“Shut Up and Play!”: The Plight of the Black Athlete in America

By Kaila Cherry

Graphic by Jas Calcitas


The stereotype that athletes, especially male athletes, are not very smart is not uncommon. Athletes are often deemed as “dumb jocks” throughout high school and college, a designation that doesn’t change once these athletes enter professional sports. To play a sport professionally in the United States is to be nothing but a hollow vessel for civic pride and entertainment for fans to project themselves onto. The belief that professional sports players are simply just physically impressive airheads is most severely attributed to Black athletes. At no point in time has this ideology, racist roots and all, become more apparent than in the sports world’s response to the recent strike taken by NBA players in solidarity with the Black Lives Matter movement.

On Wednesday, August 26th, the Milwaukee Bucks announced that in unity with those fighting against racial injustice following the shooting of Jacob Blake by Kenosha police officer Rusten Sheskey, they would not be playing their playoff game against the Orlando Magic scheduled for that evening. In a statement following their decision, the team stated that with the demonstration of police brutality that occured only an hour away from Milwaukee, along with the months of activism around racial equality happening all across the country, that for at least one day their “...focus cannot be on basketball.” Elaborating on that point, the Bucks said that just as they are expected to hold themselves to high standards of performance when it comes to sports, so should law enforcement officers and politicians when it comes to serving the American people. 

Soon after the Bucks decided not to play, other teams scheduled to play also pulled out. By 5pm EST, the NBA had officially postponed all playoff games scheduled for that day. Teams such as the Milwaukee Bucks, the Los Angeles Clippers, and the Los Angeles Lakers continued to withhold their labor for the rest of the week, engaging in what is known as a wildcat strike: a work stoppage without union approval. Along with the strike, NBA players, most notably LeBron James, used their power to leverage several demands for change within the sport. Players spoke with executive directors, team owners, and other heads of industry. Such changes included an initiative to turn stadiums into polling places for the November 3rd presidential election, a collaboration between NBA players and advertisers to promote civic engagement in local, state, and national elections, and a social justice coalition focused around criminal justice reform. On Friday, August 28th, with influence from Barack Obama and Micheal Jordan, the league agreed to move forward with these demands, and the players subsequently ended their strike. 

Son-in-law of President Donald Trump, Jared Kushner, perceived the strike as a privilege that other workers wish they had. In an interview with CNBC  the day following the playoff postponements, Kushner said, 

“The NBA players are very fortunate that they have the financial position where they're able to take a night off from work without having to have the consequences to themselves financially. They have that luxury, which is great. Look, with the NBA, I think there is a lot of activism and they've put a lot of slogans out, but what I think we need is to turn that from slogans and signals into actual action that's going to solve the problem."

The “slogans” in which Kusher is referring to are “Black Lives Matter”, which has been painted across the court being used for games this year within what has been referred to as the COVID-19 “NBA Bubble”, and a list of 29 preapproved “social justice messages” that players are allowed to wear on the back of their jerseys. These messages range from those holding significant political weight, such as “Black Lives Matter,” “I Can’t Breathe,” and “How Many More,” to ones that are extremely vague and open ended such as “Enough,” “Peace,” and “Mentor.”

While many sports fans saw the ignorance in Kusher’s statement and voiced their support for the NBA players, others echoed Kusher’s thoughts. In a video titled “LeBron James, NBA Players ‘Boycott’ Ends In Hypocrisy| Woke Culture DESTROYS The NBA” from the YouTube channel Sports Wars, the white commentator was not afraid to voice his strong opinions against NBA players’ stand against institutionalized racism and exploitation that occurs within their own sport. In reference to the NBA players agreeing to go back onto the court if they can work with the league to promote more social justice statements, the commentator says “What else do you want, NBA players? You already have “Black Lives Matter'' written on the court. You can have whatever the fuck you want written on your back...You have everything on your side right now.” Later in the video, he expresses discontent for the Milwaukee Bucks making a list of demands for Wisconsin politicians and law enforcement agencies. “NBA players listing demands. To lawmakers and law enforcement officers. NBA players. Basketball players...And guess what? You’re gonna go right back out there, and you’re gonna dribble.”

Comments like those expressed by Jared Kushner and Sports Wars reflect a prevailing ideology. We are not watching sports to hear about the news. When Black athletes withhold their labor in order to speak out against injustice, white America believes they are stepping out of their own role. Sports is a form of entertainment, which, by association, makes athletes entertainers. We expect them to perform for us and disregard their Blackness for our own sake. We are uncomfortable with Black men, entertainers, and public figures subverting the power dynamic.

As a nation, we turn athletes into myths of themselves. When they take the court, they suddenly lose all other facets of themselves, regardless of how much merit they actually carry. In that moment, ball in hand, athletes, especially Black athletes, become representations of strength and masculinity. They lose their realness. So when the Milwaukee Bucks make “demands” to lawmakers and law enforcement or players want to be able to do more than just have “Mentor” embroidered on their jerseys, we feel as if we are being betrayed because we refuse to see Black athletes as holistic individuals-- we only see them as extensions of our own civic pride and identity. 

This indictment of white America’s treatment of the Black athlete is not a new one. In 1968, sociologist, activist, and former athlete Harry Edwards published a book entitled The Revolt of the Black Athlete. In it he heavily critiques what he continuously refers to as the “plantation system” of the sports industry. On the struggles faced by the professional Black athlete, Edwards writes,

“All professional athletes, as we have said, are the property of the various white-owned professional athletic franchises throughout America. But unlike black athletes, white athletes are not reduced to a slave-with-pay status, completely devoid of human or masculine characteristics.”

His words ring true over 50 years later.  Black athletes are still regarded as products meant to bring abundance to others, whether that be through making millions of dollars for team owners or by making a superfan’s day by winning the big game. In their efforts, however, the struggles of the Black athlete are seldom acknowledged. That is why it is so inspiring to see Black NBA players be bold enough to speak out against being used and abused not only by their industry, but by an antiblack society as well. Until there is a concerted effort by white America to see all Black people as holistic humans, not merely forms of entertainment for their prying eyes, phrases like “Shut up and play!” will continue to strip Black athletes of their personhood.