si.com/sportsperson/2…
Yes, 2020 was the year of the Activist Athlete. Sports Illustrated got that part exactly right. But did they get the right five people? How do you choose even five? And, again, the erasure of Colin Kaepernick from this equation rankles. His shadow looms.
Yes, 2020 was the year of the Activist Athlete. Sports Illustrated got that part exactly right. But did they get the right five people? How do you choose even five? And, again, the erasure of Colin Kaepernick from this equation rankles. His shadow looms.
Look at the athletes SI chose and with the exception of the remarkable Duvernay-Tardif (at least from what I know), Kaepernick is part of each of these athletes' journeys. But what he's been calling for is also way beyond the parameters of what's been deemed acceptable discourse.
The other name missing is Maya Moore. Again I wonder if her example - actually leaving sports to fight the racism of the criminal justice system - was beyond the parameters of what SI was going to celebrate. Moore and Kap represent a different wing/a different kind of struggle.
I'll write more about this, because I don't think twitter will cut it, but there are political wings/splits all over the "athlete activist" world. There were pushes to put all their cultural capital into electoralism. The people who broke from that pressure are missing from SI.
Please know I'm not blasting the athletes who went all in on "vote" during 2020. But there were other athletes who went on other athletic journeys in 2020 and they - with the possible exception of Osaka - don't seem to be represented here.
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