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A group of NBA players opened the ESPYs with a bold statement about violence.

They called on athletes to use their voices to bring attention to violence.

Professional athletes hold a unique position within our culture.

Their job, in its most basic sense, is to be really, really good at a game. For this, top players make tens if not hundreds of millions of dollars. Sounds pretty good, right? They're also idolized by men, women, and children around the world, giving them another form of currency at their disposal: influence.


Fans swarm Washington Nationals outfielder Bryce Harper for autographs before a game against the Pittsburgh Pirates on July 24, 2015. Photo by Justin K. Aller/Getty Images.

For a long time, athletes were loath to use that influence when it came to anything even remotely political for fear of losing endorsement deals.

In the early '90s, the Democratic Party asked NBA superstar Michael Jordan to to support former Charlotte, North Carolina, Mayor Harvey Gantt in his bid to unseat Sen. Jesse Helms. At the time, Helms was one of the loudest voices in opposition to the proposal of making Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.'s birthday a national holiday and had a knack for antagonizing black members of Congress by singing "Dixie," a song about longing for the days of slavery, in elevators.

Sounds like a no-brainer, right? Wrong. Jordan, who attended the University of North Carolina, decided not to show support behind Gantt. His reason? "Republicans buy shoes, too."

Jordan wears a pair of his Nike Air Jordan sneakers before a 1995 game against the Orlando Magic. Photo by Allsport USA/Allsport.

This isn't to say all athletes are apolitical in their public appearance. One of the most famous athletes of all time, Muhammad Ali, bucked that trend. For example, Ali protested the Vietnam War by refusing to join after being drafted.

But with an increased focus on police brutality, some stars are becoming more willing to use their social currency to raise awareness.

After the death of Eric Garner, a black man who died in a chokehold performed by a New York City police officer, a number of NBA players wore shirts reading "I Can't Breathe," which were Garner's final words.

LeBron James of the Cleveland Cavaliers wears an "I Can't Breathe" shirt during warmups before his game against the Brooklyn Nets on Dec. 8, 2014. Photo by Al Bello/Getty Images.

Following the shooting of Michael Brown in nearby Ferguson, Missouri, St. Louis Rams stars Tavon Austin, Jared Cook, and Chris Givens entered their Nov. 30, 2014, game against the Oakland Raiders doing a "hands up, don't shoot" pose.

Photo by Dilip Vishwanat/Getty Images.

The WNBA's Minnesota Lynx donned practice shirts honoring the lives of Alton Sterling, Philando Castile, and the five police officers killed in Dallas.


On July 13, 2016, four of the NBA's top players — LeBron James, Dwyane Wade, Carmelo Anthony, and Chris Paul — opened the annual ESPYs award show by calling on their fellow athletes to take action.

“The events of the past week have put a spotlight on the injustice, distrust, and anger that plague so many of us,” Anthony said in reference to the killings of Sterling, Castile, and the Dallas police officers. “The problems are not new, the violence is not new, and the racial divide definitely is not new. But the urgency to create change is at an all-time high.”

“Enough is enough,” Wade added. “Now, as athletes, it is on us to challenge each other to do even more than we already do in our own communities. And the conversation cannot — it cannot — stop as our schedules get busy again. It won’t always be convenient. It won’t. It won’t always be comfortable, but it is necessary.”

NBA players (left to right) Carmelo Anthony, Chris Paul, Dwyane Wade, and LeBron James speak during the 2016 ESPYs. Photo by Kevin Winter/Getty Images.

That same day, Anthony penned an opinion piece at The Guardian titled "We athletes can no longer remain on the sidelines in the struggle for justice."

Why is it important for high-profile athletes to take up the cause? Because they have the power to keep the conversation going.

"What we can do is start [to] bring a continuous awareness and keep this conversation going," Anthony writes. "We can’t keep riding on this merry-go-round where tragedy happens, it’s all over TV and social media, everybody talks about it, then in three and four days it’s over with."

As for the rest of us — those of us who aren't professional athletes — we can help, too.

While it certainly helps to have millions of adoring fans hanging on your every word, most of us don't have that — and that's OK. What we can do is just as important. We, too, can refuse to let these instances of tragedy be forgotten. We, too, can use social media to keep this conversation front-of-mind among our friends and family. We, too, can fight for a world where black men aren't gunned down by police officers and police officers aren't gunned down by a sniper. The world, as it is, is only temporary. It's what we do next that really matters.

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In 48 hours, 2 black men were killed by the police. Read Drake's important response.

The emotional letter forced people to take another look at police brutality.

You remember Drake, right?

GIF from "Hotline Bling."

He's a likable, handsome, jovial guy who could probably charm a fish out of water if he wanted to.


When you see Drake in the news, he's usually smiling — but he wasn't last night. After watching two black men get shot to death by police on camera within 48 hours, he penned an emotional note on Instagram about police brutality and how badly we need to change the system.

Drake’s words were directed at the brutal murder of Alton Sterling, a father of five from Baton Rouge, Louisiana:

🙏🏼

A photo posted by champagnepapi (@champagnepapi) on

But he also couldn't believe that barely a day after Sterling's murder, Philando Castile's unnecessary killing began circulating on Facebook Live, too.

Drake's words remind us that while black people have a traditionally strained relationship with the police, brutality is a problem for many other minority groups as well.

Jessica Hernandez, Ryan Ronquillo, Reuben Garcia Villalpando, and Hector Morejon are all people of color who have fallen victim to police brutality, exposing the fact that the relationship between law enforcement and communities of color desperately need help.

A memorial for Alton Sterling in Baton Rouge. Photo by Mark Wallheiser/Getty Images.

And the fact that many minority parents are forced to have "The Talk" with their kids as early as childhood — a conversation about how to interact with people (especially the police) in ways that will help them avoid death or extreme punishment — also shows how far we have yet to go.

Drake’s words won’t solve things, but they further highlight an important fact:

Police brutality is a real problem that will not be fixed unless more people call out the systematic issues. 

And unfortunately, there is still a large gap between white communities and minority communities and how the importance of these events might be perceived. A study by Pew Research Center found that 48% of whites believe progress has been made since 1963 on race relations, compared with 32% of blacks. And after the Michael Brown shooting in Ferguson, 80% of blacks believed the incident brought up important issues about race while only 37% of whites believed the same.   

Rapper/singer Drake. Photo by Glyn Kirk/AFP/Getty Images.

Progress is often slow around issues like this, but when it comes to human lives, slow progress is not an option.

And it is only by talking about this more often that we can move forward. 

As Drake aptly said: "No one begins their life as a hashtag. Yet the trend of being reduced to one continues."

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I've been reminded again that black lives don't matter. And I am exhausted.

He was a dad, he was a citizen of this nation, and he deserved better.

I woke up in tears this morning after watching the details of Alton Sterling's murder on social media all night.

The images played over and over in my head like a broken record: officers slamming Alton against a car, kneeing him in the throat, and shooting him repeatedly. I felt sick.

Sterling is the 558th person killed by the police in the United States in 2016.


Image by Arthur Reed/AP.

Last night and today, I watched the same routine play out. I've seen it so many times before, after police brutality takes another black life. The social media outrage. The Black Lives Matter activists demanding justice. The All Lives Matter mouths countering with ignorance and insensitivity. The frustrating responses from white people who claim to be down with black culture, but who step up only when it's entertaining for them, not when it requires a call to action against discrimination or injustice.

Today, it was too much. I am exhausted by this.

So I cried. I cried, and I breathed heavily, and I sobbed.

And then I looked at photos of my dad and mom. And my brother and sisters. And my aunts and uncles. And my cousins. And my best friends.

They are all at risk when they happen to be in the wrong place at the wrong time. They are all susceptible to the same fate as Alton Sterling if they cross the wrong person or the wrong cop. They are endlessly ignored, swept under the rug, and subjected to injustice.

Then I got angry.

I got angry because the same system that killed Alton Sterling, that holds a threshold of fear of black men and women across this country, killed Emmett Till in 1955 when he had the "audacity" to flirt with a white woman.

The same system killed Tamir Rice while he was playing with a toy gun on a playground.

It killed Sandra Bland, an animal sciences student minding her own business as she was driving down the road.

It killed Michael Brown, an unarmed, recent high school graduate who was ready to start college.

It killed Rekia Boyd because she was talking too loudly for comfort.

It killed Trayvon Martin when he was walking home to eat his recently purchased Skittles.

Memorials for black lives killed by police brutality have become the norm. Michael Kunzelma/AP

Black bodies being brutalized is nothing new in this system.

This brutality has happened for 245 years in every town across this great nation. It happened during the Jim Crow era, when black folks dangled from trees like caricatures.

And it continues to happen. Despite outcry, despite rage, despite calls for change. It continues to happen. And I — along with so many other black people — am hurting. I am tired.

And I am tired of being told that our lives don't matter.

Protestors have been vocal for years. Photo by Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images.

I am tired of being told that if I dress a certain way, talk a certain way, or behave in a certain manner, I'll do just fine.

Because all those things? In this system, they aren't true.

They aren't true when police can put an unarmed man in a chokehold and walk away without so much as a slap on the wrist or when they can kill a child on the playground in what is essentially a legalized drive-by shooting.

The Federal Department of Justice has just announced they are opening a civil rights probe into Alton Sterling's shooting.

This is a surprising step in the right direction for a department that usually defends police officers.

But what can we do? We can be sad. We can be tired. And we can be angry.

We can also demand that officers be held accountable when they use unnecessary force. We can continue yelling that Black Lives Matter, even when people retaliate, until our system proves that black lives actually do matter.

A memorial for Alton Sterling. Photo by Gerald Herbert/AP.

And we can remember Alton Sterling. Like the others, we can say his name.

He was 37 years old. He was a father of five. He was loved by those who knew him.

Say Alton Sterling's name and say the names of all of the black people who have fallen victim to police brutality: Mike Brown. Trayvon Martin. Rekia Boyd. Sandra Bland. Tamir Rice. Eric Garner. Tanisha Anderson. Freddie Gray. Tony Robinson. Walter Scott. And so many more.

And please don't stop saying them until black people get the justice we have always deserved.