Causes worth caring about: Athletes have fought racism and racial profiling, and objected to war efforts
Tommie Smith and John Carlos
Many African-American athletes had contemplated boycotting the 1968 Olympics in Mexico City to protest racism in the U.S. Instead, they opted to compete. In the men’s 200-metre final, Smith, Carlos and Australia’s Peter Norman wore patches bearing the Olympic Project for Human Rights logo. When all three men won medals, Smith and Carlos mounted the podium without shoes and each raised a black-gloved fist as the national anthem played. Smith and Carlos kept their medals, but the International Olympic Committee kicked them out of the Games.
Muhammad Ali
In April 1967, heavyweight boxing champ Muhammad Ali refused induction into the U.S. military, claiming conscientious objector status: “I ain’t got no quarrel with them Viet Cong.” He was convicted and sentenced to prison, but spent the following three years appealing the ruling. In 1970 he returned to boxing, and in 1971 the Supreme Court ruled that Ali qualified as a conscientious objector.
The NBA and “I Can’t Breathe”
In June 2014, unarmed Staten Island resident Eric Garner died after a chokehold by police confronting him for selling cigarettes without a licence, an incident captured on video. Five months later a grand jury declined to charge Daniel Pantaleo, the officer who applied the chokehold. To protest the decision Chicago Bulls star Derrick Rose took to the court before a December game in a T-shirt bearing Garner’s final words: “I can’t breathe.” LeBron James soon followed, and the trend spread quickly through pro and college sports.
Andrew Hawkins
In December 2015, Cleveland Browns receiver Andrew Hawkins emerged for pre-game introductions in a T-shirt that read “Justice for Tamir Rice and John Crawford III” on the front and “The real battle for Ohio” on the back. The homage to a pair of unarmed Ohio residents gunned down by police earned Hawkins criticism from the Cleveland police union, but the backlash didn’t deter him. “A call for justice shouldn’t offend or disrespect anybody,” he told reporters. “A call for justice shouldn’t warrant an apology.”
Steve Nash
The Canadian star was among the NBA players who donned “I Can’t Breathe” T-shirts in 2014, but before that he was a critic of Arizona immigration laws that many felt enabled racial profiling. He also was vocal in his opposition to the U.S.-led military campaign in Iraq. “I believe that us going to war would be a mistake,” Nash told reporters before the 2003 NBA All-Star Game, months before the U.S. invaded Iraq. “Being a humanitarian, I think that war is wrong in 99.9 per cent of all cases.”
Carlos Delgado
In 2004, Blue Jays slugger Carlos Delgado decided that when God Bless America was played during the seventh-inning stretch, he would remain in the dugout while teammates took the field. Few noticed Delgado’s statement until mid-season. When asked, Delgado revealed he was protesting the Iraq war and the U.S. military’s continued use of Vieques, a small island off Puerto Rico’s eastern coast, as a testing range for bombs. “I don’t (stand) because I don’t believe it’s right,” Delgado told the Star.