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| A Fred VanVleet card. |
If you watch television news channels or check out social
media lines over this past week, it is unfortunately apparent that racism is
alive and well most noticeably when it comes to African-Americans in the United
States.
At times, it feels like things are so bad on this front one
wonders if society in North America has advanced since the 1960s and the days Dr.
Martin Luther King Jr. and Malcolm X were leading civil rights movement
rallies. On another sad note, history records both men were assassinated with Malcolm X and King Jr. dying in 1965 and 1968 respectively.
In the current day, the unjust deaths of Breonna Taylor in March
and George Floyd in May at the hands of police in the states of Kentucky and
Minnesota respectively ultimate caused the creation of the Black Lives Matter
movement. Taylor and Floyd are both of African-American decent.
On Sunday in Kenosha, Wisconsin, Jacob Blake, who is also of
African-American decent, took seven bullets in the back from police in an
incident that was captured on video and circulated by various media agencies.
Three of Blake’s sons witnessed the incident as Blake was shot leaning into the
driver’s door of his SUV.
Blake had warrants out of his arrest based on charges of
third-degree sexual assault, trespassing and disorderly conduct in connection
with domestic abuse, but it is unclear if police were aware of those warrants
at the time of the shooting. Those warrants were vacated on Friday.
On Tuesday, Blake’s father, Jacob Blake Sr., announced that Blake Jr. was paralyzed from the waist down and that doctors do not yet know if it would be permanent.
On Tuesday, Blake’s father, Jacob Blake Sr., announced that Blake Jr. was paralyzed from the waist down and that doctors do not yet know if it would be permanent.
Also on that same day, the United States Department of
Justice announced there would be an investigation into that shooting and the
investigation will look into whether Blake’s civil rights were violated.
Rusten Sheskey was identified as the police officer as the shooter. He along with Vincent Arenas and Brittany Meronek were all by Friday placed on administrative leave by the Kenosha Police Department because of their involvement in the shooting of Blake.
Rusten Sheskey was identified as the police officer as the shooter. He along with Vincent Arenas and Brittany Meronek were all by Friday placed on administrative leave by the Kenosha Police Department because of their involvement in the shooting of Blake.
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| A Norman Powell card. |
The WNBA postponed all its games on Wednesday and Thursday.
A number of MLB games were postponed from Wednesday through
Friday. A total of five out of six MLS games were postponed on Wednesday.
The NHL postponed all its games on Thursday and Friday. The
NHL Playoffs are slated to resume on Saturday.
In the NFL, a number of teams have cancelled practices
starting with the Detroit Lions on Tuesday. A total of nine teams cancelled
practices on Thursday.
Tennis star Naomi Osaka pulled out of her Western and
Southern Open semifinal match on Thursday in Mason, Ohio, to take a stand for
the Black Lives Matter movement.
Following Osaka’s decision to walk out, the U.S. Tennis
Association, Women’s Tennis Association and the men’s ATP Tour announced all
semifinal matches set to take place on Thursday would be postponed.
While those that don’t like the Black Lives Matter movement
have argued Blake’s arrest warrants were reason to side with the arresting
officers, they totally miss the point.
The overall bottom line is that in the United States there
has been a problem where police services in general in that country have
harassed African-Americans who haven’t done anything wrong.
Over the last three days, numerous stories have been told by
African-American professional athletes about the racism they’ve faced in their
lives and unjust encounters they have had with the police mostly in the United
States.
Unfortunately, sharing these experiences has brought out
some of the worst in the general public. On Thursday, Claire Hanna of CTV
Regina produced a story about Jordan Reaves, who is a Canadian, and Chad Geter
of the CFL’s Saskatchewan Roughriders navigating racism for supporting the
professional sports boycotts.
On Friday, Roughriders receiver Shaq Evans voiced his
disappointment on Twitter about how some in Saskatchewan have put down the
Black Lives Matter moment and the professional sports boycotts. He said he
wondered if he still wanted to play in the province.
About three hours after that Twitter stream, Evans put out
an apology for potentially offending all the good people in Saskatchewan.
All three are African-Americans.
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| Jordan Reaves in action with the Roughriders in 2018. |
On Wednesday, The Milwaukee Bucks were the first team to
take action when they elected to not take the floor in the NBA bubble at the
ESPN Wide World of Sports Complex at the Walt Disney World Resort near Orlando,
Florida, for Game 5 of their first round NBA playoff series against the Orlando
Magic. The rest of the sports boycotts followed.
The NHL took criticism for not boycotting it playoff games
on Wednesday. On Thursday, the NHL players lead the charge in joining the other
professional leagues in North America in boycotting games.
All the players from the four remaining teams in the Western
Conference post-season bracket appeared at a press conference in the Edmonton
bubble on Thursday. Veteran Vegas Golden Knights right-winger Ryan Reaves, who
is Jordan’s older brother, spoke about the importance of including all allies in
the Black Lives Matter movement hinting people make realizations at different
times depending on their backgrounds.
“There’s a lot of white athletes in here,” said Reaves. “I
think that’s the statement that’s being made now.
“It’s great that the NBA did this and MLB and the WNBA –
they have a lot of black players in those leagues. But for all these athletes
in here to take a stand and say, ‘You know what? We see the problem, too, and
we stand behind you.’ I hate their guts on the ice, but I couldn’t be more
proud of these guys.
“The statement they’ve made today is something that’s gonna
last. These two days isn’t gonna fix anything, but the conversation and the
statement that’s been made is very powerful, especially coming from this league.”
Ryan Reaves speaks up for change. pic.twitter.com/xr81Xd9s4c— Vegas Golden Knights (@GoldenKnights) August 28, 2020
On the ice, Reaves is one of those tough and hard to play
against agitators. He is a player you hate to play against, but he has
developed a lot of respect in the NHL with how hard he plays the game.
That respect was shown early Thursday by reach outs from
Tampa Bay Lightning defenceman Kevin Shattenkirk and Vancouver Canucks players
asking how Reaves was doing with regards to the racial turmoil. That started
the road to the NHL game postponements on Thursday and Friday.
Besides the athletes speaking out, I remember finding a
spoof video on YouTube of the fictional world of Transformers about two or
three years ago that had a moment that tried to make comedy of the friction
between African-Americans and the police. It wasn’t comfortable to watch.
In the video, an African-American man happens to show up out
of nowhere and stand beside Megatron, who is the leader of the bad guy
Transformers, the Decepticons. At this point, there is no battle going on.
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| Shaq Evans turns after making a catch for the Roughriders in 2019. |
While that video was jarring, it underlines the tension
between African-Americans and the police.
No matter how you cut it, systemic racism and police
brutality in the United States is real. Canada also has its faults to with
systemic racism.
While some may disagree, the police in Canada have the reputation
of being way more professional than their counterparts in the United States.
Over the last few days, professional athletes in North
America did shake up society with their boycotts. They should be applauded and
supported for compelling us to have difficult conversations that need to be
had.
Huskies, SMF create options for displaced
high school players
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| Huskies RB Adam Machart (#20) follow at Mattland Riley block. |
Both programs are doing their best to create opportunities
for high school aged players in Saskatoon to continue to improve their skills
in the game.
On August 19, the Saskatoon Secondary Schools Athletic Directorate
cancelled high school football for the fall along with cancelling play in high
school cross-country running, soccer and volleyball due to the coronavirus
(COVID-19) pandemic.
After the high school football cancellation, the Huskies and
Saskatoon Minor Football worked to plan out complementary programming for the
displaced high school players that can be conducted under Saskatchewan’s
COVID-19 guidelines.
The Huskies, who play in the U Sports ranks, are running an elite camp that starts this
coming Monday and will run through to Thursday. The camp will run on Field #11
north of the Education Building on the U of Saskatchewan campus.
The players will be divided into offensive and defensive
positional groups for the sessions.
On top of the Huskies camp, Saskatoon Minor Football is
opening its North Saskatchewan Academy up to high school students in Grade 10
to 12. Grade 9 students are eligible to play in the Kinsmen Football League,
which is run by Saskatoon Minor Football.
The SMF program will be similar to its annual spring academy
with skills and development followed by a league draft and mini games or controlled
scrimmages. The SMF camp will run at Saskatoon Minor Football Field.
If games are played, it will depend on how Saskatchewan’s
COVID-19 protocols evolve. There are hopes that games can be played in six-man
format.
The six-man game of tackle football is commonly played by
Saskatchewan’s high schools in rural areas.
Both Huskies and SMF programming are filling up fast.
Registration for the Huskies camp can be found by clicking
right here, and the SMF academy can be found by clicking right here.
Sask Five Giants claim SPBL title
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| The Sask Five Giants were snagged a league title. |
Last Sunday, the Giants, who are based out of Martensville,
traveled to Regina and blanked the host Athletics 2-0 in the Under-18 AAA
Saskatchewan Premier Baseball League championship game at Optimist Park.
The Giants scored one run in the top of the second inning
and added a key insurance run in the top of the sixth inning.
Cooper Price went the distance on the mound for the Giants
striking out five batters and giving up only three hits. Jesse Lubiniecki took
the loss on the hill for the Athletics striking out six batters in six innings
of work.
The Giants advanced to the SPBL final after downing the
Diamondbacks in Saskatoon 12-2 in the North Division title game on Aug. 21. The
Athletics took the South Division championship game 10-1 over the Regina White
Sox on Aug. 21 in Regina.
If you have any
comments you would like to pass along about this post, feel free to email them
to stankssports@gmail.com.
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