Black activism has risen significantly as protests rage across the country—a trend parallel to many Black athletes’ fight against racism.
On Tuesday, Sept. 22 the Office of Multicultural Affairs at the University of Idaho hosted another event in the Black Lives Matter Speaker Series. This event featured Dr. Alex Manning putting context into Black athlete activism in sports, detailing the history behind it and providing insight on Black activism in sports currently.
Manning is an assistant professor of sociology at Hamilton College, and his research explores the clashes between racism, inequality, families, youth and culture. Manning specifically deals with how racism structures youth sports and other extracurricular activities, and how youth, parents and coaches experience race in their own lives.
“I’m happy to talk with y’all and just to discuss really what’s going on in the current social moment around sports and Black Lives Matter, both nationally and globally.” Manning said. “And really to put into context both the history of Black athlete activism and how sociologists generally try to understand racism and sports and their relationship to broader social movements.”
Manning explained that activism in sports has been relevant in the past with Muhammed Ali refusing to serve in the Vietnam War due to racism, but recently it has increased. The murder of Michael Brown in 2014 in Ferguson, Missouri brought forward activism with the University of Missouri football team going on strike against the university and the members of the St. Louis Rams showed their support for the movement by saying “hands up, don’t shoot.”
Activism continued to increase from the shooting of Philando Castile in Falcon Heights, Minnesota. The Minnesota Lynx of the WNBA responded to the shooting by dictating the questions that the media asked and showed their support by wearing shirts that said on the front “Change starts with us, Justice & Accountability.” The back of the shirts had the names of Philando Castile and Alton Sterling who were both shot by police around the same time.
San Francisco 49er’s quarterback, Colin Kaepernick, started kneeling for the National Anthem before the start of his NFL games, beginning his own protest in support of Black Lives Matter. His actions would see him out of the NFL shortly after, but other NFL athletes would follow his lead and can be seen kneeling for the anthem now.
Now in 2020, the Black Lives Matter movement has increased activism in sports even more. The movement has reached international status as European soccer teams are following suit. The English Premier League (EPL) supported the Black Lives Matters movement by displaying “No Room for Racism” badges on each team and match officials shirts while continuing to take a knee before matches began.
“It was interesting given the legacies and history of racism in European soccer,” Manning said.
According to Manning, sports can be a semi-independent social force that can influence other parts of the social world. NASCAR, a dominantly white sport, showed support for the Black Lives Matters movement when Bubba Wallace, the only black driver in the sport’s three top series, was able to encourage other drivers to support him and the Black Lives Matters movement.
“If you look at NASCAR, it’s a majority white men driving so he could have had the option to just stay back, and he could have risked losing his job,” Tayler Lyday, UI track & field/cross country jumper, said. “I think it’s a big thing because having a platform and using your freedom of speech is a great thing to have.”
Armin Mesinovic can be reached at [email protected] or on Twitter @arminmesinovic.