Last night, players in the NBA called a wildcat strike to protest the Kenosha incident; today, they’re returning to the floor, while MLB players have chosen to strike. I know the WNBA also struck yesterday, but I’m not sure about today.
I, and my Arts Editor, wish the NBA players had remained off the floor. In fact, I think the players in the various sports league should walk off for some designated amount of time in protest.
It makes a couple of points. First, the obvious one, is directing attention to problems desperately in need of resolution: systemic racism, harassment of the black community, profiling, the use of guns to resolve problems.
There’s no pretending that these are easy problems to solve. At least some of the players understand this:
On Wednesday’s nightly whip-around show on MLB TV, host Matt Vasgersian read an Instagram post from Colorado Rockies DH Matt Kemp, which said in part, “Tonight I stand with my fellow professional athletes in protest of the injustices my people continue to suffer.”
Vasgersian then chimed in: “I think there needs to be an important distinction made here, however,” he said. “The law enforcement community is under attack right now. And Matt Kemp’s statement was well-written and I think everybody empathizes with the point of view, but not every member of the law enforcement community is guilty of some of the atrocities that have been committed in the last few months. I feel like it’s important to make that statement, as well, along with supporting those who are not playing, along with the cries for social reform, which are so needed right now.”
Analyst and former player Harold Reynolds responded: “I agree with that, but also it comes down to one bad apple leads to a bunch, right? It spoils a whole bunch. That’s what’s been happening here. There are great police officers. I have great police officers who are friends of mine. But there’s been far too many things like this happening. That’s the point guys are saying.” [WaPo]
This lends an air of practicality and brings home to the fans the importance of these issues.
Perhaps more importantly, though, is the implicit message which may still need to be hammered into some Americans: this is your problem, too.
Sports players are, outside of a few exceptions, well known for being focused on their game to the exclusion of most of social questions. By imposing a work stoppage and talking vociferously about these issues, they model the behavior that we all need to look at these problems and try to find the right steps to take to resolve them. We all have input on such issues as police reformation, whether it’s disbandment and reassembly, or reformation and removal of certain responsibilities. Questions that bother me include
- how to effectively implement reparations so long ago offered and then shamefully retracted
- how do we quickly move to a model of divesting the police of certain responsibilities
- how do we ensure the police value the neighborhoods they patrol
- how do we identify counterproductive carrots in the law enforcement system
- how do we adjust for systemic racism, by which I mean unequal treatment built into the system, such as property taxation
Such issues should be put on the table by the players, as well as their retired colleagues.
And then there’s the entire question of paying for it. Look for the right-wing fringe to run around with their hair on fire when tax increase proposals come around. Many who take great pride in their ancestors coming over the Mayflower may suddenly be claiming their family just arrived twenty years ago – as if that’s a flower to hide behind.
