What the Big Blue Nation owes Kentucky’s protesting athletes
After the Kentucky Wildcats football team chose to boycott its scheduled practice Thursday to advocate for greater social justice and oppose police brutality, the first email I received on the topic suggested UK cancel its season.
“That way the players can have the balance of the year to deal with social injustice however they want to do so — or transfer to the Big Ten,” the emailer wrote sarcastically. “Get politics out of sports!!!”
On Twitter, it was not infrequent to see posts from people saying they were longtime UK sports backers but proclaiming they now planned to cease being Wildcats football fans.
In this summer of rage in our politically hyper-polarized country, such replies were wholly unsurprising.
But, for just one second, can we all chill?
It seems to me that the Big Blue Nation owes UK’s protesting players two things.
1.) To open up and at least listen to what they are saying.
2.) Whether you agree with what you are hearing or not, to treat the Kentucky players — college students acting from a place of idealism — with respect.
“We had some players that felt like it was necessary to make this decision, spread awareness and make that awareness into action,” Kentucky junior defensive end Josh Paschal said via Zoom of the Wildcats’ practice boycott. “With that (it) came to one decision. We all believe this is the right thing.”
Kentucky’s football team said it hopes to begin a conversation with the Lexington police and act in the community in ways that increase awareness of systemic racism and other social injustices. Educating people on the importance of voting is another goal.
It seems clear we are now in what is going to be an era of social/political activism within the confines of athletics.
Sports, the one place where a very divided United States could still come together to have a shared experience, might never fill that role in the same way again.
It’s understandable to have some ambivalence over that.
The player strikes and practice walkouts in the NBA, Major League Baseball and college football this past week followed a police shooting in Kenosha, Wis., which left a Black man, Jacob Blake, in the hospital. After being shot seven times, Blake is reportedly paralyzed from the waist down.
The incident came after other instances this year in which a Black citizen died after an interaction with police, including the deaths of George Floyd in Minneapolis and Breonna Taylor in Louisville.
In Kentucky, where 2019 U.S. Census Bureau estimates say 87.5 percent of us who live here are white, listening to Black athletes share their personal histories might lead to enhanced understanding of an uncomfortable reality of American life:
How the Black population experiences policing and the criminal justice system overall can be very different than how many white people live it.
One can acknowledge that things need to be better for Blacks and other people of color while still believing most police officers try to do the right thing and serve a necessary societal purpose, too.
When UK’s Paschal, who is Black, spoke with the media Thursday about the Wildcats’ practice boycott, he was joined by offensive guard Luke Fortner, who is white.
Across this summer’s sports protests, white players have increasingly backed their Black teammates in actions aimed at increasing awareness of social injustice. The lesson in that is, when one listens, one’s ability to empathize with those whose life experiences have been substantially different than one’s own can grow exponentially.
Assuming the efforts to contain the coronavirus do not preclude major college sports seasons from being played in the 2020-21 school year, UK fans should prepare themselves.
You might see players in Kentucky Wildcats uniforms taking a knee during the national anthem in various sports.
There might be other types of visible protest from UK athletes during game competition.
In our state, culturally traditional and deeply patriotic, those actions, should they occur, are going to be tough for some Kentuckians to accept.
Should any of that happen, keep in mind some things that should be self-evident but have too often been obscured in America’s current era of unceasing rancor.
You can disagree with someone’s opinions and still be friends with them.
You can have different politics from someone and still respect them for their personal characteristics and traits.
And even if University of Kentucky athletes feel they need to use their public platforms to advocate for causes important to them in ways you might not fully endorse, you can still root for players who made the conscious choice to come to UK and pursue sports glory for the Wildcats.
