(Photo: The Bleacher Report)
With the recent non-indictments of the officers responsible for the deaths of Michael Brown and Eric Garner, sparking an outpouring of protests all across the nation, much has been made of the lack of response from some of today’s top athletes.
Many people look back to yesteryear and note that athletes such as Jim Brown or Muhammad Ali were very vocal in social issues of the day, but modern athletes seem to only be concerned with wealth and their personal brand. The consensus is that they don’t have the courage to take a stand and speak up regarding the issues that affect their loyal fan bases.
Cleveland Cavaliers’ global superstar LeBron James is one of a handful of athletes stepping up to address the issues:
It’s more troubling that it’s happening in our country. This is our country, the land of the free, and we keep having these incidents happen, innocent victims or whatever the case may be. Our families are losing loved ones. I’m not pointing the blame at anybody that’s making it happen. In society, we’ve come a long way, but it just goes to show how much further we still have to go.
James went on to tell the Daily News his opinion of the expectation of athletes to be vocal regarding these issues:
It doesn’t matter if you are an athlete or not. If it hits home for you, then you have the right to speak on it. That’s why we have freedom of speech. I’ve never shied away for something that I feel for or people or families that I feel for. That’s just who I am. But I don’t think we should add pressure to anybody, first of all, that doesn’t have the knowledge about it, that’s not educated upon it to speak about something you don’t know about. If you feel passionate about it, you speak about it. If not, don’t worry about it.
So what say you?
Do today’s athlete’s have a moral responsibility to take a stand on the polarizing issues?
