Professional athletes have the right to speak out against the murder of black people by the police

Obviously, not just athletes, but all public figures have this right. One of the more remarkable instances was on Twitter when John Legend responded to being told to stay in his lane, i.e. entertain not politics, and Legend said he was staying in his lane, that the murder of black people is his lane. This annoys me so much, and partially that is because people have this idea that specific professions are there only for our amusement as if those holding these professions are people.  

Regardless, Andrew Hawkins (Cleveland Browns) adds his name to the list of professional athletes to protest the killings of black people by the police as reported by Cindy Boren. Hawkin’s t-shirt during warmups over the weekend read, “Justice for Tamir Rice and John Crawford.” Both Rice and Crawford were killed in Ohio by the police. Rice’s was ruled a homicide.

Hawkins joins the Lakers, LeBron James, the Brooklyn Nets, St. Louis Rams, Sacramento Kings, the Notre Dame women’s basketball team, Georgetown men’s basketball team, and the Washington football team. All of these people have sported shirts saying “I can’t breathe,” and holding up their hands in the don’t shoot gesture to protest the killings of Eric Garner and Michael Brown.

Of course, someone always has to say something ridiculously stupid, and that goes to Cleveland Police Patrolman Union President Jeff Follmer who gave the following statement, “It’s pretty pathetic when athletes think they know the law. They should stick to what they know best on the field. The Cleveland Police protect and serve the Browns stadium and the Browns organization owes us an apology.”

Shenanigans! First, maybe the Cleveland PD should review the law and stop executing children. Second, Hawkins has every right to his opinion, and to be dismissed because he’s an athlete has some very minstrel show vibes: you can play ball, but we don’t want to hear your opinion ever.

On basketball and that curse

I realized that I was blowing up Twitter and Facebook today about the Cavs. People who read this blog know I’m a skeptic when it comes to matters of fate, but you will see me the most superstitious during this season. Why you ask? Just kidding no one is going to ask because they know the year, 1964. It was the best of times, leading to the worst of decades. It is time, we’re fucking due. You guys know how sometimes time feels like it might be moving in reverse? Because you’re dreading something or really excited about something, but the day won’t end? That is what sports has been like in Cleveland since 1964. The Catholic Church has had more Popes than Cleveland has had Championships. We could make a list, all the ridiculous things that happen at a higher frequency.

A little about me and basketball. I love it. My sisters love it. The kids we came up with love it. J and I had to draw straws for Mark Price’s number (25) in grade school (she won; and she got the same jersey M wore). *shakes fist in the air* Arguably, they both were way better than me with can’t miss three-point shots. As irony would have it I wore number 23 before it was cool. What I’m saying here is we have a long history with the sport. One my brother in law with all his Cleveland pride doesn’t really get. He doesn’t understand that our dad put a hoop up on our garage, and J and I would try to keep up with M. He doesn’t understand that sometimes we couldn’t play outside because of weather or all round shittery, so we put a mock hoop up in the hallway above the door and played there. Honestly, I don’t know why we picked this sport. It might very well be the reason J and I obsessed over a lot of things including Weezer’s Blue album and Green Day’s Dookie, because M liked it first. But it was something we could do together, and for M and J who spent a lot of our adolescence fighting it was something for them to do.

But I also know low-income kids in the low-income neighborhoods love basketball (and football) it means an option out. I don’t know anyone who didn’t play. No delusions of grandeur here, but if you’re good at sports, male, and from the hood you’re going to get a lot of extra pressure to do it. That makes me think of a boy from high school who grew up in the suburbs and the shadow of his siblings. They were all smart and athletic, and senior year this kid tells me he was going to get an academic scholarship so he’s quitting all the teams because he didn’t like the coaches or his teammates. He didn’t like playing, but he played for the better part of three years. As a woman and someone who grew up working poor, I know what it is like to do something you hate because you have to. But it is lonely, hollow, and sucks.

I have friends who don’t understand the love fanatical love of sports. But that is it in a nutshell. You love sports because you have nothing else to love, and maybe someone you know will be great, remembered when everyone else just fades away. Someone who will bring pride back to your community. LeBron James is that for Cleveland; it is why we’ll forgive him. Because when you lose at every turn then you can identify with a losing team (or teams, all the teams). They lose too, what do you expect? But when they win, it feels like you win. Like your city isn’t as much of a joke as it was before. Something might just be happening here.

Now about that curse. I don’t know if we’re cursed or if everyone loves an underdog. Or maybe we’ve been losing so long it is just part of the identity that is being from Cleveland. We know we’re going to lose. The Browns are going to lose. All major sports teams are going to. But also, Cleveland is going to get the short end of the stick when it comes to state funding. We have too many poor brown people to be of much interest to Columbus and the legislature. You know where else we lose? Education. Cleveland always finds itself at the bottom of that list in Ohio. Want to talk about property taxes? That is one reason our schools suck so hard. But also it is why 44105 had (might still have) the highest number of sexual predators in Ohio. How about that serial killer no one was looking for? Or all those closed rape cases just by thinking hey these might be connected? What about hemorrhaging 20% of our population over time? So yeah, the prodigal son returns, and look he brought some shiny friends with him. We might just win. Everyone is saying so, but I’m not sure winning a championship is going to break the Cleveland curse. I think we’re going to need something better than that.

All that said Cleveland is going to wail on the Knicks tonight. It is going to be awesome. Who better, right? I have no love for New York, man. Hell, no one likes New York.

The prodigal son returns home

LeBron James announced on Friday he will return to Cleveland, a town that told him to suck it on his way out the door. I was with the rest of the Cleveland natives; I said fuck him. I regret nothing. I’ve seen a lot of trolling about Cleveland, well forever, and as I told a friend, no one can troll Cleveland better than a Cleveland fan. And yes, that includes James. He’s a son of Akron, and he’s coming home. There is a beauty in that simplicity. People keep saying we’re fickle and too easy to forgive or that James is. Well, yeah, maybe, this is about sports not civil rights. So maybe everyone takes a breath and remember that.

Let me break down what growing up in Cleveland/Northeast Ohio. I don’t know what it is that makes you fiercely loyal to this area. What I do know is friends from Chicago feel the same way about Chicago. And some of my DCish friends feel that fierce protectiveness over DC (though some feel that way and aren’t from here). Doesn’t matter how bad it gets this is our home. My friend’s father once told me in reference to the crime and violence our neighborhood endures, “We were here before, and we’ll be here after.” Preach. Aside, this was when there had been a rash of home burglaries by an individual person. My mother keenly noted, “It isn’t like there is that much to take.” I think both of those statements sums up Cleveland. No one is going anywhere, and there isn’t anything left to take. That reads as depressing and maybe it is, but both of those things make you Cleveland tough.

That is why when James left it hurt so bad. He was supposed to know. He was supposed feel something for our town when it is a joke everywhere else. He took the one thing we did have going for us: the possibility of something better. Maybe I’m being a bit dramatic, but this is the same expectation put on every kid who leaves a bad neighborhood. Some might understand, but they expect greatness and a return after you leave. But mostly, haters hate. Accusations of abandonment, uppity-ness, and betrayal flow from family and friends. Because you’re supposed to be great, and by extension they’re supposed to be great too, and if you leave then what are they? I want to be clear, I totally did this to James.  To me this sentiment was particularly poignant in the first paragraph of his letter:

Prospect and E. 9th on Friday 7/11/2014

“Before anyone ever cared where I would play basketball, I was a kid from Northeast Ohio. It’s where I walked. It’s where I ran. It’s where I cried. It’s where I bled. It holds a special place in my heart. People there have seen me grow up. I sometimes feel like I’m their son. Their passion can be overwhelming. But it drives me. I want to give them hope when I can. I want to inspire them when I can. My relationship with Northeast Ohio is bigger than basketball. I didn’t realize that four years ago. I do now.”

I’m also not giving him a pass, pull this shit again. After all, fool me once…There is something so melodramatic about every decision this man makes, probably because it always results in a press conference. I half expect a press conference about where he buys shoes.

Also, I don’t know about the Gilbert letter or James’ feelings about it. James says they spoke on it. That’s good enough for me. I’d have been pissed, but it is the same bullshit you’d see in all the owners. It was uncool and not ok, but if James is willing to play for the man, then that is all that matters.

James’ letter acknowledges what some of us (me) already knew, which was highlighted in the Dave Zinn piece from more than a year ago: “I always believed that I’d return to Cleveland and finish my career there.” Zinn asserted that James wants to be a folk hero, and I completely agree with him. James continues to acknowledge the feelings on both sides after his departure including the reactions of his family to the disrespectful actions of fans and owners. But he always says mistakes were made on both sides. He then talks about how he wants to contribute to the team.

Alleged Cover of the Cleveland Plain Dealer

It is the conclusion that echoes what I was talking about before:

“But this is not about the roster or the organization. I feel my calling here goes above basketball. I have a responsibility to lead, in more ways than one, and I take that very seriously. My presence can make a difference in Miami, but I think it can mean more where I’m from. I want kids in Northeast Ohio, like the hundreds of Akron third-graders I sponsor through my foundation, to realize that there’s no better place to grow up. Maybe some of them will come home after college and start a family or open a business. That would make me smile. Our community, which has struggled so much, needs all the talent it can get.

“In Northeast Ohio, nothing is given. Everything is earned. You work for what you have.

“I’m ready to accept the challenge. I’m coming home.”

This last part, this part about giving back to a community that has held you up, that is why when I look for jobs I include Cleveland in my search even when I know I’m never going to find something that fits what I do there. I have to look. I have to attempt it. Even if you’ve earned everything you have (which isn’t possible), you owe the people around you, if nothing else you owe them to make things better even if it is just through a dream or a possibility.

But maybe I’m just a sucker. At the end of the day I think everyone has the right to go home with or without a hero’s welcome.

Running Family Vote: In Favor. 
J: Good
F: Good
Me: Good

Mom: Reluctant and still pissed

M: Unknown
Dad: Gave me a look of indifference you could feel over the phone.

Some of the winning funny Tweets:

Fox News on LeBron: ANOTHER MILLENNIAL FORCED TO MOVE HOME DUE TO OBAMA ECONOMY
— LOLGOP (@LOLGOP) July 11, 2014

Tony Montana did. RT @AndyHutchins: How many people in human history have spent four years in their late 20s in Miami and matured?
— TEDDY GOOALSEVELT (@edsbs) July 11, 2014

Imagine my surprise that a white guy who owns a sports team is a racist

And this time I’m not talking about Dan Snyder. Nope this time I’m talking about Donald Sterling, the owner of the Clippers, being an asshole. It is like there is some competition going on where the wealthy white guys got together and said, “No, I’m a bigger racist.”

So Sterling ran his mouth off about what is appropriate for his girlfriend to do at his games. Now, I’m not going to go on about how there is a seriously sexist aspect to this in addition to racist because women can do what they want without asking permission from their partners. Sterling had some amazingly ignorant things to say including:

“It bothers me a lot that you want to broadcast that you’re associating with black people. Do you have to?”“You can sleep with [black men]. You can bring them in, you can do whatever you want. The little I ask you is not to promote it on that…and not to bring them to my games.”“I’m just saying, in your lousy f******* Instragrams, you don’t have to have yourself walking with black people.”“…Don’t put him [Magic] on an Instragrams, for the world to have to see so they have to call me. And don’t bring him to my games.”

A gentleman and a scholar this one. Not to be outdone, everyone has an opinion about this, but personally, I think LeBron James’ response was pretty great and came right after the news broke. James said, if he played for the Clippers he would strongly consider sitting out:

“I kind of wavered back and forth whether I would actually sit out. If our owner would come out and say the things that he said, “ I would really have to sit down with my teammates, talk to my family because at the end of the day, our family, and our teammates are way more important than that. Basketball is huge, obviously the playoffs have been unbelievable, and I hate the fact that something like this has to come out when the playoffs have been unbelievable and the game of basketball continues to grow, but there is no room for Donald Sterling in our league. There is no room for him.”

James concluded by stating the league has to do something quickly. Kobe Bryant has stated he wouldn’t play for Sterling. Kendall Marshall, a guard for the Lakers, called for the Clippers Players to sit out. Many other players are calling for the league to do something. Other owners are also disappointed in the remarks made by Sterling. NBA Commissioner Adam Silver has promised to investigate.

President Obama weighed in as well, “When ignorant folks want to advertise their ignorance, you don’t really have to do anything, you just let them talk.” It is almost like he’s talking about the Republican Party.

Obama did expand his perspective on Sterling to include larger themes, 

“The United States continues to wrestle with the legacy of race and slavery and segregation, that’s still there, the vestiges of discrimination. We’ve made enormous strides, but you’re going to continue to see this percolate up every so often. And I think that we just have to be clear and steady in denouncing it, teaching our children differently, but also remaining hopeful that part of why statements like this stand out so much is because there has been this shift in how we view ourselves.”

Below are some great tweets from over the weekend.

Clipper's game pic.twitter.com/InW8Hoty8X
— Maggie Jordan (@MaggieJordanACN) April 27, 2014

Clippers stage silent protest against owner, hide team logo during warmups ... and more. http://t.co/VuFe8V3CQj pic.twitter.com/gEnGNCRfs5
— ABC7News (@ABC7News) April 27, 2014

Labor and sports: a love story

As everyone I’ve ever met knows, I’m no fan of LeBron, I didn’t particularly care for him in high school, but I learned to appreciate him when playing for the Cavs. And after some penance, I’ll watch him play if he comes back to the Cleve. But let’s not forget he’s a son of Akron. This doesn’t mean much to people not from Ohio, but most of northeast Ohio is the former steal belt. Ohio fought off the anti-labor conservatives. Ohio, middle of the road Ohio that sometimes goes red. You don’t come at our workers and expect a victory. I have straight ticket conservative friends who belong to unions in Ohio. Labor is just part of who we are, and in a weird way can be separated out from politics. Now, I’m not asserting James has labor sympathies, which is kind of implied in the article I’m going to talk about, but I’ve never heard him say anything to that. All that said, LeBron James didn't save your pension, sorry kids.

Salon had a piece posted this morning that caught my eye, and before reading it I thought, yeah, makes sense. The piece by David Davis is titled, “LeBron James might improve your pension: Athletes, once exploited by owners, now have very powerful unions. Can other workers learn from their victories?” Davis’ story is the first in a series called Working Ahead, which focus on issues facing American workers and how using spending habits can save and create jobs. This is brought to you by the AFL-CIO. Under the photo of James reads “LeBron James helped drive the discussion as basketball players replaced the head of their union last month.” I however, after reading the piece feel the title is a bit of a misnomer. After all, James was instrumental in firing Billy Hunter, but he hardly made organized labor and sports the love story that it is. I feel like someone is trying to drum up readership for a pro-labor story by name dropping a well-known athlete. Regardless, it provides a good summary of sports and labor.

Davis begins his piece with a history of labor and sports.

• John Montgomery Ward, 1880 pitched a perfect game, and in 1887 wrote “Is the Base-Ball Player a Chattel? writing, “In the enactment of the reserve-rule the clubs were probably influences by three considerations. They wished to make the business of base-ball more permanent, they meant to reduce salaries, and they sought to secure a monopoly of the game. (The “chattel” reference is considered appropriate because for a good part of the 20^th century professional athletes were an exploited labor force. Team owners dictated low-salaries and benefits which were inadequate.)
• Athletes lacked agents and an organized, certified union to represent their rights. However, during this period non-sports unions were powerful (35% of the private workforce were union members in the 1950s because of gains made during WWII, and companies became generous with their employees to prevent work stoppages).
• Marvin Miller was credited with the modern-day success of sports unions. He worked for the National War Labor Relations Board during WWII, then the International Association of Machinists (fist pump), and the United Automobile Workers. Then in 1966, Miller headed the Major League of Baseball Players Association and served as the chief economist and assistant to the president of the Steelworkers Union.
• Miller knew organizing players would be different because of the brevity of their careers. Miller went to the players to educate them on the importance of union representation and answer all questions. The first complaint filed was about the pension plan so Miller bargained for a decent pension. Miller bargained for a collective bargaining agreement (CBA), which was hard fought, but eventually successful and resulted in free agency and wealth. Other sports followed baseball’s lead and altered the balance of power between players and owners.
• Athletes are a kind of skilled laborer’ there are only so many people with these skill sets, which gives them an advantage when negotiating. Additionally, sports has become a major player in culture; Davis notes the 2011 NFL threatened shutdown.
• The rise of sports unions came while private sector unions decline. Only 6.6% of private sector employees claim membership in the US. Overall, union membership has dipped to about 11% of the labor force in the US. This is attributed to the rise of cheap labor overseas (probably should mention a lot of this cheap labor is from countries destroyed by war and exploited by colonialists).

This is where we get into the where do we go from here? What can sport unions teach the rest? Everyone says there is little comparison to be made between a sport superstar and a line worker at GM. However, the non-sport unions should aim to emulate the sports unions whenever possible meaning strong leadership, the ability to communicate with membership, and share what is important with them. The emphasis of unity and cohesion is important when trying to gain ground.

So what is happening now in sports unions? Well, the four major pro sport leagues and their players are signed into long-term CBAs. But in 2011 the NBA went through a lockout and the players, led by Derek Fisher and LeBron James, fired their union chief, Billy Hunter, over allegations of nepotism. The NHL is coming out of s second lockout is only a few years, which sucks for us fans. NFL players were threatened by a lockout before the 2011-2012 season over concussions and player safety issues that have not been resolved.

Andrew Zimbalist, Smith College professor of economists says, “The last several work stoppages in pro sports have been lockouts—that is, aggressive moves by the owners. Each time the owners have succeeded in lowering the share of output that goes to the players. They do this in context of the salary cap, which would be anathema in any other industry. It’s not as though these unions are all-powerful.”

Of course strikes have consequences for players as well, after all the brevity of careers: NFL 3 season, NBA 6 season, etc. The players are reluctant to go on strike. The final tool the sports unions have is to de-certify their union and sue the owners and the leagues on anti-trust grounds, which means the players would kill their union if they feel they can’t win in negotiations. Owners and the leagues are afraid of this possibility.