IVAN TORRES
Special to The Leader
Due to unjustified shootings, racism, fake news, police brutality and much more, America might be the most divided it’s been since segregation. Over the years, it feels as if no changes have been made to settle the oppression in our country. This has caused star athletes to use their platform and make real changes.
One of the most well-known athletes, Lebron James opened up the I Promise school in 2018. The program was founded to replace poor education systems that have lingered in the city of Akron, Ohio for so many years. The education system is so poor, according to the New York Times, that “some [children] as young as 8 were considered at risk of not graduating.”
So how does this help the oppressed? According to the New York Times the population of the school is “60 percent black, 15 percent English-language learners and 29 percent special education students.”
What seems to have been a project in the works is turning out very promising.
A nationwide performance test administered by an evaluation association called NWEA revealed that improvements have been made as both third and fourth graders went from scoring in the lowest percentile to the ninth percentile in reading.
“In math, third graders jumped from the lowest percentile to the 18th, while fourth graders moved from the second percentile to the 30th.”
Wait, there’s even more accomplishments.
90 percent of the students who met the standards surpassed 70 percent of students district wide. The growth measured between the year before the program started to now was substantial. It was so substantial that students’ test scores increased at a higher rate than 99 out of 100 students.
Speaking of James, the entire NBA protested in support of the BLM movement during the playoffs this year. Milwaukee Bucks players decided to not play in game 5 against the Magic to show their support. This resulted in a meeting which took place with several teams including both the LA Lakers and the Clippers.
This conversation took place with players, coaches and team governors. They came to the conclusion that “teams who own and control their stadiums will work with local elections officials to convert their facilities into a voting location to allow for a safe in-person voting option for areas vulnerable to COVID-19,” according to Reuters.
This is great because it’s giving people who live in populated areas another location to go vote, and in many cities voting locations are very limited for the population size.
Due to the NBA protests, the influence was so great it affected what the NBA courts look like. The NBA bubble court had a big BLM logo printed in the middle of the court right above the NBA logo. Before games, players get on one knee right behind the line wearing longsleeve BLM shirts. What’s so effective about this is that it raises awareness, and if they support the movement or not, people will talk about it which is the whole point.
The NBA is not the only league to do this. In the NFL many players kneel, link arms and raise the Black power fist during the national anthem. Similar to the NBA, the NFL has made changes as well.
The greatest change which shocked the sports community was the changing of Washington’s football team’s name. Previously named the Redskins, “the recent Black Lives Matter protest has provided a new impetus for change,” NPR.org reported. As of now there’s not a replacement name besides The Washington Football Team, however next year there will be.
It’s great to see how much progress has been made due to athletes using their platforms to fight against racism, discrimination and prejudice. Many of us look forward to seeing what’s next in line for change.