Protests in perspective, thoughts turn toward pitch
Before MLS players refused to take the field Wednesday night, before the NBA brought its postseason to a multi-day halt, before the WNBA’s Washington Mystics wore T-shirts with seven bullet holes depicted on the back and spelling out the name Jacob Blake on the front, Mark McKenzie had something he wanted to say.
Minutes after finishing off a 1-0 win over the New York Red Bulls Tuesday night, the 20-year-old Homegrown defender said his piece.
“We’re going through another situation now with Jacob Blake, and him being shot seven times in the back,” McKenzie said. “It’s uncalled for. And also, we’re demanding justice for what’s been done. For him to, again, be shot seven times in the back in front of his children, his three sons in the backseat, what does that do for them now? It’s a traumatic experience at such a young age, to see that happen to your father.
“And again, we just go back to that this is a reality. Even with all the ‘progress’ we’ve tried to make, we take another 10 steps backwards. We’re still waiting on justice for Breonna Taylor’s killers, and now we’re demanding justice for Jacob Blake’s shooting.”
Athletes across American sports, in a multi-racial coalition, have called for justice and redress for systemic racism and police brutality with a strike that all but halted the American sports world for two days after the police-involved shooting of Blake in Kenosha, Wis., last week.
For the Union and D.C. United, the decision was made to play Saturday night at Subaru Park.
D.C. United goalie Earl Edwards Jr., a founding board member of the Black Player for Change organization, told the media that after discussing it, the players decided to play. MLS confirmed the resumption Friday.
That decision, Curtin is careful to point out, is within the context of what is important right now.
“Our players, it’s on their minds every day,” Curtin said. “They’re professionals, they have a job to do and they recognize that, but at the same time, it’s secondary right now. Soccer is completely secondary to what’s going on in the world and the police reform that needs to happen and the treatment of African Americans in this country. It’s been too long; it needs to change.”
MLS players have been at the forefront of athletes bringing attention to racial justice issues in the U.S., just as they were at the vanguard of the renewed focus on the Black Lives Matter movement after George Floyd’s killing in late May. The league has been less sure-footed, beginning with a poorly worded and since-retracted statement Wednesday night that said that it had canceled five of six games when the players were the genesis of the action.
MLS also has to deal with uncouth comments by Real Salt Lake owner Dell Loy Hansen about how the decision not to play was a personal affront to him, then a followup story by The Athletic about past racist remarks, which has put his ownership in MLS, NWSL and USL up for review.
“We recognize that things that are going on in this country aren’t right and need to be changed and need to be fixed,” Curtin said. “Everybody’s pushing to work for improvement. And again, it comes down to a human level; not Democrat, not Republican, just equality in treating everybody as human beings the right way, and that’s what our group is pushing for.”
The Union (3-1-3, 12 points) are on a six-match unbeaten streak in league play (3-0-3) and have lost just once in nine games in all competitions. They sit third in the Eastern Conference with the season likely limited to 23 games.
D.C. United has just one win from seven matches, mired in 12th with six points. Not that Curtin is going to take lightly the challenge presented by his old friend, D.C. coach Ben Olsen.
“We all recognize that we have a tough D.C. opponent coming in, a team that is coming off a loss so they’ll have a bit of a chip on their shoulder,” Curtin said. “They’re well coached, they’re well organized. We’ll have to be on our A game, and a good result against Red Bull means nothing if we don’t follow it up with another win.”
The Union are healthy, save for a knee injury for reserve center back Aurelien Collin. They have kept clean sheets in consecutive games and in four of nine outings, playing what Curtin called, “some of our best team defense that we’ve played in this club’s history.” And they got Kacper Przybylko going with the goal against Red Bulls.
But there’s more at stake. Curtin sees how players follow leaders like Ray Gaddis and Warren Creavalle on social matters, and how that has parallels to the team’s on-field cohesion.
“To constantly see this issue of police brutality, systemic oppression, systemic racism, pop up time and time again without much justice — little justice being shown by any means — it’s frustrating,” McKenzie said. “So, again, football is great, you know, sports are great, we’re thankful to have them back. But there’s a lot bigger fish to fry than what we have going on in sports. As a country, we have so much more to do. And that starts with informing and educating ourselves on those we’re voting for, registering to vote, and making sure we’re executing that right we have to vote (and) make our voices heard.”