Ever since Tommie Smith and John Carlos raise their fists at the Mexico Olympics in 1968 to draw attention to black disadvantage, a new generation of athlete-activist have taken up the baton, willing to use their profile as athletes to fight injustice.
There is no better example than athletes in the US taking to the knee during the playing of the national anthem to support Black Lives Matters. One of the first was Colin Kaepernick, who paid tribute to Smith and Carlos. “l have emulated them, raising my fist as both a symbol of celebrating my Blackness, and acknowledging our connected struggles.”
Protests by sportspeople taking to the knee have spread around the world. In 2020 Andy Murray knelt on the first day of the Battle of the Brits in London, as did Australian players and umpires during round two of the Australian football season. And in Germany, before their match, soccer teams Hertha Berlin and Borussia Dortmund took to a knee around the centre circle.
In Great Britain, Marcus Rashford has pioneered a new way of using his celebrity as a footballer to affect social change. In his case, he has championed a very practical course.
This protest is over the unwillingness of governments to fund free meals for disadvantaged children during school holidays. With poverty growing quickly, made even worse by the pandemic, many poor children are going hungry.
A Manchester United and England footballer, Marcus Rashford earns £65 million ($80m). Nevertheless, he remembers his own childhood. His mother worked for the minimum wage and he believes he would not have become an England player if he had not had free school meals when he was younger. “Without the kindness and generosity from the community there wouldn’t be the Marcus Rashford you see today: a 22-year-old black man lucky enough to make a career playing the game I love. This is not about politics; this is about humanity. Political affiliations aside, can we not all agree that no child should be going to bed hungry? Food poverty is a pandemic in England that could span generations if we don’t course correct now.”
Initially the government refused to budge, but such was the power of his argument and his profile as a footballer that eventually they relented and extended its free school meals voucher system for low-income families over the summer holidays
