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Boycotting Themselves Out of Business? By skipping games for nebulous political demands, pro athletes threaten to alienate fans and crater their own industry.
City Journal ^ | August 28, 2020 | Steven Malanga

Posted on 08/28/2020 3:41:03 PM PDT by karpov

With their boycott of games earlier this week to protest the police shooting of Jacob Blake in Kenosha, Wisconsin, athletes in the National Basketball Association and Major League Baseball have crossed a bridge that they may find difficult to return from. Though professional athletes have become increasingly politicized since former San Francisco 49ers quarterback Colin Kaepernick began his “Star Spangled Banner” protests in 2016, the widespread cancellation of games, including NBA playoff contests, is unprecedented.

The walkout in support of Blake, who was wanted on a sexual-assault charge and whose own girlfriend called the cops on him, hardly represents the kind of compelling case against police brutality one might build a mass movement around. If players, in the midst of a pandemic slowdown already costing professional sports billions of dollars, were willing to shut down their industry in this instance, how frequently will they feel compelled, or even pressured, to do the same in the future? Fans who were already watching less sports may react negatively to being lectured by wealthy athletes who regularly walk off the job.

The shooting of Blake, who remains hospitalized and in custody in Wisconsin, sparked several days of rioting and protests in Kenosha beginning last Sunday night. Cancellation of games began with the Milwaukee Bucks refusing to take the court against the Orlando Magic and then spread to other teams, prompting the NBA to call off all playoff games scheduled for Wednesday. Players for the Milwaukee Brewers decided to join the protests by refusing to take the field against the Cincinnati Reds that same night, and several other baseball teams joined them. Some players and sympathetic commentators thought this signaled a defining change in sports. A New York Times columnist wrote that, “Next time, the stoppage may well last longer than a few days."

(Excerpt) Read more at city-journal.org ...


TOPICS: Culture/Society
KEYWORDS: blacknationalism; blacknationalist; blacksupremecism; blacksupremecist; blm; mlb; nba; sports
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1 posted on 08/28/2020 3:41:04 PM PDT by karpov
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To: karpov

And the problem with that is?


2 posted on 08/28/2020 3:42:15 PM PDT by Karma_Sherab
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To: karpov

How soon before we have black only sports leagues?


3 posted on 08/28/2020 3:42:56 PM PDT by LukeL
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To: karpov

Maybe these athletes will learn something from this, by way of lower salaries, and less opportunities.


4 posted on 08/28/2020 3:43:12 PM PDT by The_Media_never_lie ( DeBlasio is the killer of NYC!)
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To: karpov

Go ahead, children - cut off your nose to spite your face.


5 posted on 08/28/2020 3:44:13 PM PDT by dainbramaged (Being attacked by a laughing hyena is not as funny as it sounds.)
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To: karpov

Hey NBA and NFL racist thugs.

You are ENTERTAINMENT.

Nothing more.

No one needs ENTERTAINMENT. No one wants to be lectured to while paying for ENTERTAINMENT.

And the entertainment industry is HIGHLY competitive.

You run up and down a court/field chasing a ball and get paid millions.

You have no idea how good you have it.

Dumbazz mutherf+ckers.


6 posted on 08/28/2020 3:44:16 PM PDT by 2banana (Common ground with islamic terrorists-they want to die for allah and we want to arrange the meeting)
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To: karpov

Given that professional sports, of any kind, are really public entertainment, there is a serious and fatal disconnect when the players/actors fail to take their stage ‘and entertain’.


7 posted on 08/28/2020 3:45:10 PM PDT by drSteve78 (Je suis deplorable. WE'RE NOT GOING TO TAKE IT ANYMORE)
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To: karpov

They weren’t boycotting - they were striking!


8 posted on 08/28/2020 3:45:23 PM PDT by Skywise
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To: LukeL

How soon before we have black only sports leagues?
= = = = = = = = = = = = =
I will say in jest but.....

Before you know it ‘they’ will want their own drinking fountains and bathrooms.

THAT will complete the full cycle and have many millions of people rolling over in their collective graves especially those that fought all this crap and the busted heads on BOTH sides that are turning out to be futile.


9 posted on 08/28/2020 3:45:50 PM PDT by xrmusn (6/98"HRC is the Grandmother that lures Hansel & Gretel to the pot")
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To: karpov

I hope they all end up eating from garbage cans.

L


10 posted on 08/28/2020 3:46:55 PM PDT by Lurker (Peaceful coexistence with the Left is not possible. Stop pretending that it is.)
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To: karpov

Dunno. Maybe they lose half their fans. Many of them are fairly wealthy. They survive somehow.

I see the Target example where they lose a huge chunk of their customers yet they still double-down emotionally empowered by their virtous appeal to the left.

It’s based on emotion not rational thought.


11 posted on 08/28/2020 3:47:03 PM PDT by plain talk
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To: karpov

NBA, get lost. MLB and NHL, please stop this crap! But if it continues, no one will cry.....


12 posted on 08/28/2020 3:47:11 PM PDT by Fungi
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To: LukeL

The Colored Leagues again?


13 posted on 08/28/2020 3:48:24 PM PDT by 17th Miss Regt
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To: karpov

Professional athletes are not typically known for their critical thinking skills.


14 posted on 08/28/2020 3:48:25 PM PDT by Mashood
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To: karpov

Money grows on trees ,LOL


15 posted on 08/28/2020 3:48:41 PM PDT by butlerweave
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To: karpov

Leftists break everything they touch.


16 posted on 08/28/2020 3:50:52 PM PDT by ConservativeInPA ("War is peace. Freedom is slavery. Ignorance is strength." - George Orwell, 1984)
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To: butlerweave

Black only league? Picture Pete Maravich as a Harlem Globetrotter. Coulda happened.


17 posted on 08/28/2020 3:50:52 PM PDT by DIRTYSECRET (urope. Why do they put up with this.)
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To: Fungi

Entertainment and sports being destroyed from within.
Blacks and gays hardest hit.
Cue Clyburn.


18 posted on 08/28/2020 3:51:43 PM PDT by Palio di Siena
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To: karpov
Some players and sympathetic commentators thought this signaled a defining change in sports.

It certainly signals a defining change in sports. And the change is that professional sports is DEAD.

19 posted on 08/28/2020 3:51:57 PM PDT by Rummyfan (In any war between the civilized man and the savage, support the civilized man. Support Israel.d)
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To: The_Media_never_lie; All

Columnist for Boston Globe (Red Sox team owner John Henry owns them) says she’s done with the Red Sox. No, not because of the protests. It’s because they haven’t done enough.

https://www.bostonglobe.com/2020/08/27/opinion/missing-moment-red-sox-lost-this-fan/?fbclid=IwAR0zvyULDe-FsCdxf2AmuDsL4FYNCvS7MjdYjnh4-_FKI_3cGpSsUfIWAXw

“I have been a devout Red Sox fan for decades. But for now, I’m done. It’s not because of the strange coronavirus pandemic-shortened season, or their dismal record. It’s because as a Black American, I cannot root for a team that misses almost every opportunity to stand up and lead in the face of the biggest civil rights issue of our time.

“Given its history, no team in Major League Baseball has a greater obligation than the Red Sox to stand firmly against the ongoing brutality that continues to leave Black Americans dead, maimed, and traumatized in its wake. Yet, on Wednesday, as members of the sports world joined in collective protest to the police shooting of a Black man, Jacob Blake, in Kenosha, Wisc., the Red Sox played as if it were just another day.”

Among the comments:

>
There are hundreds of fans who are pissed because they didn’t play tonight. There is no winning for them.

>>Changing the name of Yawkey Way wasn’t a stand against racism?

>>>John Henry’s Globe has fostered an environment of out-of-control liberal, PC wokeness.

Now it comes back to bite him in the butt.

Quite fitting!

>>>>Yes, professional athletes are definitely a pampered, privileged lot from a young age.

The average “joe” doing this gets a pink slip.

>>>>>>it should be all lives matter not just the black ones. what about white people who get killed by the police? they should matter???? what about the violence against white owned businesses, what have they done wrong other than to be white? BLM are very well funded and they give most of their money to the democratic party (it is a fact) so the democrats are condoning the violence.
most professional athletes are mostly black and why are they crying foul? they are way over paid and just primidone’s. i certainly hope they are not paid when they sit out. professional sports should be apolitical and just an escape for the fans to enjoy.


20 posted on 08/28/2020 3:52:13 PM PDT by raccoonradio
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