Buck stops here
...
In February of 1964 , Cassius Clay won the boxing title against Sunny Liston making him the heavy weight champion of the world. Shortly after this, Clay changed his name from Cassius Clay to Cassius X. Months later he adopted his new identity as a Muslim. Thereby naming himself Muhammad Ali.
In 1968, Tommy Smith and John Carlos gave the black power salute on the podium of the Summer Olympics during the playing of the National Anthem in Mexico. In the backdrop of all this was the civil unrest back in the United States of the Vietnam War as well as the assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King.
I lay out both of those events in an effort to outline a few of the many instances of athletes making statements that are emblematic of their views and feelings. The reason we have people make statements like this on big stages are because there are assaults on humanity that orchestrate inequity and most of all inequality. Authorities, above all, are entrusted to make responsible decisions that embody the ethos of the masses and impact the overall welfare of its constituents positively. Were this never breached, then there would be no need for politics.
The Civil Rights Movement in the 1960s was certainly a pivotal moment in American history. At its maturity, it led to the Voting Rights Act of 1965 as well as the Civil Rights Act of 1964. But many forget that these movements began with a series of small, impulsive instances. In its embryonic phase, all of these movements began with an impulse. An impulse to not accept assaults on humanity.
60 years from today, the history books that are printed by McGraw-Hill and Pearson will have what occurred on August 26th, 2020. The Milwaukee Bucks reacted to what occurred on 2800 block of 40th Street in Kenosha, Wisconsin by deciding to not play their scheduled playoff game against the Orlando Magic. This came after the team leaders held a phone call with the Attorney General with the state of Wisconsin to see if the officers responsible for this shooting could be prosecuted. It created a ripple effect in where the rest of the NBA, MLB and WNBA deciding not to play their scheduled games.
I know where you’d like this to go. But I’m not going to take it there. I just want to let you know what I’ll be telling my daughter when she’s old enough to know what happened in this beautiful nation on this day:
The key here is a word called solidarity. It is derived from French solidarité meaning"communion of interests and responsibilities, mutual responsibility". This term comes from the Latin solidaire which means "entire". The term is a noun, but really it should be a verb in this instance. Because it’s only mentioned when an action is taken. The reason this term is appropriate for this moment is because the the Bucks acted extemporaneously. Just as you would decide to cry if you didn’t get your bottle when you were little. You voluntarily decided to react this way. What makes this moment unique is that the colleagues and compatriots of the Bucks decided to follow their extemporaneous act. They acted in solidarity, with a mutual responsibility.
What a lot of individuals fail to realize is that the calculated decisions almost always arise from some emotional impulse and arenot a cognitively calculated. For Colin Kaepernick, it was a simple act, but no concrete plan. But what that act gave birth to eventually was the Know Your Rights Camp.
Maybe that’s too recent of an example.
Lets go back in history. Bayard Raustin was not a Civil Rights leader, he was THE Civil Rights leader. He orchestrated the March on Washington. He needs no introduction from me. But before he became the leader, he was a young black man who was impulsed to do something.
In the 1940s, a black man sitting in the back of the bus was commonplace, especially in the South. One particular day, on his way to the back of the bus a young white child saw his decorative necktie and reached out for it, just as any other child would, black or white.
What followed was a comment he’d never forget. The mother of that young child said:
“Don't touch a ni**er.”
Bayard was no stranger to this language. But what impulsed him this time?
He explains:
If I go and sit quietly at the back of that bus now, that child, who was so innocent of race relations that it was going to play with me, will have seen so many blacks go in the back and sit down quietly that it's going to end up saying, 'They like it back there, I've never seen anybody protest against it.' I owe it to that child, not only to my own dignity, I owe it to that child, that it should be educated to know that blacks do not want to sit in the back, and therefore I should get arrested, letting all these white people in the bus know that I do not accept that.
Rustin wanted to make sure that this young child knew that there’s a much better ideal to live by. The ultimate objective is that he is not in line with the status quo and everyone in that bus needs to know this is not ok. This simple action may solve nothing, but its important this child knows that it is not ok.
The sentiment Rustin raised is precisely that of the Bucks, NBA, WNBA and MLB. From this gave birth to what we now know as the Freedom Riders. They organized and mobilized interstate buses throughout the segregated United States South.
This all lends itself to the conclusion that simple acts matter. Impulses matter. Extemporaneous decisions matter. They are all sparked by emotion. Emotions that are catalyzed by assaults on humanity. What cascades from these impromptu decisions are a solidified movement: A solidarity. And from this creates the birth of movements that alter the lifestyles of many. Due to the fact that a few individuals want others that look like them want to be the arbiters of their own fate and outcomes.
Any effort that is made to redress this underlying issue is met with criticism by grievance politicians. Let them continue to grieve. If someone you care about feels their own humanity is being assaulted, stand with them in solidarity. The results will come. Like Dodger Stadium and Toyota Center now being used as polling places for the November 2020 election. And more will come. It might take time, but wondrous change will arrive.