Long champions of social justice, Black athletes say their voices are needed now more than ever

By Alanis Thames, The Associated Press

(Source: The Miami Times)

For WNBA veteran Natasha Cloud, speaking up about social justice is just as important as winning basketball games.

Cloud has had a successful nine-year pro career that includes a WNBA championship and being the career-assists leader for her former Washington Mystics. She has also used her platform for social justice advocacy — from sitting out the 2020 WNBA season to focus on community reform efforts, to joining protests after the murder of George Floyd by Minneapolis police.

If winning “is all I do with my career, then I have failed,” said Cloud, who now plays for the Connecticut Sun. “Who would I be to not utilize practice time and camera time and all these things to create change within the communities that mean the most to me?”

Cloud believes it’s more imperative than ever for athletes across American professional sports to speak out against racial discrimination in the face of President Donald Trump’s sweeping orders to end government diversity, equity and inclusion programs, and as corporations and major institutions face pressure to roll back DEI policies aimed at creating opportunities for minority groups.

“The systems of power are working as they always were intended to work,” Cloud said. “And it’s time to break down a system that has only been about white men.”

Athletes have long used sports as a forum for civil rights activism, but today’s sports figures have a unique position of influence, with more money and celebrity status than ever, and social media to get their message to millions.

With that also comes the potential for backlash and retaliation. Speaking out could cost their reputations, their connections, their careers, experts say.

It’s a danger Black athletes have always faced, whether boxing great Muhammad Ali risking his freedom to take an anti-war stance in the 1960s, or more recently, NFL quarterback Colin Kaepernick putting his job on the line to denounce police brutality in Black communities.

Black athletes who speak out for political or social change have often paid a price for their actions.

“One of the most definitive characteristics of pursuit of social justice, particularly by athletes today, is the idea of sacrifice,” said Len Elmore, a former NBA player and now a senior lecturer in sports management at Columbia University. “They have to be willing to sacrifice because the broad society for a period of time — as it did to those past heroes — is going to penalize you.”

A ‘fight for human dignity’ 

With his attempt to abolish diversity and inclusion programs, Trump has sought to ban transgender athletes from girls’ and women’s sports and has directed schools and universities to eliminate diversity initiatives or risk losing federal money. That includes no longer teaching material dealing with race and sexuality — part of his effort to end “wokeness” in schools.

Companies — including Target, Google, Walmart and McDonald’s — have scaled back or set aside diversity initiatives endorsed by much of corporate America during a 2020 nationwide reckoning on race to help root out systemic barriers that have hindered the advancement of marginalized groups.

“On a basic level, it’s just a fight for human dignity and human rights,” said Joseph N. Cooper, a professor of Counseling, School Psychology and Sport at the University of Massachusetts Boston.

While he doesn’t believe the weight of social justice reform should solely fall on the shoulders of Black athletes, Cooper said it’s important for sports stars to leverage their visibility to champion causes they’re passionate about.

Cloud, who used her social media to call for WNBA arenas to serve as polling places for the 2020 presidential election and helped with voter registration, believes the NBA and WNBA —where African American players are in the majority — should stand with the communities their players come from, as many feel the social and economic progress of Black Americans is in jeopardy.

“I understand the business aspect and I understand the human aspect,” Cloud said. “Too often this country has put the human aspect aside, and put profit and money over people.”

Both the NBA and WNBA featured the “Black Lives Matter” rallying cry on the courts in 2020 and partnered with players to find outlets for tangible social justice action. This included creating the NBA Foundation to spur economic growth in the Black community, with an initial contribution of $300 million over the next decade.

Often individual players have taken the first bold steps in mixing sports and politics.

During Trump’s first administration, the NBA’s LeBron James and Stephen Curry were among athletes who declined visits to the White House normally given to championship-winning teams.

Curry and his wife Ayesha endorsed Joe Biden for president during the 2020 Democratic National Convention. James headlined the “More Than A Vote” Campaign, formed soon after police shot and killed Floyd and Breonna Taylor, to target systemic voter suppression and encourage Black people to vote.

“I’m not saying that their activism and decision to not go to the White House was a primary or even a major factor in the outcome of the 2020 election,” Cooper said. “But no doubt, those athletes and athletes who have similar profiles as them leveraging their platform to promote freedom, human rights … it’s extremely powerful.”

‘It takes a special type of person’

Jaylen Brown of the NBA’s Boston Celtics has more than 4.7 million followers across Instagram and X and for years has used his social media accounts to draw attention to social justice causes and boost small businesses.

Brown marched with protesters in Minneapolis in the days after video was released of Floyd’s May 2020 death. He created a foundation that partners with social justice organizations to create opportunities for youth in traditionally underserved communities.

“I use my platform to try to bring light to a lot of different things and situations to get people to think differently,” Brown said. “But also to provide solutions.”

Elmore, who played in the American Basketball Association from 1974-1976 and with the NBA from 1976-1984 after the two leagues merged, said it’s not incumbent on any athlete to pursue social justice just because they have a platform.

“But, you know, it wasn’t incumbent upon Ali,” he said. “It wasn’t incumbent upon Colin Kaepernick. They did it because they recognized the righteousness of their actions. They recognized the need.”

Kaepernick, who led the San Francisco 49ers to the Super Bowl in 2012, sacrificed his career.

He has not played in the NFL since kneeling during the national anthem during the 2016 season, and became one of the most polarizing figures in modern sports. Fans urged boycotts of companies aligned with him. Trump denounced his actions and said he and any player who knelt during the anthem should be fired by the NFL.

“I think that’s not lost on athletes today who are making an awful lot of money, gain a great deal of celebrity and adulation,” Elmore said. “Who really wants to lose that? Who wants to put that in jeopardy?

“It takes a special type of person — a special group of people to be able to do that,” he added. “Or it takes a desperation. And the question is, are we at that desperate moment?”