The national team are pushing back against racist vitriol as never before. The rest of us must back them up
In the world of sports, something remarkable is happening. Athletes across the globe are challenging the conditions under which they play the game. The women’s US football team has fought for pay equity, the tennis star Naomi Osaka has questioned the power of the sports media, and athletes Caster Semenya and Dutee Chand have questioned the validity of the medical and scientific arguments restricting their rights to compete as women. In real time, we are watching a world revolution in sports. Athletes are making their own history and exercising agency as they come into political consciousness. No longer are sports women and men content to just “shut up and dribble” and to leave politics to the politicians.
No clearer example of this can be found than in the remarkable post on Monday by Tyrone Mings. On his Twitter account, the England and Aston Villa footballer directly called out Priti Patel, the home secretary, for her hypocrisy in claiming to be against racism in football, having failed to condemn football fans who had booed players “taking a knee” against racism. Patel had previously echoed rightwing talking points that attempt to undercut the campaign for racial equality in sport by dismissing the symbolic act of kneeling before a game as meaningless virtue-signalling.
