Black Lives Matter: anthem protests set to take centre stage in US as NBA, NFL, NHL and MLB look to resume seasons amid heightened racial tension
- The National Women’s Soccer League provides a clear bellwether as players take a knee in solidarity wearing ‘Black Lives Matter’ T-shirts during the anthem
- As the NBA, NHL, MLB and NFL get set to resume their seasons in the coming months, kneeling during the anthem will become a hot topic again
Over the weekend the National Women’s Soccer League became the first professional team sport in the United States to return to action during the Covid-19 pandemic, and its players sent a message.
They knelt in solidarity during the national anthem before the Challenge Cup in Utah and also donned T-shirts that read “Black Lives Matter”. The civil unrest since the death of African-American George Floyd at the hands of a white police officer on May 25 has sent the country into a tailspin of racial tension.
Protests became riots, riots became looting, and statues representing America’s chequered history with slavery became targets from coast to coast. All the while Republican Donald Trump fanned the flames with his incendiary comments and dog whistle politics. The overlapping Covid-19 situation, in which the US has become the epicentre of the virus as a second wave washes over the planet, has further destabilised a country which now feels as if it is on its knees.
Police brutality has taken centre stage once again, a long-standing issue with the black population, and no one can escape it. Once again, The Star-Spangled Banner, customarily played before sporting events, finds itself as a lightning rod for debate.
