LA Dodgers say they denied ICE brokers entry
The LA Dodgers mentioned in a press release that brokers requested permission to entry parking tons however have been denied entry.
The very individuals who insisted athletes want to stay to sports activities certain are making it onerous to try this today.
Masked federal agents were spotted outside Dodger Stadium on Thursday morning, and the workforce later mentioned it had denied ICE’s request to make use of the parking tons as a staging space for its immigrant roundups. (This in Chavez Ravine, of all locations.) Additionally Thursday, Senegal’s women’s basketball team scrapped a training camp in the United States after a number of gamers and employees have been denied visas.
And on Wednesday, President Donald Trump used Timothy Weah, Weston McKennie and their Juventus teammates as props, inserting politics into what was meant to be a photograph op for the FIFA Membership World Cup.
“I used to be caught unexpectedly, truthfully. It was a bit bizarre,” Weah, a starter on the U.S. males’s nationwide workforce, mentioned. “When he began speaking concerning the politics with Iran and every thing, it’s type of like, I simply wish to play soccer, man.”
There was a time when Trump and his trustworthy claimed that’s what they wished, too. Trump suggested NFL owners fire players who protested police brutality of individuals of colour. Conservative commentators advised LeBron James to “shut up and dribble.” Then-U.S. Senator and Atlanta Dream proprietor Kelly Loeffler disparaged the WNBA’s social justice efforts.
And but, right here we at the moment are, politics and sports activities mixing as in the event that they’re probably the most pure of bedfellows.
To be clear, it’s inconceivable to separate politics and sports activities. All the time has been. Sports activities is a prism by which we view society, our ideas on thorny points filtered and formed by the lens of athletes and video games.
There’s a direct hyperlink between Jackie Robinson breaking Main League Baseball’s colour barrier and the civil rights motion. Billie Jean King was, and nonetheless is, instrumental within the combat for equal rights for girls. Magic Johnson’s announcement that he was HIV optimistic prompted a seismic shift in attitudes about AIDS and, by extension, the LGBTQ group.
And on and on.
However whether or not you assume that’s factor has usually trusted how you are feeling concerning the politics in query.
Army flyovers and singing the nationwide anthem earlier than video games? That’s both patriotic or jingoistic. Politicians affiliating themselves with sporting occasions or athletes? It’s both what each American does or a shameless co-opt. Workforce house owners donating to politicians and causes which may run counter to the curiosity of their followers? That’s both their very own enterprise or a slap within the face to the people who find themselves serving to fatten their wallets!
Gamers, notably Black, brown and LGBTQ ones, protesting or talking out about injustice? That’s both a hell no, athletes must know their lane and keep in it, or utilizing their platform to ensure our nation resides as much as its guarantees is the final word expression of being an American.
All of which is ok. One of many best issues about this nation is we’re allowed to have totally different opinions, to see the identical factor from totally different angles.
What will not be nice is the hypocrisy, the “OK for me however not for thee” perspective that permeates a lot of our discourse today. You can not howl that athletes have to “shut up and dribble” then flip round and cheer a president who makes use of sports activities to burnish his picture. You can not say you simply wish to benefit from the recreation after which be OK with politicians inserting themselves into them.
And also you completely can not cheer particular person athletes whereas on the similar time celebrating the harassment, abuse and discrimination of millions of others who look and love like them.
You wish to hold politics out of sports activities? Tremendous. You go first.
Comply with USA TODAY Sports activities columnist Nancy Armour on social media @nrarmour.
