The Race and Equity Center at the University of Southern California recently released “Let Us Talk: Perspectives of Leading Athletes on Social Justice and Activism.” I co-wrote the 28-page report with Justin Morrow, our head of sports partnerships and programs.
Based on survey responses from 407 current players in the WNBA, Major League Soccer and the National Women’s Soccer League, our study provides one of the league’s most comprehensive surveys to date of how athletes view racial justice advocacy, their past involvement and their plans for future involvement. Although none of the participants were college students at the time of our survey, the study has implications for their involvement in activist activities.
Our research makes it clear that players want to speak publicly about social injustice, but too many feel unsafe to do so. Justin and I hope that our report not only highlights the views of our survey respondents but also empowers athletes across America—including those who play on college and university sports teams—to use their power and platforms to highlight and dismantle structures and systems that support injustice.
Here are the 10 biggest results presented in “Let us Speak”:
- Ninety-four percent of athletes agree that athletes should be allowed to use their platforms to engage in activism.
- Chiefs support team-wide, league-wide and cross-team collaboration in justice efforts.
- In the summer of 2020, 74.8 percent posted about racial injustice on social media. Only 12.3 percent reported that they did not do any of the activism activities listed in our survey in the four months following the killing of George Floyd.
- Posting on social media was the most common form of activism and remains the most anticipated action in the future, with 71.6 percent of athletes planning to post about racial injustice in the future.
- WNBA players reported the highest levels of activism in nearly every dimension, including past participation, anticipated activities and few perceived barriers to future involvement.
- Black athletes reported higher levels of visible political involvement and were more likely to say that nothing would stop them from participating in future activism.
- Although white athletes express strong support for legal racial justice, they are more likely to limit their involvement in low-risk activities, expressing concerns about backlash and “politicization.”
- Fear of saying the “wrong thing” was a commonly cited obstacle expected of the future activist.
- A little more than half of the athletes say that nothing will stop them from entering the fights of tomorrow.
- Less than 2 percent of survey respondents expressed indifference to racial injustice.
Our report concludes with 18 practical recommendations for athletes, coaches, managers and professional sports organizations. It also includes one strong suggestion for viewers: “Even fans whose opinions and political views conflict with those expressed by their favorite athletes must respect those athletes’ rights to free speech.”
That one piece of advice from sports enthusiasts was not true. “Insisting that they just ‘shut up and play’ (or swim, ski, kick the ball, score touchdowns and home runs, etc.) seeks to silence the athletes and reduce them to one-dimensional things for them to be spectators,” Justin and I continued. This creates tension between players, fans and sports broadcasters. In higher education, many student-athletes have received versions of this same message from coaches and athletic department administrators. They find it frustrating and sometimes traumatic.
Much has been written about the regulation of player voices in professional and professional sports. Threats of reduced playing time or the withdrawal of scholarships have long been used to suppress undergraduate student activism. Racial dynamics exacerbate this in other institutional contexts.
In three installments of my report “Black Student-Athletes and Racial Inequality in NCAA Division I College Sports,” I documented the racial disparity between the players on the men’s soccer team and their coaches. In the most recent edition, I noted that while Black men comprised 55 percent of the football teams and 56 percent of the men’s basketball teams, nearly 88 percent of the coaches and 85 percent of the athletic directors were white. A similar act of naming pervades women’s college basketball, as I noted in my 2024 report “Racial and Gender Equity in Black Female Student-Athletes.”
For several decades, leaving the institution was very difficult for scholarship athletes who felt silenced or for other reasons no longer wanted to stay at a college or university. According to the NCAA’s old policy, passing on required release letters from coaches. That has changed a lot. The transfer portal gives today’s student-athletes more agency. For various reasons that I will explain in the future Within Higher Ed “Resident Scholar” column, I am concerned about athletes who transfer often.
However, I will admit here that those who care deeply about racial justice, gender equality, poverty, gun violence, educational equality, sexual harassment, voting rights, climate change, antisemitism, transphobia, disability rights, deadly wars in other countries and other issues, are told by coaches and administrators on their campuses and their issues to be able to highlight their issues on social media. taking their voices and athletic skills elsewhere. Transferring is not their only option, however.
In 2015, football players at the University of Missouri threatened to forfeit a game that would have resulted in a $1 million loss if drastic measures were not taken to address long-standing racial issues at the institution. That week, the president of the Mizzou program and the chancellor of the major institution both resigned. Some serious commitments were made to improve the lives of black students there. I argued with Washington Post The topic is that black student-athletes were the most powerful people on campuses with big-time sports programs at the time. I maintain that status. In fact, I think they are even stronger now because of social media platforms and recent NCAA changes.
Name, image and likeness (NIL) in college sports is poorly understood as it relates to the ability of student-athletes to receive monetary benefits. These policies should also give them the opportunity to use their NIL to talk about social justice issues. In order to strengthen their confidence, it is important to show modern actors how some of the most transformative and lasting developments in the history of American higher education were caused by student enthusiasm. And now, thanks to NIL, the ability to transfer to less stressful playgrounds, social media and digital platforms, they have the power to disrupt injustice in our wider society. Extraordinary athlete activists such as Muhammad Ali, Billie Jean King, Serena Williams and LeBron James, to name a few, can be cited as examples.
