Athletes show that speaking up can make difference
What a very bad week it has been for the “shut up and dribble” crowd.
You know those types. They don’t believe athletes should be actual human beings, with thoughts and voices and platforms to use. They believe athletes are only put here for their amusement, to shoot or catch a ball. No freedom of expression. No personal beliefs.
Shut up, they say, and dribble. Or shoot. Or catch. Or run.
But athletes are more and more empowered to use their voices. To stand up for what they believe in. To fight against injustice.
And this week provided more evidence that they can make a huge difference. Real change.
Take Kylin Hill. The Mississippi State running back will be the SEC’s leading returning rusher if football happens this fall, which means he’s a pretty big deal. There was some thought that Hill was going to enter NFL draft last spring, but he opted instead to stay for his senior season to pursue his degree and to play for new coach Mike Leach.
A native of Mississippi, Hill weighed in on the most recent battle to change the state flag. The Mississippi flag remained the lone holdout, with the Confederate battle flag emblem remaining on its state symbol.
Other states, like Georgia, had gone through long fights but finally removed the offending symbols.
But not Mississippi, despite attempts over the decades to change the design that was adopted by the state 29 years after the end of the Civil War.
Even when the University of Mississippi and other state schools banned the flying of the flag on campus, even after other states refused to include the flag in allstate displays,
Mississippi legislators hung onto their sad little symbol.
The latest battle over the flag, arising out of protests stemming from the killing of George Floyd, seemed like it was heading toward more stalemating, including a proposal for a “separate but equal” alternate flag. The SEC and NCAA said they would ban all championships from being played in the state but even that wasn’t enough.
Then, on June 22, Hill, 21, tweeted, “Either change the flag or I won’t be representing this State anymore. (100% emoji) & I meant that … I’m tired.”
His simple message spread like wildfire, was retweeted and liked 25,000 times. It was amplified by others, like Seattle Seahawks linebacker K.J. Wright, who tweeted, in part, “That flag represents hate, racism, oppression. It’s BEEN TIME for a change.”
And over the weekend, the state legislature passed a bill to change the flag. On Tuesday, Gov. Tate Reeves, who had opposed a change, signed the bill requiring the removal of the state flag.
However many yards Hill gains, no matter how many wins the Bulldogs notch, nothing will be as powerful as what Hill did in June.
Maya Moore has been working toward change for a while. A WNBA MVP, fourtime WNBA champion and twotime collegiate player of the year, Moore, 31, stepped away from her career in her prime. In February 2019, she explained that she was devoting her time to working toward justice for a man named Jonathan Irons, who she believed was falsely imprisoned for a crime he did not commit.
Moore had met Irons through a prison ministry program before she began her decorated stint at UConn. She maintained contact with him while she put together one of the most legendary women’s basketball careers in history. She began to advocate publicly and helped fund an appeal for Irons, who was a teenager when he was charged but was tried as an adult and given a 50year sentence in a maximumsecurity prison.
Moore helped organize the Minnesota Lynx players protest in July 2016, when they wore pregame warmups supporting Black Lives Matter, that read “Change Starts with Us.” It was one of the early organized athlete protests for Black Lives Matter, taking place in the city that would explode almost four years later when Floyd was killed on a Minneapolis street.
But Moore did much more than wear a Tshirt. She was willing to give up a comfortable career for what she said was “a calling” from God. After sitting out last season while working for Irons, she said she would sit out again this season and skip the Olympics, in order to concentrate on his case.
In March, a Missouri judge vacated Irons’ conviction, citing problems in the prosecution and calling the case “very weak and circumstantial at best.” The Missouri attorney general appealed the ruling unsuccessfully and the county prosecutor declined a retrial of the case.
On Wednesday, after spending 23 years behind bars, Irons walked out of the Jefferson City Correctional Center a free man.
A woman — who is far more than a basketball player — was waiting outside the gates to greet him. Moore dropped to her knees in thanks.
Shut up and dribble? Or work for change?
Athletes have power. And no one can stop them from using it.