Edinburgh Research Explorer Sports Observations Citation for published version: Jarvie, G, Trimbur, L & Xu, J 2020, Sports Observations: Sport, Protest and Black Lives Matter. Link: Link to publication record in Edinburgh Research Explorer Document Version: Publisher's PDF, also known as Version of record General rights Copyright for the publications made accessible via the Edinburgh Research Explorer is retained by the author(s) and / or other copyright owners and it is a condition of accessing these publications that users recognise and abide by the legal requirements associated with these rights. Take down policy The University of Edinburgh has made every reasonable effort to ensure that Edinburgh Research Explorer content complies with UK legislation. If you believe that the public display of this file breaches copyright please contact [email protected] providing details, and we will remove access to the work immediately and investigate your claim. Download date: 24. Sep. 2021 SPORT OBSERVATIONS Briefing Paper | July 2020 SPORT HAS ALWAYS BEEN POLITICAL: NOW IS A TIME TO LISTEN, LEARN AND ACT Grant Jarvie, Lucia Trimbur and Yujun Xu¹ This is a time to speak on these subjects, speak on injustice. [Raheem Sterling] You need to use your voice, how big or small the platform is. I saw a quote from Dr [Martin Luther] King that said: 'The silence of the good people is worse than the brutality of the bad people.' [Coco Gauff] Introduction 3. No one should be surprised by the recent athletes’ leadership. While often actively discouraged from critical 1. Colin Kaepernick, Coco Gauff, Lewis Hamilton, comments, at times of crisis, many athletes take their Naomi Osaka, Raheem Sterling, Megan Rapinoe, responsibility to represent their communities very Michael Jordan, Serena Williams are but a few athletes seriously. This is one such moment of crisis. who have not stayed silent following the death of Sport has always been political George Floyd. They are not the first nor will they be the last to act through sport and the platform that it 4. Almost four years have passed since former San gives them to call out the many injustices in the world Francisco 49ers quarterback Colin Kaepernick first including racism. It took the footballer Marcus protested against racial injustice in the United States of Rashford, with a track record of speaking out America (USA) by kneeling during the national anthem². passionately about hunger and poverty, to go where Many athletes joined Kaepernick in his demonstration³. current politicians feared and do the right thing. Jordan On 7 September 2016 National Football League (NFL) Henderson became the driving force that ignited a commissioner Roger Goodell stated “I don’t necessarily wave of sports philanthropy as the players together agree with what he is doing”⁴ and on 11-12 September scheme raised millions for NHS charities. Different 2016 after Kaepernick and teammate Eric Reid took a sports in different countries have all taken a knee, knee during the anthem, President Trump said that such visibly protesting and supporting anti-racism in all its actions show “a great lack of respect and appreciation” for forms both in sport and beyond sport. the US. Kaepernick lost his job and received death threats and other forms of harassment and intimidation. 2. There are times when sport can and does lead. A new wave of sporting activists and philanthropists are 5. More than 50 years have passed since Tommie Smith on the march and need to be supported long after the and John Carlos went from being celebrated to despised protests fade. Sport has always been political. Athletes by many Americans. Two days after winning gold and have always had social and political consciences. The bronze in the 200-meter sprint at the 1968 Mexico City public can’t always depend on sport stars to tackle Summer Olympic Games, both men were suspended by social inequality alone, nor should they. The world the United States Olympic Committee (USOC) for needs them and others. protesting against anti-Black racism⁵. Article 50 of the [1] The paper was developed by Professor Grant Jarvie (University of [2] On the 26th of August 2016 Kaepernick sits on the bench during the Edinburgh) and Professor Lucia Trimbur (John Jay College of Criminal national anthem before the 49er’s pre-season home game against the Green Justice and the Graduate Center, The City University of New York). We are Bay Packers. On the 1 September the quarterback changes his method of grateful for the support and inputs provided by Professor Bruce Kidd protesting to kneeling. (University of Toronto) and Hala Ousta (FIFA). The research assistant that [3] See Trimbur, L (2019). ‘Taking a knee, making a stand: social justice, Trump helped with the research and production was Yujun Xu (University of America and the politics of sport ‘. Quest Vol 71 (2):252-255 Edinburgh). https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/00336297.2018.1551806 [4] See https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/american-football/52948942 [5] See https://www.blogs.hss.ed.ac.uk/sport-matters/2016/10/ 1 JULY 2020 BRIEFING PAPER IOC charter states that “No kind of demonstration or figures, more data but we don’t want action”¹¹. In the racial propaganda is permitted in any Olympic sites, USA protest placards remind us “silence equals death.” venues or other areas”⁶. It is important to note that 8. The politics of sports protest is not new. Although flag waiving, national anthems,and other pro-national sport enthusiasts have at times argued otherwise, sport displays, on the other hand are allowed while other has always been political and rightly so. It is not as if forms of politics are reviewed on a case by case basis. sports’ capacity, capability, and reach to tackle social This needs to change. and political injustices has only just presented itself. 6. On any given day sport matters to millions of people Many things are not new. One hundred thousand around the world⁷. On any given day, sport is used Americans are dead from a virus, a feat of space flight politically and serves political functions. It is factually demonstrated America’s ingenuity and athletes are wrong, a myth, bad faith to suggest that athletes or protesting against racial injustices where many athletes grassroots sports people have not been successful social are treated as first-class citizens when running on the and political activists. What is evident is that a new track and second-class citizens outside of the sports generation of sporting activists are on the march. arena. The year is 1968 but it is also 2020. The The new sporting activists and manifestations may differ but the underlying causes of philantropists injustice, disease, and racism remain and the cycle of conservative reaction has come around many times 7. In the United Kingdom (UK) it took the footballer since 1968. This is not new. Marcus Rashford to mobilise public opinion on hunger 9. The popularity, scale and reach of sport make it a and poverty to get the UK and Scottish Parliaments to powerful tool, perhaps like no other, in calling out and release further funding to feed children living in drawing attention to crimes against our universal poverty in the summer months . In the USA it took ⁸ humanity. The social and political activism of athletes, American footballer Colin Kaepernick taking a knee across sports, and across generations, across race, class and subsequently losing his job to secure the right to and gender is catapulting on to the international stage, protest against racism and police brutality to get the articulating the wrongs that must be righted. As NFL to acknowledge and act against racism. In the USA sociologist Rayshawn Ray instructs us public pressure it took American footballer Colin Kaepernick taking a from athletes matters¹². knee and subsequently losing his job to secure the right to protest against racism and police brutality to get the “The triumph can’t be had without the struggle”. NFL to acknowledge and act against racism. In the Scottish Parliament it took Glasgow MSP Anas Sarwar 10. Today there is both more space for athlete activism to recite professions, from government departments to and more spaces to be won¹³. When Barack Obama academia and the judiciary, in which he said no one was asked by People Magazine what he thought of the from a Black and ethnic minority (BAME) background basketball star LeBron James on court wearing an ‘I held a key position⁹. The pursuit of racial equality in can’t breathe’ T-shirt he replied “I think Lebron did the Scotland is one in which a recurring deficit is right thing- We forget the role that Muhammed Ali, repeatedly identified¹⁰. In response to the UK Arthur Ashe, Wilma Rudolph and Bill Russell played in Parliaments’ establishment of a cross-government raising consciousness…I’d like to see more athletes do Commission on Race and Ethnic Disparit David Lammy that, not just around this issue, but a range of MP asserted “Yet again in the UK, we want more issues”[1]. At the 1960 Rome Olympics Rudolph [6] See IOC Charter Rule 50 Guidelines. Under current IOC regulations, [10] See Meer, N. (2019). ‘The opportunities and obstacles for a Scottish athletes are allowed to express political opinions in official media settings approach to race equality’ https://www.race.ed.ac.uk/the-opportunities- or on social media but banned from doing so on the field of play, at and-obstacles-for-a-scottish-approach-to-race-equality/ ceremonies or in the Olympic Village. [11] See Line, H. (2020). ‘Johnson racism pledge back of a fag packet plan’. The Scotsman. 16 June: 13.