The sports establishment doesn’t like uppity athletes — the same way the entertainment industry (or segments of it) prefer their singers (and other shut up and play).
It’s condescending thinking that, as David Sirota points out, reserves the right to publicly participate to elites and their appointed surrogates.
Here is Sirota:
On the surface, the jeremiad may seem perfectly reasonable – but its deeper suppositions are abhorrently elitist and anti-democratic. They assume that only certain kinds of establishment-vetted individuals – specifically, professional political operatives, politicians, pundits and reporters – have standing to promote political causes.
That sentiment should be offensive not just to athletes, but to anyone not of the professional political class. Because really, if a baseball manager or a basketball player somehow has no right to speak out, why should a plumber or a factory worker have that right?
In a political culture constantly paying homage to the working-class creed, few would – or should – say that such blue collar laborers must simply “shut up and work.” It should be the same standard for athletes. The more these public figures exercise their right to speak out on major issues, the more they help teach younger generations that politics is not a game only for Washington, D.C. elites, nor a punchline only to laugh at during the Daily Show – but a critical battle of ideas that requires everyone’s participation.
So, let the athletes — and singer, actors, plumbers and preschool teachers — speak.
Hank Kalet 