MLB teams kneel before national anthem for BLM, Rays support Breonna Taylor

Source: Rob Leiter / Getty

Professional sports are back. Despite the coronavirus, despite the social justice uprisings, it’s time to play ball.

These last four months have been transformative in America. Life as we knew it has been shut down and with some of it beginning to return, we’ve all wondered what it would look like to have “normality” under this new context. Much of that pondering is in regards to health and safety, but a significant part of it is in the acknowledgment of the fight for justice. Just in the time that the coronavirus has taken a foothold in the United States we’ve watched Breonna Taylor, Ahmaud Arbery, George Floyd, and Rayshard Brooks, be murdered for absolutely no good reason.

All that is to say, that “stick to sports” is over. Dead. Never to return. Society at-large has decided that while bouncing balls are wildly entertaining, dead Black people haven’t gotten nearly the ratings that game 7 has and perhaps, Black lives matter just a bit more than buzzer-beaters.

Major League Baseball is doing its part to pay proper homage to the current state of affairs. Opening day was yesterday and players and coaches from teams all around the league were seen kneeling.

This morning the Tampa Bay Rays tweeted the following:

This is that energy. Never mind a generic BLM post. Forget all the ethereal messaging about “supporting communities of color”. Make it plain. Send a direct message. Arrest the killers of Breonna Taylor. It’s easy. Other corporate entities should try it.