In 1968, Martin Luther King Jr. and Muhammad Ali were the two most famous Black men in America— and two of the most despised people in the country.
King’s nonviolent protests for civil rights had grown wearisome to people, especially since he’d expanded his focus to include poverty and the Vietnam War.
Ali’s refusal to be inducted into the U.S. Army to fight in the Vietnam War cost him his heavyweight championship belt and the peak years of his livelihood while earning him the most intense hatred ever experienced by an American athlete. A hatred deepened by his being a Black Muslim.
Today, King’s birthday is a national holiday and Ali is, arguably, the most revered athlete in history who, at the time of his 2016 death, was as beloved as anyone in the nation. Visionaries and prophets aren’t always appreciated in their times. Sometimes it’s not until they’re dead, silent and less threatening that they become popular, easy to embrace and hailed as heroes deserving of emulation.
Until someone emulates them.
On Wednesday afternoon, moved by the close-range shooting of a Black man seven times in the back by a police officer in Kenosha, Wis., the Milwaukee Bucks refused to take the court for their NBA playoff game against the Orlando Magic.
The Bucks’ surprise strike inspired two days unlike any seen in American sports as more teams in the NBA, Major League Baseball, WNBA, and National Hockey League voted to not play or had their games postponed by their leagues. Players on several National Football League teams, now in training camp, voted to not practice.
We are in an era of unprecedented social and political consciousness among athletes, especially Black athletes who no longer will “just shut up and dribble.”
Their awareness of the power they possess through celebrity, wealth, the profits they generate, and the platform they have, emboldens them to speak out against injustices and racism in the United States; to talk candidly and painfully about their experiences as Black men and women in a nation they love, but as Los Angeles Clippers head coach Doc Rivers powerfully said, “doesn’t love us back.”
Rivers was just one of at least four prominent sports figures, former NBA stars Robert Horry and Chris Webber and New York Mets first baseman Dominic Smith, who publicly got emotional last week speaking about their experiences.
The Bucks’ action came on the fourth anniversary of then-San Francisco 49ers quarterback Colin Kaepernick kneeling for the first time during the national anthem to protest the killings of Black people by police. Kaepernick and his supporters repeatedly explained he wasn’t protesting the military, the flag, or all police officers, but his critics insisted that’s what he was doing.
How arrogant are you that when someone tells you why they’re protesting, you tell them they’re wrong?
And it’s arrogant to tell athletes they shouldn’t protest, but should be grateful for their lifestyles. Never mind the heaviness you feel over Ahmaud, Breonna, George and Jacob, go out there and entertain us.
Presidential son-in-law Jared Kushner, a man born and married into wealth, gave snarky voice to the “just shut up and dribble chorus” by saying: “Look, I think that the NBA players are very fortunate that they have the financial position where they’re able to take a night off from work without having to have the consequences to themselves financially.”
America has never been comfortable with Black (or white) athletes nonviolently protesting the nation’s racism or challenging the status quo, whether it was Ali, Bill Russell, Curt Flood, Tommie Smith and John Carlos, WNBA players or Kaepernick.
Then again, America has never been comfortable with any nonviolent protests forcing it to acknowledge and correct wrongs.
In 2016, the Washington Post reviewed polling data of the civil rights era and found 57 percent of Americans believed demonstrations such as the lunch counter sit-ins and the freedom rides would hurt Blacks’ cause for civil rights.
Even the March on Washington, where King delivered his “I Have a Dream” speech, 60 percent of Americans, in the days leading up to it, thought it was a bad idea.
Many people who say they admire King would admire him much less were he alive and doing his thing today, making them uncomfortable with his demonstrations and forcing them to think about things they’d rather not.
King isn’t alive to do his thing and neither is Ali. But we are amid a generation of young athletes who want to change their nation for the better.
They’re not doing it through rioting, vandalism or crossing state lines with an AR-15 to kill protesters. They’re doing it through nonviolence.
For those who disagree, what would you have them do? Or do you want them to do nothing but play your games?
cary.clack@express-news.net
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August 29, 2020 at 06:00PM
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Clack: Black athletes again call for justice, change - San Antonio Express-News
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