Politics, race always on field
Social issues’ historic link now infuses every sport
San Francisco native Nam Le is a die-hard Bay Area sports fan. He teaches school in Los Angeles but displays Giants, Warriors and Cal flags in his classroom. Students and teacher rib each other a lot.
Like legions of Giants fans who hate the Los Angeles Dodgers, Le rooted for the Houston Astros to beat them in the World Series. But he changed his mind, swallowed hard and began cheering for the Dodgers after Yuri Gurriel, a Cuban-born Astro, hit a home run against Japanese pitcher Yu Darvish then was caught on camera pulling the corners of his eyes with his fingers in a racist gesture.
“I couldn’t really be OK with them winning any longer,” Le said of the Astros.
With Gurriel’s gesture, yet another major sporting event in the United States came to be viewed through a prism of race, politics or both.
More than a year after then-49ers quarter-
back Colin Kaepernick took a knee during the national anthem to protest police brutality against African Americans, the incursion of realworld issues into sports has become ever more prevalent, mirroring the nation’s overall heightened political tension in the wake of the 2016 presidential election.
Of course, sports were never immune from politics and race, which are often intertwined.
The most historic examples include African American athlete Jesse Owens throwing a wrench into Adolf Hitler’s hopes for an “Aryan”-dominated Berlin Olympics in 1936, Jackie Robinson breaking baseball’s color barrier in 1947, African American trackand-field athletes Tommie Smith and John Carlos raising gloved fists in a “black power” salute on the medal stand at the 1968 Olympics, and the U.S. and Soviet boycotts of the 1980 and 1984 Summer Olympics, respectively, over the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan.
Rarely, though, has every major sport in America been roiled simultaneously, as they are now. This is not a leftright issue. Fans on all sides have been angered.
“This current moment in that context is remarkable,” said Ben Carrington, a University of Southern California professor and sociologist who has written and lectured extensively on race, politics and sports. “It’s also historic in as much as the range of sports and the number of athletes and the forms of protest are quite unprecedented.”
Many NFL fans say they have stopped watching games because they feel players who kneel for the anthem are disrespecting the military and the flag.
Recently, Papa John’s Pizza founder John Schnatter blamed a sales decline on fewer fans watching football games as they protest the protests. Papa John’s is the NFL’s official pizza and advertises heavily during game broadcasts.
Alex Ovechkin, a Russianborn hockey player with the Washington Capitals, created a stir when he launched what he called a “social movement” in favor of Russian President Vladimir Putin, who has been under attack in the United States over Russia’s efforts to influence last year’s presidential election.
Just days before Houston celebrated the Astros’ sevengame World Series victory, the city’s NFL team, the Texans, was tossed into turmoil when owner Bob McNair referred to players protesting the anthem, mostly African Americans, as “inmates running the prison.”
Moreover, every professional team that wins a championship immediately gets asked if it will visit the White House for a ceremony with the president, a once-trivial and -fun tradition that has become another divide.
That issue rose to prominence when the Warriors decided not to go after winning the 2016-17 NBA title in June.
A.J. Hinch, the Astros manager and a Stanford alumnus, could not even enjoy the World Series championship parade and celebration in Houston without being asked about the White House.
He demurred, according to the Associated Press, saying, “We just won the first world championship in Houston Astros history. We’re also in one of the most divided countries, polarizing countries in politics. I don’t know that this is the best stage for everybody to declare one way or the other and try to comment on the moment and be too much of a political statement.”
Carrington argues that sports are “inherently political.”
“Think about sports as a question of identity,” he said. “Who pays? Who plays? How is it organized? Money. Access. These are political questions.”
Sports are so ingrained in American life, Carrington said, politicians are eager to use use racial and political divides to their own ends. He suggested, for instance, that President Trump was deliberately playing to his base by calling NFL players who kneel for the anthem “SOBs” who should be fired while praising the NHL-champion Pittsburgh Penguins as “incredible patriots” when they decided to visit the White House.
Carrington also noted how protesting athletes are able to spread their message and gain wider support now by speaking directly to people through social media.
“Kaepernick can retweet a photograph of high-schoolers taking a knee,” Carrington said, “and now they have a connection to Kaepernick.”
Social media certainly was abuzz during the World Series after Gurriel’s gesture toward Darvish. Many Giants fans who for months prayed that some team could knock off the Dodgers and prevent them from winning their first World Series in 29 years took to Twitter to say they found it difficult to root for the Astros.
Le is Vietnamese. His decision to begin rooting for the Dodgers was largely because baseball Commissioner Robert Manfred decided to allow Gurriel to continue playing in the World Series and instead serve a five-game suspension at the start of the 2018 season.
“The whole situation felt like mainstream America continuing to be OK with racism — and, on occasion, outright encouraging it — against Asian Americans, and expecting us as an ethnic group to respond with silence, tolerance, or class,” Le said.
Even Giants fans who do not consider themselves diehards, but feel socially aware, weighed in.
Nanita Cranford, head of global regulatory operations for a biotech company who lives in Oakland and has been a Giants fan for 35 years, originally rooted for the Astros largely in support of Houston, which was hit hard by Hurricane Harvey.
But she began cheering for the Dodgers, turning her focus to Los Angeles manager Dave Roberts’ attempt to become the second African American manager to win a World Series.
Gurriel’s gesture solidified that change of mind.
“I felt like he was on camera and that he was sending a message that this was an acceptable way to mock another player,” she said. “The casual nature of his gesture showed to me it was not the first time or the last time he’s done it. Nobody in the dugout who was with him gave him grief about it either.”
“The range of sports and the number of athletes and the forms of protest are quite unprecedented.”
Ben Carrington, USC sociology professor specializing in race, politics and sports