This article seeks to examine the importance of super-star athletes speaking out on issues of racism and why it is so crucial to speak out now more than ever.
"St. Louis Rams players Stedman Bailey, Tavon Austin, Jared Cook, Chris Givens and Kenny Britt took the field during pregame introductions in the "Hands Up, Don't Shoot" pose used by protesters in Ferguson, in reference to the Michael Brown case."
"NBA superstars LeBron James, Kobe Bryant, Derrick Rose, Kyrie Irving and others wore "I Can't Breathe" T-shirts during pregame warm-ups to put a focus on the Eric Garner grand jury decision. Kevin Durant also wrote "Black Lives Matter" on his game shoes before the nationally televised game between his Oklahoma City Thunder and the Cleveland Cavaliers."
While racism is still a very prevalent issue in the sport world, perhaps more athletes speaking out, wearing clothing or taking interviews about these issues will draw more attention to the fact that this is a problem we need to fight directly. The most important outlet is through education and awareness.Why are there still reported incidents of racism in the professional sport leagues? The sports world has brought people together for centuries to spectate some of the greatest athletes in the world compete in massive arenas, regardless of skin color or nationality. More importantly this article recognizes and names some of the owners of nationally branded sports teams for saying and emailing racial and insensitive slurs. What an embarrassment. People in such a high power position who are making executive decisions are the same people who feed into the narrow-minded and ignorant ways of racist Americans,
"Sport can continue to use its powerful platform for social change." With millions of people watching, we need more athletes talking. A potential solution to combating racism in the sport world - start talking about it and spread the word.
Lapchick, R. (2014, December 30). Racism still
Evident in Sports World. Retrieved May 09, 2016, from
http://espn.go.com/espn/story/_/id/12093538/the-year-racism-sport
Lapchick has been writing about racism in sports (and sexism and homophobia) for decades. We do need more athletes talking outside the lines. It is one thing to wear slogans as an athlete warms up for a game, especially when others are doing it too, it is quite another to do it as a citizen.
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