the players' social awareness, while others have criticized the drawing of attention to social issues during sporting events, and they have also called the protests unpatriotic or disrespectful. The act itself has become widely referred to as "taking the knee" or "taking a knee".
Protests during the playing of the United States national anthem have had many causes, including civil rights, anti-conscription, anti-war, anti-nationalism, and religious reservations. Such protests have occurred since at least the 1890s, well before "The Star-Spangled Banner" was adopted and resolved by Congress as the official national anthem in 1916 and 1931, respectively. Earlier protests typically took place during the performance of various unofficial national anthems, including "My Country, 'Tis of Thee" and "Hail, Columbia". These demonstrations may include refusal to stand or face the American flag during the playing of the Anthem. Some of the protestors object to honoring the slaveowner and author of the lyrics, Francis Scott Key.
The Syracuse Eight were 9 college football players who advocated for an end to discrimination against African American football players at Syracuse University and for other reforms to the program. They eventually boycotted a practice and then the 1969 season.
"Stick to sports" is a phrase used in sports journalism and scholarship, primarily in the United States, to indicate the view that professional athletes should refrain from political or cultural commentary.
On August 26, 2020, some professional athletes in the United States began to go on strike for their respective sports contests in response to the police shooting of Jacob Blake in Kenosha, Wisconsin. After the video of Blake's shooting in which he was seriously injured went viral, protests and riots broke out in the city of Kenosha and elsewhere. As a result of the shooting of Blake and the protests which followed, on August 26, professional athletes refused to play in their scheduled sports events, beginning with the Milwaukee Bucks of the National Basketball Association (NBA).
The participation of transgender people in ice hockey is an ongoing issue in the place of LGBT+ rights and diversity in ice hockey. Only a small handful of professional players have come out as openly trans, and systemic transphobia presents many barriers to the inclusion of trans people in the sport.
Taking the knee is a symbolic gesture against racism whereby an individual kneels upon one knee in place of standing to attention for an anthem or other such occasion. It was originated by American football player Colin Kaepernick on September 1, 2016, in protest against the lack of attention given to the issues of racial inequality and police brutality in the United States. Kaepernick's protest led to a wider series of national anthem protests. It has since been adopted by sports players in countries around the world, including association football in the United Kingdom, in solidarity with Kaepernick's protest against racism, and has been seen worldwide in non-sporting contexts such as the Black Lives Matter protests.
The Women's National Basketball Association/Women's National Basketall Players Association Social Justice Council is an activist committee jointly run by the WNBA and the players union which addresses systemic racism, LGBTQ+ rights, and other issues affecting women in the United States. It was formed in July 2020 after criticism of and pushback against the organizations' support of the Black Lives Matter movement.
Athlete activism is activism performed by athletes, both during sports events and outside them.
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