Politics are always closely linked to funding, which is why it can occasionally be difficult to distinguish support of a cause from capitalistic exploitation of a trending movement. Protests in support of the Black Lives Matter movement began to fizzle out in sports after mid-October of this year, and articles like this one criticized teams for their “brand activism”—apparent support of a cause to increase profit for the corporation. So, how do we know where the teams truly stand?
In recent news, George Washington University installed a BLM tribute on the floor of their Charles E. Smith Center, a court on which the men’s and women’s college basketball and volleyball teams plan to use to compete. Since this news was released on the second of November, perhaps we can put more faith in this institution for its commitment to Black lives than institutions who merely released statements of support to communities and failed to act upon it. Unfortunately, it’s difficult to say whether or not such an action was taken based on cost analysis and recruitment of students to the liberal school.
Perhaps, then, we should examine the effects that these actions had on Black communities and businesses. San Diego Loyal SC began to auction off Black Lives Matter jerseys this month, pledging to donate all proceeds to the Association of African American Educators' San Diego County branch. This group “advocates for equity in education within the region's ethnically diverse student population.” The effect this could have on the community outweighs any efforts to gain popularity for profit that may or may not have factored into the decision to begin this auction, which will run until the end of November.
Obviously, not all organizations have morally pure intentions in their support of the BLM movement. The fact that support and outright activism for the BLM movement began to dissipate with the coverage of BLM protests by the media bodes poorly for our favorite teams and their intentions.
The Australian men’s national cricket team failed to take a knee in support of the BLM protests during limited-overs tours of England this year and were subsequently called out by acclaimed cricket player Michael Holding. Since this rebuke of the “lame” stance taken by Australian and English cricket teams on BLM, the Australian men’s cricket team released a statement regarding their future acknowledgement of the movement. Instead of taking a knee, the team decided to “form a barefoot circle on the field at the Sydney Cricket Ground before the first game of a limited-overs series against India in Sydney on Nov. 27.”
This response calls the question of intention to mind once more. If a team is publicly ridiculed by celebrity figures for failure to support a movement, it becomes more difficult to believe that the future efforts made by this team represent genuine support rather than damage control for the purpose of winning back fans and profit.
There is, however, a significant difference between teams and their individual players, who—like Naomi Osaka—can take stands or support protests separately from the corporations they are associated with. In Osaka’s case, as a Black and Japanese tennis player associated with the Association of Tennis Professionals (ATP), she threatened to pull out of a round of semi-finals at the Western and Southern Open if the association did not take a stand to support the BLM movement. In response, the ATP mandated a day-long break from matches, which is more than it has offered before. Celebrity figures such as basketball player LeBron James also continue to post about BLM on social media and include it in interviews to maintain the movement’s relevance and importance despite the withdrawal of the topic from mainstream media.
Regardless of the motivations of team management and corporation sponsorship, the prevalence of support for BLM in the sporting world benefitted the movement greatly. Now is not the time to forget that the movement ever happened—it’s still happening. BLM should continue to be both acknowledged and welcomed by sports teams and players. Black lives will always matter, and this is a message that cannot afford to be lost in the buzz over wins and losses.