Black vs. Blue, We have all heard about the longstanding divide between Black communities and Police organizations in America. It has been going on for generations, being fueled by the policing system in America is built off a history of systematic racism. Racism in the U.S. tracks back to the legacy of slavery and legalized apprehension of black people. Long after the abolition of slavery, these racist practices exist in the policing system in the form of racial profiling, and fatal police incidences among other major human rights violations (GBD 2019 Police Violence US Subnational Collaborators, 2021).
With a history rooted in hate and racism, how can all the major American sporting organizations across the country partner with and support police organizations? Organizations including MLB, NBA, NHL, and NFL all have initiatives and events showcasing an appreciation for law enforcement. The George Floyd incident was a pivotal moment In African Americans’ fight for social justice and equality history. The brutal murder of George Floyd gained awareness and support for many unlikely organizations both nationally and internationally. Almost every major sports organization spoke up releasing a statement showing their stance regarding racial social justice and racial inequalities (Dae Hee Kwak et al., 2023). Teams and athletes across the nation engaged in social activation supporting Black Lives Matter (Dae Hee Kwak et al., 2023). Can they do this, can they play both sides support black and blue? Or do these teams and organizations need to pick a stance what does it really mean to back the blue?
Passers-by stop and take a look at the boarded-up Apple Store in downtown Portland’s Pioneer Place, which has become unofficial canvases for peaceful protest. Artists have also joined to promote peace over violence.- Photo by Hapabapa
Breaking the Silence
The death of George Floyd ignited a social justice movement in the world of athletics, almost overnight teams transitioned from a stance of silence to unwavering support for social justice. Throughout the years unarmed killing of black people along with other blatant human rights violations at the hand of law enforcement was met with radio silence from the leagues. The NFL is a great example of this trend following the Colin Kaepernick kneeling incident (Williams, 2017). Athlete activism has been huge in the fight against racism however the leagues made little to no comment about the situation back in 2016, the leagues eventually overcame their fragility and eventually broke their silence and started screaming black lives matter and demanding change (TePoel & Nauright, 2021). The NFL promoted social justice through field signs, Helmet decals, and public service announcements displaying social justice messages. With a league comprised of over 70% black athletes, the NFL must speak up despite the economic impact it might have on the league. Many other leagues followed in the NFL’s footsteps through activism and advocacy leagues taking structural steps and expanding their diversity and inclusion divisions making great strides to tackle the pillars of anti-racism work. Teams influenced power, who makes the decisions through hiring of more BBIPOC staff, privilege through sharing stories of great BIPOC athletes and access through taking strides to remove barriers for BIPOC youth athletes through donations to different communities (Dae Hee Kwak et al., 2023). But why now, was the death of George Floyd death the Kick in the sports teams need to break the silence or are there ulterior motives at play in the world of sports.
You Permit what you Promote
Each league and sports teams have their unique ways of showing their support for law enforcement. Teams offer discounted ticket prices, branded clothing and other apparel, teams sporting police gear and ceremonial pitches and coin toss. These initiatives are seemingly harmless however, how can these groups honour and support departments giving the harm that they cause to black communities. Through shows of excessive force and brutality, Law enforcement uses the law as a tool to uphold their social order maintaining social class stratification and keeping black people at the bottom of the strata (Sánchez et al., 2011). These organizations also uphold a culture of lack of accountability through the Blue Wall. Many officers engage in unethical immoral behaviours in the form of brutality and false reports, behaviours that disproportionally target black people.
These racist behaviours are protected and rewarded behind the blue wall. The majority of law enforcement uphold the same agreement not to expose other officers’ misconduct “cops don’t rat on cops” – said Lieutenant Tom Nolan with Boston PD, it’s engraved in their culture. Cops uphold their wall of silence even when the silence is at the suffering of an entire community of people. There’s a very common leadership principle “You permit what you promote”, leagues can’t pick and choose what aspects of the policing system they support. Blindly showing their support means that they are supporting these organizations in their entirety. Leagues supporting police are no better than the cops holding up the blue wall, than the cops upholding the stratification in policing, they too are supporting the biased motivated policing leading to the murder and wrongful convictions of black people. Preaching Black Lives Matter and then monetarily and openly supporting the system taking those same black lives is a bit hypocritical, right?
Black Lives vs. Blue Lives
Blue Lives Matter was created as a direct response to Black Lives Matter, it’s a response to an arbitrary war on police happening in the US. Black Lives Matter and Blue Lives Matter exist on opposite sides of the spectrum quite literally they are on two different sides of the road when these two clash to fight for their stance. So, we know that they’re opposite, but what does it really mean to support the Blue Lives Matter movement? Blue Lives Matter is an organization built on microaggressions against the black community. Specifically, the organization set out to shift the concerns of black lives and place them onto “blue” lives, this act of dismissing the racial injustices raised by Black Lives Matter is a form of microinvalidation. The goal of Blue Lives Matter is to expand hate crime laws to include law enforcement as a protected class, as a response to the perceived war on cops (Mason, 2020). Hate crime laws are set out to protect crimes committed on the bias of race, colour, sexual orientation, religion gender and disability, not profession. It is outright insulting to black communities equating the experience of police, a profession that can be left at any time, to a historically marginalized group who faced systemic oppression and paid the price of being racialized (Mason, 2020). The goal of the organization is a microinsult demeaning Black Lives Matter, especially given the lack of evidence supporting this systemic or racial “war” against them. The Blue Lives response comes from a place of white fragility or should we say “cop fragility” (Thusi, 2020). White Fragility is a stress response to minimal amounts of racial stress triggering defensive behaviours and emotions often hostile (Diangelo, 2018). White fragility plays into the notion of cop fragility as policing is a predominately white profession. White people in America have the privilege of residing in a bubble, insulated from race-based stress to the point where minimal stress that challenges their racial comfort is met with hostility (Diangelo, 2018). Law enforcement is resisting the chance and stress associated with police reform, and Blue Lives Matter is the police defensive response promoting “cop fragility” (Thusi, 2020).
It’s confusing, how can organisations support two different ideologies. Back in 2018 the New York Jets made attempts to partner with the Blue Lives Matter movement and were met with this response from Joe Imperatrice the founder of the Blue Lives Matter movement.
“All over the United States players feel entitled to disrespect our first responders, our military members both past and present and our flag. These players make more money in a season than some people make in a lifetime and their ‘Issues’ are made up, exaggerated, and more times than not false.
“Once again I do appreciate the offer but revenue we have could better be spent on the families of officers killed in the line of duty protecting the ignorance of these individuals rather than contributing to their paycheck.”
Joe Imperatrice Founder of Blue Lives Matter
Joe’s views athlete activism and their opposition to oppressive systems, as an attack on cops and America showing his cop fragility. Within the same response, he invalidated the issues, was demeaning, and expressed biased attitudes attacking marginalized groups. He managed to express micoassaults, microinsults and microinvalidation all in one email, quite impressive actually. The Jets, a predominantly black team, playing in a predominantly black league attempting to partner with an anti-black organization. An organization fighting in opposition to the points of its own players could be seen as problematic, to say the least. It gets confusing because the jets have directly stated “black lives matter”, condemning racial injustice injustices. The Jet’s support includes events, financially supporting social justice organizations and going as far as painting End Racism in the endzone during their games in the end-zone of MetLife stadium following many NFL teams. There are clearly two sides to the social justice coin and organizations have taken steps in support of both which, are deceiving and double-faced? Or are organizations like the New York Jets allowed to play both teams.
Benefits of Indecision
Why do teams stay in the middle and play both sides? Behind the high-octane atmosphere sports are a business and money talks. Sports leagues are benefiting from the indecision in more ways than just revenue. Sports leagues like the NFL face backlash from different organizations for their stance on Black Lives Matter. Certain groups and organizations are outraged with the NFL’s Inspire Change program, an initiative set out to support teams, law enforcement and educational institutions in growing stronger community relations. The backlash comes from the NFL’s financial support of social justice organizations like Organ Justice Resource Centre (OJRC), an organization that takes a strong stance on defunding police and police reform. The NFL is leaving a sour taste in the mouths of fans by playing both sides, so why do they keep doing it. Could the NFL be treating Black Lives Matter like it’s a trend, given it took the death of George Floyd, the most public expression of activism to break their silence? I Believe at the end of the day their sudden change to activism was because they could not stay silent anymore. The NFL is 70% Black and following the national eruption of the George Floyd video, they knew their athletes would be looking at them for answers and their support in their fight for social justice. Why do leagues especially ones made up of black athletes support policing initiatives? Well, the obvious reason is that law enforcement discounts and appreciation days incentivize people to buy tickets since most Americans support local law enforcement. The majority of black Americans, 56%, don’t support the police, nor do police make them feel safe. This puts leagues in a tough spot because leagues utilize local law enforcement during travel, in their venues and at their stadiums to create safer spaces. The Irony right! So, the NFL’s support of law enforcement could be coming from a place of necessity, requiring their support to protect their fans, players, and coaches. At the end of the day the NFL is in a tough spot, with the country being divided on social justice showing their support for both can be a way of fan retention. Is the league’s indifference to the social justice issue sustainable?
The Verdict
The answer we’ve all been waiting for is whether leagues like the NFL have to pick a side on the black vs. blue debate? I hate to break it to you it’s not all black and white. At the end of the day, it’s complicated and it depends on how they show their support. In the question of whether leagues are pro-social justice, that’s a matter of who gets granted certain human rights I would hope that the leagues definitively choose humanity and advocate for reform. The promotion of social justice is not just for some people, it’s for everyone, and a lack of support is support for the opposition (Ali, 2022). As for supporting local police departments, leagues can’t just blindly support organizations, because visibly supporting is supporting the oppressive organizations and stratification they are built on (Pegues, 2017).
Organizations like the NFL Inspire Change program are an example of the right way to show your support. Inspire Change is an organization run by the NFL supporting local law enforcement, social justice groups and youth communities in strengthening communities and greater society. Building stronger relationships between police and communities is the key to maintaining public safety and reducing inequalities (Community Relations Services Toolkit for Policing Importance of Police-Community Relationships and Resources for Further Reading, n.d.). Community members’ ability to trust police relies on whether or not they believe police actions are upholding the correct values (Community Relations Services Toolkit for Policing Importance of Police-Community Relationships and Resources for Further Reading, n.d.). As for police officers the more they get into their communities the higher chance they have of shifting their view on marginalized groups (Ali, 2022). For some marginalized communities, their only interactions with the police are in intense situations, through initiatives live community gams and interactions inspire change are looking the create positive interactions with the community and local police departments to build this foundation of trust. Change is driven by knowledge, and education is another focus of the Inspire Change program. Social justice education helps individuals become more empathetic, become critical thinkers and make more fair decisions. Inspire Change aims to educate communities both police and black communities as a way of reducing the knowledge gap and creating safer communities. Lastly, Inspire Chance is dedicated to removing barriers for marginalized communities through social justice reforms. At the end of the day we need law enforcement, our first responders are an essential part of the community and when they do their jobs correctly, they can be an uplifting force In our community. As sports organizations, they have a duty to support programs that bring communities to help limit social inequalities and support police reforms. How they show their support matters they can support both through a lens of uplifting communities, achieving the goal of sports, to bringing communities together.
References
Ali, T. (2022). Perceptions Of Police Perceptions Of Police. https://digitalcommons.nl.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1756&context=diss
Community relations services toolkit for policing importance of police-community relationships and resources for further reading. (n.d.). https://www.justice.gov/crs/file/836486/dl
Dae Hee Kwak, Pradhan, S., & Chen, Z. (2023). “Speak up!” investigating U.S. professional sports teams’ #blacklivesmatter statements. Frontiers in Sports and Active Living, 5. https://doi.org/10.3389/fspor.2023.1192784
Diangelo, R. (2018). White fragility: Why it’s so hard for white people to talk about racism. Beacon Press.
GBD 2019 Police Violence US Subnational Collaborators. (2021). Fatal police violence by race and state in the USA, 1980–2019: A network meta-regression. The Lancet, 398(10307), 1239–1255. https://doi.org/10.1016/S0140-6736(21)01609-3
Mason, G. (2020). Blue lives matter and hate crime law. Race and Justice, 12(2), 215336872093366. https://doi.org/10.1177/2153368720933665
Pegues, J. (2017). Black and blue : Inside the divide between the police and black america. Amherst, New York Prometheus Books. https://rowman.com/ISBN/9781633882577/Black-and-Blue-Inside-the-Divide-between-the-Police-and-Black-America
Sánchez, F. J., Liu, W. M., Leathers, L., Goins, J., & Vilain, E. (2011). The subjective experience of social class and upward mobility among african american men in graduate school. Psychology of Men & Masculinity, 12(4), 368–382. https://doi.org/10.1037/a0024057
TePoel, D., & Nauright, J. (2021). Black lives matter in the sports world. Sport in Society, 24(5), 1–4. https://doi.org/10.1080/17430437.2021.1901392
Thusi, I. (2020, March 3). Blue lives & the permanence of racism – cornell law review. http://Www.cornelllawreview.org. https://www.cornelllawreview.org/2020/03/03/blue-lives-the-permanence-of-racism/
Williams, J. C. (2017, October 7). The oppressive seeds of the colin kaepernick backlash. The Conversation. https://theconversation.com/the-oppressive-seeds-of-the-colin-kaepernick-backlash-66358
KNPE 366: Race, sport, and physical activity 
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