“In honor of Black History month, I want to give a shout out to 10 people who defied the odds in sports and stood up against racism and/or sexism.”--Trevor Walton, 7th grade
In honor of Black History month, I want to give a shout out to 10 people who defied the odds in sports and stood up against racism and/or sexism. All of these athletes are powerful in the game and even more powerful outside of it. As a young black male, these athletes have inspired me to keep on reaching my goals and to stand up to what is right, even if you are risking things in the process as well. The following 10 athletes have made history both in the past, present, and future.
1. Colin Kaepernick:
Colin Kapernick is a football quarterback who played for the San Francisco 49ers for only six seasons. According to www.biography.com, Kaepernick was born on November 3rd, 1987 in Milwaukee, Wisconsin and was adopted by Rick and Teresa Kaepernick. As a kid, he was always told by classmates that he couldn’t be related to his parents because he didn’t have the same skin color or features as them. When Kaepernick grew older, he attended the University of Nevada, Reno where he shattered and set several records.
On August 26, 2016, Kaepernick became an activist in a preseason game against the Green Bay Packers. Before the game started, the Star Spangled Banner started to play, which is a tradition before every game in the American sport, Kaepernick knelt as a sign of disapproval of the anthem, protesting the bad treatment African Americans were getting in the US. According to the theundefeated.com, Kaepernick talked to NFL media about his decision. “This is not something that I am going to run by anybody,” Kaeperick said, “I have to stand up for the people who are oppressed. If they take football away, my endorsements from me, I know that I stood up for what’s right.”
After Kaepernick’s actions, he was benched and only played 11 games. But that didn’t stop him from what he was doing. He kept kneeling every time the anthem was played before a game. And according to www.sbnation.com and my father, when Kaepernick became a free agent in 2016, none of the 32 football teams wanted him because of the actions he’d committed. Because of this, Kaepernick filed a grievance against the NFL organization. In 2018, both the NFL and Kaepernick didn’t want to have to take this situation up to court, so the NFL paid Kaepernick less than $10,000,000, according to https://www.usatoday.com/.
Superstars like Mahmoud Abdul-Rauf had something to say about what happened to the former 49er. “Look at all of what he has to lose by taking this position,” Abdul-Rauf said, “His wealth, his endorsements, possible threats, the attacks against his family. He has a lot to lose. As far as I’m concerned, I think it’s more selfless than selfish.” “Plus, he’s willing to put all of that on the line because, to him, truth is more important than those things. Justice and equality is more important than those things,” Abdul-Rauf added.
Today, athletes follow in Kaepernick's footsteps and kneel against the Star Spangled Banner in solidarity with Kaepernick and institutionalized racism in the US. Kapernick is still unsigned in the NFL, however, he has won the approval of President Obama, as well as the Ambassador of Conscience Award, which recognizes incredible individuals for promoting and enhancing human rights, according to https://www.amnesty.org/.
2. Mahmoud Abdul-Rauf:
Chris Jackson, “aka” Mahmoud Abdul-Rauf, is a former basketball player born on March 9th, 1969 in Mississippi, who last played for the Memphis Grizzlies in 2001. He was at LSU (Louisiana State University) during his college years, and went into the NBA draft in the 1990s as the third pick, according to the www.denverpost.com. It was hard for him to adjust to the NBA, as he struggled with the fame on and off the court. But, a year later, he converted to Islam to relieve the struggles he’d endured and changed his name from Chris Jackson to Mahmoud Abdul-Rauf.
On March 16, 1996, just like Kaepernick, Abdul-Rauf refused to stand for the National Anthem because he thought the United States was an unjust tyranny and therefore in conflict with his Islamic beliefs, according to https://bleacherreport.com. “I couldn’t stand for the anthem,” Abdul-Rauf said to the media. “The Koran forbid me to participate in nationalistic rituals.” He also added that the American flag was “a symbol of oppression, of tyranny.”
Because of this, Abdul-Rauf continued to sit down, purposely sending a message to the NBA. But, it wasn't long until people started to find out what he was doing. Former and deceased NBA commissioner David Stern and the rest of the NBA suspended Abdul-Rauf for the “disrespect” he showed by sitting down. After his suspension, he made a deal with the NBA to sit in the locker room or stand and do a silent prayer during the anthem. They agreed to it, and that’s what he has been doing ever since.
According to theundefeated.com when his contract ended in 1998, no team would give him a contract because of what he did. Even worse, he received death threats. In 2001, when his house was being built in Gulfport, a message was written on it that said, “KKK.” Nervous about this, he didn’t go in and left it unoccupied. Suddenly, the house burned down, and the FBI had to search for who commited arson against Abdul-Rauf. And, even after all of this, Abdul-Rauf had no regrets for what he did.
3. Paul Robeson:
Paul Robeson was born on April 19th, 1898 in Princeton, New Jersey. He was an athlete, musician, actor, politician, and an activist fighting for human rights.
In 1915, Robeson got a scholarship at Rudgers, where he became a two-time All American football star as well as a member of Phi Beta Kappa and class valedictorian--all of this while being only the third African-American student at the school, according to www.history.com. His physical strength, size, and grace made him one of the elite sports figures of his generation.
During his political career, Robeson was concerned about the racism his community was experiencing and tried to make a stand against the lynchings and segregation happening during this time period.
Again, according to www.history.com, when Robeson was asked about why he didn’t move to the USSR, he said, ”Because my father was a slave, and my people died to build this country, I am going to stay right here and have a part of it just like you.”
According to my mother, the white players stomped on his hands during the game because they thought it wasn’t right for a black man to play football. But still, Robeson didn’t let the racism from his teammates and the racial violence stop him from what he was doing. He had a connection to music, so he tried to promote peace and black spirituality by singing in 25 languages across the world in places like the Soviet Union, the U.S., and Europe. Because of this, he was then known as the citizen of the world.
4. Tommie Smith and John Carlos:
Tommie Smith was born on June 6th, 1944, in Clarksville, Texas, and John Carlos was born on June 5th, 1945 in Harlem, New York. On October 16, 1968, they participated in the 200 meter dash with Team USA in the Olympics in Mexico.
After the 200 meter dash, Smith placed 1st and Carlos placed 3rd. When the national anthem started to play, the two runners raised their fists and put their heads down. One wore a black glove on their right hand and the other wore a glove on their left hand. According to www.washingtonpost.com, they also wore scarves and beads to protest the lynchings.
“I looked at my feet in my high socks and thought about all the black poverty I’d seen from Harlem to East Texas,” Carlos said in his book, The John Carlos Story: The Sports Moment That Changed the World. ”I fingered my beads and thought about the pictures I’d seen of the ‘strange fruit’ swinging from the poplar trees of the South.” Another reason they did that was because it was in a time when the country was also embroiled in protests over the Vietnam War and the aftermath of the assassinations of Martin Luther King Jr. and Robert F. Kennedy.
When they did this, crowds of people booed in anger over how they “disrespected” the anthem. According to https://www.history.com/, Smith and Carlos were stripped of their medals and were commanded to leave Mexico immediately. When the two black runners returned to the US, they constantly received death threats. Still, because of what they did, they created a program called the Olympic Project for Human Rights where African-American athletes like them boycott the games. “Even if you won the medal,” Carlos said, “It ain’t going to save your momma. It ain’t going to save your sister or your children. It might give you 15 minutes of fame, but what about the rest of your life?”
5. Muhammad Ali:
Muhammad Ali, “aka” Cassius Clay (his original name) was a heavyweight boxer born on January 17th, 1942. He started his boxing career when a bike got stolen from him as a kid, so he went to a police officer and told him that he wanted to beat up the person who stole his bike. The officer said that before he defended himself, he needed to learn how to fight. And, because of this, he became one of the greatest boxers of our time.
In the 1960s, Ali won a spot on the U.S boxing team and traveled to Rome, Italy to compete in the olympics, according to https://www.biography.com. Back then, he was known for his speed and fast reflexes, not his strength, according to Walter Dean Myers’ The Greatest: Muhammad Ali. In the match, Ali went up against Zbigniew Pietrzkowski, a boxer from Poland. Sure enough, he defeated Pietrzkowski and won the gold for the U.S.
In 1964, Ali converted to Islam and joined the black Muslim group Nation of Islam. According to https://www.biography.com, Ali was going to change his name to Cassius X. But, he better decided to change it to Muhammad Ali instead. And in 1970, he decided to change to the orthodox Islam. When he was drafted to the Vietnam war in 1967, he refused and didn’t want to enter because of his religious beliefs. Because of this, he went to jail and his boxing license was revoked.
6. Brittney Griner and Layshia Clarendon:
Brittney Griner and Layshia Claredon are basketball players that play in the WNBA. Griner was born on October 18th, 1990 and Claredon was born on May 2nd, 1991. Brittney plays for the Phoenix Mercury and Layshia plays for Connecticut Sun.
According to https://www.stadiumtalk.com, in 2017, Griner came out as a lesbian and took a stand with Claredon and other WNBA players about a bill in Texas that would limit the rights of members that are LGBTQ who can’t use the restrooms or go to other places of their choice.
“It’s not a sanctuary we take for granted,” Griner and Clarendon said on www.nbcnews.com. “The efforts of activists before us have provided us both with the opportunity to live authentic lives in the open and realize our personal and athletic potential through sport. As beneficiaries of such brave efforts, we do not take our responsibility as activists lightly. We believe it is our moral duty to use the platform we have been given to speak out.”
According to www.stadiumtalk.com, the two basketball stars did this because they thought that the bill was a threat to LGBTQ athletes who couldn’t enter the locker room because of their gender identity. “While we do not identify as transgender,” the two female superstars said, “We know what it feels like to be singled out for not fitting neatly into social norms.”
7. Jackie Robinson:
Jackie Robinson is a baseball player born on January 31st, 1917 in Cairo, Georgia. Before he played for the Brooklyn Dodgers, he played in the Negro League on a team called the Kansas City Monarchs.
According to www.biography.com, on 1946, Branch Rickey, president of the Brooklyn Dodgers, pulled Jackie Robinson from the Negro League and wanted him to play for the Montreal Royals (a farm team for the Brooklyn Dodgers) since he wanted to bring more attention to the team. And, since Robinson was black, he figured that would draw more attention from the black community to the team. Besides that, Rickey wanted a player that could hold his ground on the field and control himself against white ignorance. Sure enough, Robinson accepted the deal. But that angered a lot of fans because they thought a black man (or any person of color) couldn’t play in the MLB.
Back then, leagues were separated because of segregation. So, there was the Negro League and the MLB. Jackie Robinson dealt with a lot of racial abuse, from racial comments to death threats. “I’m not concerned with your liking or disliking me,” Robinson said. “All I ask is that you respect me as a human being.” According to www.history.com/, Robinson was moved up from the Royals to the Brooklyn Dodgers. Rickey saw how good Robinson was; he went zero for three at the plate and had a batting average of .349.
Robinson broke barriers by being the first black man to play in the MLB, to win rookie of the year, and to be the Most Valuable Player in the league. According to www.history.com, Robinson was the highest paid player on the Brooklyn Dodgers; he made at least $35,000. After his time on the field, he became a Civil Rights activist and joined a group called the Board of the NAACP. Like other athletes, he had something to say about the national anthem in his autobiography, according to www.history.com. “I cannot stand and sing the anthem,” Robinson said. “I cannot salute the flag; I know that I am a black man in a white world.”
8. Serena Williams:
Serena Jameka Williams was born on September 26th, 1981, in Saginaw, Michigan. According to www.biography.com, Serena’s father used what he learned from tennis books and videos to teach Serena and her sister, Venus, how to play the game. Even at the age of three, Serena was able to deal with the daily two-hour practice she was given by her father.
In 2008, Serena Williams won her second women’s double Olympic gold medal with Venus Williams. Plus, Serena held the top spot in the Women's Tennis Association. And, in the summer of 2015, Serena had beaten her sister so that she could advance in the Grand Slam singles tournament in Wimbledon. She went on to win the final and won her second career “Serena Slam,” according to www.biography.com.
And according to https://www.thecut.com, in 2018, Williams spoke out against the difference in reaction in a game between men and women. She said this because she was fined $10,000 for calling the umpire a “thief” during the game. “For me to say ‘thief’ and for him to take a game, it made me feel like it was a sexist remark,” Williams said. “He’s never taken a game from a man because they said ‘thief.’” Plus, “For me, it blows my mind. But I’m going to continue to fight for women.”
Williams has continued her activism in making sure that women are equal in pay and in society just like men.”Most black women across our country do not have the same support that I did,” Williams said, “And so they often don’t speak out about what is just, fair and appropriate in the workplace. When they do, they are often punished for it.
In my opinion, I feel like athletes have a special connection to activism because they have to deal with so many of these issues. So, as upcoming athletes or non-athletes in this generation, we can learn by these athletes’ examples and make the world a better place.
1. Colin Kaepernick:
Colin Kapernick is a football quarterback who played for the San Francisco 49ers for only six seasons. According to www.biography.com, Kaepernick was born on November 3rd, 1987 in Milwaukee, Wisconsin and was adopted by Rick and Teresa Kaepernick. As a kid, he was always told by classmates that he couldn’t be related to his parents because he didn’t have the same skin color or features as them. When Kaepernick grew older, he attended the University of Nevada, Reno where he shattered and set several records.
On August 26, 2016, Kaepernick became an activist in a preseason game against the Green Bay Packers. Before the game started, the Star Spangled Banner started to play, which is a tradition before every game in the American sport, Kaepernick knelt as a sign of disapproval of the anthem, protesting the bad treatment African Americans were getting in the US. According to the theundefeated.com, Kaepernick talked to NFL media about his decision. “This is not something that I am going to run by anybody,” Kaeperick said, “I have to stand up for the people who are oppressed. If they take football away, my endorsements from me, I know that I stood up for what’s right.”
After Kaepernick’s actions, he was benched and only played 11 games. But that didn’t stop him from what he was doing. He kept kneeling every time the anthem was played before a game. And according to www.sbnation.com and my father, when Kaepernick became a free agent in 2016, none of the 32 football teams wanted him because of the actions he’d committed. Because of this, Kaepernick filed a grievance against the NFL organization. In 2018, both the NFL and Kaepernick didn’t want to have to take this situation up to court, so the NFL paid Kaepernick less than $10,000,000, according to https://www.usatoday.com/.
Superstars like Mahmoud Abdul-Rauf had something to say about what happened to the former 49er. “Look at all of what he has to lose by taking this position,” Abdul-Rauf said, “His wealth, his endorsements, possible threats, the attacks against his family. He has a lot to lose. As far as I’m concerned, I think it’s more selfless than selfish.” “Plus, he’s willing to put all of that on the line because, to him, truth is more important than those things. Justice and equality is more important than those things,” Abdul-Rauf added.
Today, athletes follow in Kaepernick's footsteps and kneel against the Star Spangled Banner in solidarity with Kaepernick and institutionalized racism in the US. Kapernick is still unsigned in the NFL, however, he has won the approval of President Obama, as well as the Ambassador of Conscience Award, which recognizes incredible individuals for promoting and enhancing human rights, according to https://www.amnesty.org/.
2. Mahmoud Abdul-Rauf:
Chris Jackson, “aka” Mahmoud Abdul-Rauf, is a former basketball player born on March 9th, 1969 in Mississippi, who last played for the Memphis Grizzlies in 2001. He was at LSU (Louisiana State University) during his college years, and went into the NBA draft in the 1990s as the third pick, according to the www.denverpost.com. It was hard for him to adjust to the NBA, as he struggled with the fame on and off the court. But, a year later, he converted to Islam to relieve the struggles he’d endured and changed his name from Chris Jackson to Mahmoud Abdul-Rauf.
On March 16, 1996, just like Kaepernick, Abdul-Rauf refused to stand for the National Anthem because he thought the United States was an unjust tyranny and therefore in conflict with his Islamic beliefs, according to https://bleacherreport.com. “I couldn’t stand for the anthem,” Abdul-Rauf said to the media. “The Koran forbid me to participate in nationalistic rituals.” He also added that the American flag was “a symbol of oppression, of tyranny.”
Because of this, Abdul-Rauf continued to sit down, purposely sending a message to the NBA. But, it wasn't long until people started to find out what he was doing. Former and deceased NBA commissioner David Stern and the rest of the NBA suspended Abdul-Rauf for the “disrespect” he showed by sitting down. After his suspension, he made a deal with the NBA to sit in the locker room or stand and do a silent prayer during the anthem. They agreed to it, and that’s what he has been doing ever since.
According to theundefeated.com when his contract ended in 1998, no team would give him a contract because of what he did. Even worse, he received death threats. In 2001, when his house was being built in Gulfport, a message was written on it that said, “KKK.” Nervous about this, he didn’t go in and left it unoccupied. Suddenly, the house burned down, and the FBI had to search for who commited arson against Abdul-Rauf. And, even after all of this, Abdul-Rauf had no regrets for what he did.
3. Paul Robeson:
Paul Robeson was born on April 19th, 1898 in Princeton, New Jersey. He was an athlete, musician, actor, politician, and an activist fighting for human rights.
In 1915, Robeson got a scholarship at Rudgers, where he became a two-time All American football star as well as a member of Phi Beta Kappa and class valedictorian--all of this while being only the third African-American student at the school, according to www.history.com. His physical strength, size, and grace made him one of the elite sports figures of his generation.
During his political career, Robeson was concerned about the racism his community was experiencing and tried to make a stand against the lynchings and segregation happening during this time period.
Again, according to www.history.com, when Robeson was asked about why he didn’t move to the USSR, he said, ”Because my father was a slave, and my people died to build this country, I am going to stay right here and have a part of it just like you.”
According to my mother, the white players stomped on his hands during the game because they thought it wasn’t right for a black man to play football. But still, Robeson didn’t let the racism from his teammates and the racial violence stop him from what he was doing. He had a connection to music, so he tried to promote peace and black spirituality by singing in 25 languages across the world in places like the Soviet Union, the U.S., and Europe. Because of this, he was then known as the citizen of the world.
4. Tommie Smith and John Carlos:
Tommie Smith was born on June 6th, 1944, in Clarksville, Texas, and John Carlos was born on June 5th, 1945 in Harlem, New York. On October 16, 1968, they participated in the 200 meter dash with Team USA in the Olympics in Mexico.
After the 200 meter dash, Smith placed 1st and Carlos placed 3rd. When the national anthem started to play, the two runners raised their fists and put their heads down. One wore a black glove on their right hand and the other wore a glove on their left hand. According to www.washingtonpost.com, they also wore scarves and beads to protest the lynchings.
“I looked at my feet in my high socks and thought about all the black poverty I’d seen from Harlem to East Texas,” Carlos said in his book, The John Carlos Story: The Sports Moment That Changed the World. ”I fingered my beads and thought about the pictures I’d seen of the ‘strange fruit’ swinging from the poplar trees of the South.” Another reason they did that was because it was in a time when the country was also embroiled in protests over the Vietnam War and the aftermath of the assassinations of Martin Luther King Jr. and Robert F. Kennedy.
When they did this, crowds of people booed in anger over how they “disrespected” the anthem. According to https://www.history.com/, Smith and Carlos were stripped of their medals and were commanded to leave Mexico immediately. When the two black runners returned to the US, they constantly received death threats. Still, because of what they did, they created a program called the Olympic Project for Human Rights where African-American athletes like them boycott the games. “Even if you won the medal,” Carlos said, “It ain’t going to save your momma. It ain’t going to save your sister or your children. It might give you 15 minutes of fame, but what about the rest of your life?”
5. Muhammad Ali:
Muhammad Ali, “aka” Cassius Clay (his original name) was a heavyweight boxer born on January 17th, 1942. He started his boxing career when a bike got stolen from him as a kid, so he went to a police officer and told him that he wanted to beat up the person who stole his bike. The officer said that before he defended himself, he needed to learn how to fight. And, because of this, he became one of the greatest boxers of our time.
In the 1960s, Ali won a spot on the U.S boxing team and traveled to Rome, Italy to compete in the olympics, according to https://www.biography.com. Back then, he was known for his speed and fast reflexes, not his strength, according to Walter Dean Myers’ The Greatest: Muhammad Ali. In the match, Ali went up against Zbigniew Pietrzkowski, a boxer from Poland. Sure enough, he defeated Pietrzkowski and won the gold for the U.S.
In 1964, Ali converted to Islam and joined the black Muslim group Nation of Islam. According to https://www.biography.com, Ali was going to change his name to Cassius X. But, he better decided to change it to Muhammad Ali instead. And in 1970, he decided to change to the orthodox Islam. When he was drafted to the Vietnam war in 1967, he refused and didn’t want to enter because of his religious beliefs. Because of this, he went to jail and his boxing license was revoked.
6. Brittney Griner and Layshia Clarendon:
Brittney Griner and Layshia Claredon are basketball players that play in the WNBA. Griner was born on October 18th, 1990 and Claredon was born on May 2nd, 1991. Brittney plays for the Phoenix Mercury and Layshia plays for Connecticut Sun.
According to https://www.stadiumtalk.com, in 2017, Griner came out as a lesbian and took a stand with Claredon and other WNBA players about a bill in Texas that would limit the rights of members that are LGBTQ who can’t use the restrooms or go to other places of their choice.
“It’s not a sanctuary we take for granted,” Griner and Clarendon said on www.nbcnews.com. “The efforts of activists before us have provided us both with the opportunity to live authentic lives in the open and realize our personal and athletic potential through sport. As beneficiaries of such brave efforts, we do not take our responsibility as activists lightly. We believe it is our moral duty to use the platform we have been given to speak out.”
According to www.stadiumtalk.com, the two basketball stars did this because they thought that the bill was a threat to LGBTQ athletes who couldn’t enter the locker room because of their gender identity. “While we do not identify as transgender,” the two female superstars said, “We know what it feels like to be singled out for not fitting neatly into social norms.”
7. Jackie Robinson:
Jackie Robinson is a baseball player born on January 31st, 1917 in Cairo, Georgia. Before he played for the Brooklyn Dodgers, he played in the Negro League on a team called the Kansas City Monarchs.
According to www.biography.com, on 1946, Branch Rickey, president of the Brooklyn Dodgers, pulled Jackie Robinson from the Negro League and wanted him to play for the Montreal Royals (a farm team for the Brooklyn Dodgers) since he wanted to bring more attention to the team. And, since Robinson was black, he figured that would draw more attention from the black community to the team. Besides that, Rickey wanted a player that could hold his ground on the field and control himself against white ignorance. Sure enough, Robinson accepted the deal. But that angered a lot of fans because they thought a black man (or any person of color) couldn’t play in the MLB.
Back then, leagues were separated because of segregation. So, there was the Negro League and the MLB. Jackie Robinson dealt with a lot of racial abuse, from racial comments to death threats. “I’m not concerned with your liking or disliking me,” Robinson said. “All I ask is that you respect me as a human being.” According to www.history.com/, Robinson was moved up from the Royals to the Brooklyn Dodgers. Rickey saw how good Robinson was; he went zero for three at the plate and had a batting average of .349.
Robinson broke barriers by being the first black man to play in the MLB, to win rookie of the year, and to be the Most Valuable Player in the league. According to www.history.com, Robinson was the highest paid player on the Brooklyn Dodgers; he made at least $35,000. After his time on the field, he became a Civil Rights activist and joined a group called the Board of the NAACP. Like other athletes, he had something to say about the national anthem in his autobiography, according to www.history.com. “I cannot stand and sing the anthem,” Robinson said. “I cannot salute the flag; I know that I am a black man in a white world.”
8. Serena Williams:
Serena Jameka Williams was born on September 26th, 1981, in Saginaw, Michigan. According to www.biography.com, Serena’s father used what he learned from tennis books and videos to teach Serena and her sister, Venus, how to play the game. Even at the age of three, Serena was able to deal with the daily two-hour practice she was given by her father.
In 2008, Serena Williams won her second women’s double Olympic gold medal with Venus Williams. Plus, Serena held the top spot in the Women's Tennis Association. And, in the summer of 2015, Serena had beaten her sister so that she could advance in the Grand Slam singles tournament in Wimbledon. She went on to win the final and won her second career “Serena Slam,” according to www.biography.com.
And according to https://www.thecut.com, in 2018, Williams spoke out against the difference in reaction in a game between men and women. She said this because she was fined $10,000 for calling the umpire a “thief” during the game. “For me to say ‘thief’ and for him to take a game, it made me feel like it was a sexist remark,” Williams said. “He’s never taken a game from a man because they said ‘thief.’” Plus, “For me, it blows my mind. But I’m going to continue to fight for women.”
Williams has continued her activism in making sure that women are equal in pay and in society just like men.”Most black women across our country do not have the same support that I did,” Williams said, “And so they often don’t speak out about what is just, fair and appropriate in the workplace. When they do, they are often punished for it.
In my opinion, I feel like athletes have a special connection to activism because they have to deal with so many of these issues. So, as upcoming athletes or non-athletes in this generation, we can learn by these athletes’ examples and make the world a better place.
