National Post (National Edition)
Athletes use roles to reach youth
Stars able to spark discussion on social issues
Wednesday night, in the hours after a grand jury determined three Louisville police officers who botched a raid and killed Breonna Taylor in her apartment should not be charged for her death, LeBron James reached out to his 47 million Twitter followers.
“The most DISRESPECTED person on earth is THE BLACK WOMAN!” James wrote. “I promise you I'll do my best to change this as much as I can and even more!!”
In this year of unrelenting American strife, athletes bringing attention to the crippling issues of systemic racism and police brutality has been built into the pregame routine and the postgame conversation. Questions are as likely to focus on racial profiling as run-scoring doubles.
But what's more important than what those athletes doing is who they're reaching. They're reaching the kids.
“What he does, what he says on social media, we read that,” Matthew Harden said of James. “We don't follow business leaders of teams, so seeing what the players say is all we see, actually.”
Over the course of the summer and into the fall, there has been considerable power in watching NFL players link arms in unity as the names of victims scroll across videoboards. There has been emotion in watching the New York Mets and Miami Marlins lay a Black Lives Matter T-shirt over home plate just before they walked off the field, refusing to play in the days after Jacob Blake was shot in the back by police in Wisconsin. There has been a resonance in listening to Tim Anderson, the Chicago White Sox shortstop, speak out plainly: “The world needs to change.”
But it's more powerful and emotional and resonant when you hear how that's being processed at ground level.
“When they left the shirt on home plate,” said Daniel Marshall Jr., “it was really powerful. That's something that really stuck with me.”
“I heard Tim Anderson say it's bigger than politics — it's not politics,” said Langston Speed. “It's basic human rights. And the fact that we have to say we matter is kind of concerning. We shouldn't have to say we matter. We should say that we're needed.”
Matthew Harden is 15 and lives in Greenbelt, Md. Daniel Marshall and Langston Speed are both 14 and live in the District of Columbia. They are students and young Black men. They are baseball players at three different high schools and teammates at the Nationals Youth Baseball Academy in southeast Washington, where there has been as much discussion these days about the climate in the country as there has been about getting in front of a grounder.
They are kids, kids with athletic heroes. But they are also listeners and thinkers, and Lord knows 2020 brings a lot to listen to and think about. There was George Floyd, who died in police custody in Minneapolis. There was Breonna Taylor, dead at the hands of police in Louisville. There was Ahmaud Arbery, shot while jogging near his own neighbourhood in Georgia. There was Blake, shot by police in Kenosha, Wis. Process that, kids.
“Just feeling anger and just, like, disappointment,” Langston said. “Because it keeps happening and keeps happening, and it was still happening. I can't even say I was shocked.”
Hearing that from a 14-year-old is knee-buckling. But this is where the athletes come in. They are, it's clear, fostering discussion. There are people who still — right now, in 2020 — believe James shouldn't continue to speak so forcefully and thoughtfully, as he did again Tuesday.
“I just said that what's going on in our community is not okay,” James said. “And we fear for that, and we fear for our lives. It's something that we go on every single day as a Black man and a Black woman and a Black kid, a Black girl. We fear. We fear that moment when we're pulled over.”
Now forget for a moment who's saying that. Think about who's listening to it.
“It makes me think almost not that I have to do something about it, but I also want to do something about it,” Matthew Harden said. “I had a discussion the other day, actually. Being part of the new generation puts us in a very important and powerful place to make a change. We're going to be the ones teaching our younger ones.”