This article explores the history of athlete activism, highlighting key moments like the St. Louis Rams' protest in Ferguson, Colin Kaepernick's national anthem kneeling, and Tarana Burke's founding of the Me Too movement.
FILE - In this Nov. 30, 2014, file photo, St. Louis Rams players, from left, Stedman Bailey , Tavon Austin , Jared Cook, Chris Givens and Kenny Britt raise their arms in awareness of the events in Ferguson , Mo., as they walk onto the field during introductions before an NFL football game against the Oakland Raiders in St. Louis. FILE - In this Oct.
This story is part of an AP series exploring the impact, legacy and ripple effects of what is widely called the Ferguson uprising.Having a ripple effect is part of what social movements do. They break through the cycle of day-to-day life to get people to think and hopefully act differently in any number of ways.
“Was it true that the early 1960s agitated a conversation about structural inequality and rights that was new in American politics? I think so,” she said. “And then did that then kind of relate to and lead to the kind of conversation around rights for all these other groups that emerged in the late 1960s? I would say, arguably, absolutely those are related.
Her catalyst tweet “was as successful as it was because people were open to having the conversation about what it means to be a person of color in this country, whether under the jackboot of state-sanctioned violence or on TV or in film,” Reign said.Some of those people were professional athletes. They had already started to speak out in the wake of Trayvon Martin’s death in 2012, with high-profile online posts.
Douglas Hartmann, a professor of sociology at the University of Minnesota who has written about sports and society said the activism of athletes and sports has been “dramatically different in the last decade” than it had been in the decades before when people didn’t look to, or really want, athletes as political actors or activists.
Social Issues Athlete Activism Ferguson Colin Kaepernick Metoo Movement Social Justice
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