Black athletes and the fight for racial justice

Following the path of former San Francisco 49ers quarterback Colin Kaepernick, who began kneeling during the national anthem before games to protest police killings of Black people, UC Berkeley Women's Basketball players (left to right) CJ West, Sierra Richey, Alaysia Styles and Evelien Lutje knelt at a game last spring. (Photo courtesy of Robert Edwards/KLC fotos) Black athletes throughout American history have been persecuted and silenced for using their public platforms to advocate for social issues that run in contrast to the opinions of dominant white culture. This has often deterred players from coming together in force to protest around common causes. That all changed last week, when, in a unified response to the shooting of Jacob Blake, a 29-year-old Black man who was shot in the back seven times by a Kenosha, Wisconsin police officer, professional athletes across the country refused to play in scheduled games or matches. The players' strike was led by teams from the National Basketball Association (NBA) and Women's National Basketball Association (WNBA), leagues that are predominately Black. Though the strike ended within a few days, public support for the athletes helped to leverage power in the current fight for racial justice. According to a YouGov poll taken last week, 57% of Americans supported the basketball players and teams that refused to play because of the Blake shooting.