KANSAS CITY, Mo. _ Before the momentous dividing line of 2020 with its synergistic upheaval of pandemic and social awakening, the latest brutal act of racial injustice in the spotlight typically would have been a fleeting and grudgingly tolerated topic in the world of sports in America.
It's a country, after all, where coaches and athletes who express a sentient view are apt to hear "shut up and dribble," or "stick to sports," and get that approximate message from their owners and coaches behind the scenes.
A place where saying "Black Lives Matter" is twisted to be controversial in certain circles because of a willfully ignorant failure to accept that the term simply means Black Lives Matter, too.
Where a sitting president (among others) warps the purpose of NFL players peacefully kneeling during the national anthem to protest racism and tells supporters that "NFL owners, when someone disrespects our flag (should) say, 'Get that son of a bitch off the field right now. Out. He's fired. He's fired.' "
Where for a long time many have felt athletes should be seen and not heard, as if they were children, because they are gladiators for your amusement only.
But a clarion call resounds now, in each pre-game kneel or emotional appeal or decision not to play in honor of righteousness.
Because this flashpoint isn't about Black vs. white; it's about good vs. evil, as Royals general manager Dayton Moore said recently.
"And somehow or another," Negro Leagues Baseball Museum president Bob Kendrick added at the time, "the good has to win out."
Anyone may disagree with methods or messages, may struggle with reconciling this seismic shift in the sports landscape. Of course.
But to say you don't care about what those you cheer for want or think or suffer from is contempt that echoes the broader issues at large:
Stay where you belong, that dismissiveness says.
And we need diversion, so we don't want to hear or see the problems.
Or: Sports is my refuge, so I don't acknowledge your humanity beyond its context in our own lives.
"One day you're (their) favorite player," Chiefs safety Armani Watts wrote on Twitter. "And the next 24 hours you're the worst human being alive all because you want equality."
