In recent weeks, we’ve seen black athletes in nearly every sport use their platforms to speak out against racial inequality and assert that Black Lives Matter, and in their own efforts to “be the change,” we now have MLB stars following suit.
In a video featuring familiar faces like Philadelphia Phillies outfielder Andrew McCutchen, Los Angeles Dodgers outfielder Mookie Betts and Yankees great CC Sabathia, some of the brightest black athletes in the sport address our current climate and their refusal to accept the status quo.
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“We’ve been told that our pleas for peace were not made at the right time, at the right place, in the right way,” they say in the nearly minute-long video. “We’ve been told to ‘wait,’ but we remember when Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. warned us that the word ‘wait,’ has almost always meant ‘never.’ We will wait no longer. We will make our voices louder. For all of us who can and for all of those who could not. Eight minutes and 46 seconds is enough time to lift a knee, to do what’s right, to do something, to say something, to acknowledge the pain of the Black community.”
“You have cheered for us, but we need you to cheer with us now when you need us most. Black Lives Matter. It’s our cheer for change. It’s your cheer for us. It’s these cheers that will unite us. One team. One dream. Be the change.”
This video is similar to one posted in early June that featured NFL stars such as Patrick Mahomes, DeShaun Watson and Ezekiel Elliot. In that clip, players challenged the NFL to condemn racism and admit it was wrong to punish players for peacefully protesting during the national anthem.
It’s great to see so many influential athletes being much more vocal about police brutality and the systemic oppression that’s pervaded American society for centuries. It’s just disheartening that this recent awakening came at the cost of George Floyd and Breonna Taylor’s lives.
Straight From 
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