Nico
Feb 22nd 2021
Teams Using Their Voice
When the NBA went into the bubble because of Corona they decided each team would wear a quote on their jerseys supporting Black Lives Matter, mainly becaue of George Floyd’s recent death/murder at the time. These quotes included: “I CANT BREATH” “SAY THERE NAMES” “BLACK LIVES MATTER'' etc. One team for example is the Boston Celtics, one of there best players Jaylen Brown was protesting in his hometown during the bubble.This ade his whole team agree on his decisions, and they even started protesting and the whole NBA continued to support him too and to wear those jerseys, and he inspired other nba players to start protesting and using their voice. They did this to raise awareness about a topic that must be talked about. Many people didn’t like the idea but many others agreed that they should wear those on the back of their jerseys. During that time in the bubble, many NBA players were protesting and speaking out on social media. After doing this more and more people would protest and post about this, so this had an impact.
When a whole TEAM speaks out it is stronger than one person because it spreads awareness to so many more people. There have been articles made saying “The point is to make people start talking,” Osaka said at the award ceremony-NY times.that when an athlete and their team speaks out there is a big difference from when just one person speaks out. Since teams are loved by a community they are also listened to and can spread awareness easily. An example is during the NBA bubble to jerseys saying “I cant breath” and other quotes was an easy way to spread awareness, they would even show videos before games of NBA players speaking on this and protesting. wasnt just a few people, it was WHOLE TEAMS! A quotation from BBC below says “The platform that athletes have today, especially in an age of social media, is a large one. One could make the argument that it is part of their responsibility as members of society to not only use that platform to cultivate a brand to promote themselves but to also serve their larger communities and use the attention they generate for a greater purpose.”
Explaining that they should be using their platform for speaking out politically and to not be afraid to speak out and use the voice they have. When people that aren’t as big or as famous try to speak out it can be harder to get attention because they don’t have as big of a voice and are known by as many people as a team or organization. It’s also easier for them to spread an awareness just by doing small things, like posting something on social media, but for kids like me and other people around the world that aren’t famous it’s harder and we usually have to do things like protest which can be a lot to do and a big risk.
Now obviously we won’t have as big a voice as these athletes and their whole teams, but if we come together and raise awareness about something like police brutality we can all make a change. Protests are a really good idea but if you are too nervous for things like that,you can do smaller things like posting on social media about it and more people find out about certain topics that need to be talked about more often. But it can’t just be one person doing this it, must be a group or at least more than a couple because 10 people is stronger than just one. You could find examples of how Black people have been treated by police in the past and share it online and even with friends to educate them, or even read articles on it to educate yourself. Another way of educating yourself is to look up other things that need to be talked about more like poverty and how to deal with it during covid and you could spread awareness about it so others could be educated too. We must try to use the voice we have and speak out, and not to stay silent just because our voice is smaller than others.
Bibliography:
Aalai, Azadeh. “Why Athletes Should Get Political.” Psychology Today, Sussex Publishers, 1 Oct. 2017, www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/the-first-impression/201710/why-athletes-should-get-political.
Engle, Jeremy. “Should Athletes Speak Out On Social and Political Issues?” The New York Times, The New York Times, 5 Feb. 2021, www.nytimes.com/2021/02/05/learning/should-athletes-speak-out-on-social-and-political-issues.html.
https://www.bbc.com/news/explainers-53098516
Section 1: Zoom In Start with an anecdote (a true story) that hooks readers. Where to look for personalized stories:
| When the NBA went into the bubble because of Corona they decided for each team to wear a quote on the back of their jerseys supporting Black Lives Matter. These quotes would be “I can’t breathe” “say their names” “black lives matter'' etc. They did this to raise awareness about a topic that must be talked about. Many people didn’t like the idea but many others agreed that they should wear those on the back of their jerseys. During that time in the bubble many NBA players were protesting and using their voice and speaking out on social media. After doing this more and more people would protest and post about this, so this had an impact. |
Section 2: Zoom Out Educate your readers about your topic using facts/statistics that provide the who, what, when, where and why. *All facts must have a source (bibliography and footnotes will be used) | It has been shown that when athletes speak out on topics and subjects that must be talked about it has a better impact than when any other person with a smaller voice speaks out. When a whole TEAM speaks out it is even stronger and it spreads awareness to so many more people that when any other citizen does. There have been articles made saying that when an athlete and their team speaks out there is a big difference from when just one person speaks out. Since teams are loved by a community they are also listened to and can spread awareness easily. When people that aren’t as big or as famous try to speak out it can be harder to get attention because they don’t have as big of a voice and are known by as many people as a team or organization. It’s also easier for them to spread an awareness just by doing small things, like posting something on social media, but for kids like me and other people around the world that aren’t famous it’s harder and we usually have to do things like protest which can be a lot to do and a big risk. |
Section III: Action Steps / Solutions What’s a potential action people can take to start addressing this problem? What’s something you’ve done that others can emulate? | Now obviously we won’t have as big a voice as these athletes and their whole teams, but if we come together and raise awareness we can all make a change. Protests are a really good idea but if you are too nervous for things like that or just can’t then you can do small things like posting on social media about it some more and more people find out about certain topics that need to be talked about more. But it can’t just be one person doing this it must be a group or at least more than a couple because 10 people is stronger than just one. You could also educate yourself and look up things that need to be talked about more and you could spread awareness about it so others could be educated too |
Section IV: Works Cited (list all your sources used) Use easybib.com or other sites like this to put sources in correct format. |