Black lives matter in the sports world

Abstract

On 25 May 2020, George Floyd was murdered by Minneapolis, Minnesota police officer Derek Chauvin. A 17-year-old bystander, Darnella Frazier, recorded his slow and methodical killing on her mobile phone. When she posted the video to Facebook, the images of Floyd’s gruesome death and Chauvin’s cold resolve set off a wave of protests worldwide against anti-black racism (Maqbool 2020). Suddenly and seemingly overnight, individual voices, groups, organizations and businesses from all sectors of society cried out that ‘Black Lives Matter’, (BLM) in an aboutface that turned swiftly from prior stances of silence or opposition (Williams 2016). Athletes, sports organizations, league officials and leading athletic apparel brands were among those suddenly demanding change and admitting fault for ignoring prior calls for criminal justice reforms and the eradication of systemic racism and discrimination against black Americans. While anti-racism has been central in sporting organizations in Europe and within international organizations such as FIFA, the governing body for world soccer, the BLM protests appeared to take on a new urgency and potency. In early June 2020, the US House of Representatives and Senate Democrats responded to the national outcry for police reform by introducing the Justice in Policing Act of 2020, one of the most comprehensive efforts in recent decades to overhaul policing in the United States. This robust legislative proposal banned police from the use of chokeholds, lowered legal standards to pursue civil and criminal penalties for police misconduct, and prohibited the use of no-knock warrants in drug-related cases. It had little chance of passing the Republican-held Senate, however. Momentum for meaningful change quickly stalled a few weeks later, when Senate Democrats blocked debate of their Republican counterparts’ police reform bill, arguing the bill did not do enough to address racial inequality. Thanks in no small part to the failures of the U.S. Congress, the feeling that perhaps real structural change was imminent dissipated. Culturally, while it never disappeared from view, the urgency of the focus on racial reckoning in the mainstream media waned. Attention shifted heavily to the resurgence of COVID-19, plans for schools and universities to reopen in the fall, and the upcoming 2020 US presidential election. Sport and sport media played a role in this turn away from racial justice as several leagues resumed action in late July and early August. Headlines proliferated about the logistics of athletes quarantining in ‘bubbles’, lost revenues, and the experience of watching games being played in empty venues. These leagues included Major League Baseball (MLB) and the National Hockey League (NHL), but the Women’s National Basketball Association (WNBA) and National Basketball Association (NBA) were most notable for the way in which athletes aligned their return to play inextricably with continuing the racial justice movement. NBA Commissioner Adam Silver announced goals formed in conjunction with the NBA Players Association of increasing Black representation in NBA front offices, greater inclusion of Black-owned and operated businesses, and a foundation to augment educational https://doi.org/10.1080/17430437.2021.1901392