#athleteactivists

🖤✊🏿🎾#ArtIsAWeapon #AthleteActivists #ArthurAshe, @usopen 1974, 📷 by Barton Silverman. Reposted from @nytimes Long before Colin Kaepernick [@kaepernick7] took a knee or @MBA players led game walkouts, there was Arthur Ashe. In 1968, Ashe was the first Black male athlete to win a singles title at the US Open, and he used his platform to speak out against segregation and racial inequality. Ashe believed he and other athletes should use their visibility to inspire others, fully aware that they had the power to have an impact on culture and peoples’ attitudes about race. “A few days after his win, he became the first athlete to appear on CBS’s public affairs program ‘Face the Nation,’” Maurice Berger wrote in The Times in 2018, on the 50th anniversary of Ashe’s historic win. “Despite his momentous victory, he spoke as an activist, weighing in on subjects as diverse as civil rights legislation, the Black Power movement and the role of the African-American athlete in the civil rights struggle.” Ashe’s TV appearance was applauded by many. But he, too, was sometimes mistaken for a waiter or busboy while participating in tournaments dominated by White players. And while he did not think every athlete had to thrust themselves into a position of leadership, he said it was a mistake not to speak out against segregationist policies. Ashe, who died in 1993, worked to expand educational and employment opportunities among disadvantaged youth and was a vocal critic of apartheid in South Africa. At the US Open this year, Black athletes continue to show support for racial equality. Naomi Osaka [@naomiosaka] has worn face masks that honor the victims of police brutality. Sloane Stephens [@sloanestephens] wore a mask in support of Black Lives Matter. The photo by Barton Silverman for The Times was taken in 1974 during a match against Guillermo Vilas at the US Open in Forest Hills, New York. #USOpen #USOpen2020 #BlackTennisPlayers #SocialJustice #naomiosaka #sloanestephens #BlackLivesMatter #BreonnaTaylor #RamarleyGraham #BlackAndWhitePhotos #TraScapades #ArtIsAWeapon https://www.instagram.com/p/CE4RBNUg7MS/?igshid=ymtcnyewjtmq

✊🏿🏀📷 #ArtIsAWeapon #AthleteActivists SHOUT OUT TO THE @WNBA players for their leadership! #Photo @minnesotalynx during a moment of silence for #BreonnaTaylor before a @WNBA #basketball game July 26, 2020, (📸AP Photo/Phelan M. Ebenhack. • • The @WNBA’s season began last month with players from the @SeattleStorm and @NewYorkLiberty walking off the court before the national anthem played, in a message for #racialjustice as #protests around the country continue. The players then dedicated 26 seconds of silence and the entire season to Breonna Taylor. Excerpts from July 26, 2020 @Time magazine article: WNBA Players Walk Off Court Before the National Anthem and Dedicate Delayed Season to Breonna Taylor Breonna Taylor — an outstanding EMT who was murdered over 130 days ago in her home,” #LayshiaClarendon [@layshiac aclarendon], a player for #NewYorkLiberty said before the game began. Taylor was shot and killed by Louisville Metro police [@lmpd.ky] after they entered her Kentucky home in March. After Clarendon’s remarks, players for both teams — who were wearing jerseys with Taylor’s full name inscribed on the back — observed a 26-second long silence for the EMT, signifying the age when she was killed. Clarendon told @ESPN that “kneeling doesn’t even feel like enough to protest.” “I don’t want to hear the anthem, I don’t want to stand out there. I don’t want to be anywhere near it, because it’s ridiculous that justice and freedom are just not offered to everybody equally,” she said. Clarendon also said the season would be dedicated to the “#SayHerName Campaign — a campaign committed to saying the names and fighting for justice for Black women” who are “so often forgotten in this fight for justice.” “We will say her name: #SandraBland, #AtatianaJefferson, #DominiqueRemmieFells and Breonna Taylor,” Clarendon said. “We will be a voice for the voiceless.” “We have always been at the forefront of initiatives with strong support of #BlackLivesMatter, #SayHerName, the #LGBTQ+ community, #guncontrol, #votingrights, #MeToo, #mentalhealth and the list goes on,” said @thewnbpa president [@nnemkadi] Nneka Ogwumike in a June 15 statement. #DismantleWhiteSupremacy https://www.instagram.com/p/CEYmQXpguK0/?igshid=1byktwl3tfdd3

❤👏🏽🎨 #ArtIsAWeapon!!! ✊🏽💪🏽LOVE THIS PIECE honoring @kaepernick7 & @muhammadali by #artist @lovefola! #Regranned from @lovefola - "Colin Kaepernick took home the Muhammad Ali Legacy Award. Here's a piece I made back in September." #colinkaepernick #muhammadali #Kings #BlackRoyalty #legacyawards @sportsillustrated #athleteactivists #BlackExcellence #TraScapades #ArtIsAWeapon • • (H/T @supportblackart)