MLB players have released a video in support of the Black Lives Matter movement. The players’ video ended with the phrase, “One team. One dream. Be the change.”
The video is the latest call to action from top athletes, executives, and personalities across the sports world in the fight against racial injustice and police brutality. Protests have arisen worldwide in recent weeks following the death of George Floyd.
The deaths of Floyd, Ahmaud Arbery, and Breonna Taylor have set in motion days of unrest across the United States.
Shortly after the protests began, Black NFL players teamed up to create a video affirming that Black Lives Matter and asking the NFL to take a stronger stance against systemic racism. NFL commissioner Roger Goodell released a video of his own, admitting the league was wrong for trying to silence Colin Kaepernick.
Featured in MLB’s video are Giancarlo Stanton, Aaron Judge, CC Sabathia, Andrew McCutchen, Tim Anderson, Marcus Stroman, Howie Kendrick, and Mookie Betts, among many others.
“We’ve been told that our pleas for peace were not made at the right time, at the right place, in the right way,” the players said in the MLB video. “We’ve been told to ‘wait,’ but we remember when Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. warned us that the word ‘wait,’ has almost always meant ‘never.’ We will wait no longer. We will make our voices louder. For all of us who can and for all of those who could not. 8:46 is enough time to lift a knee, to do what’s right, to do something, to say something, to acknowledge the pain of the Black community.”
“You have cheered for us, but we need you to cheer with us now when you need us most. Black Lives Matter. It’s our cheer for change. It’s your cheer for us. It’s these cheers that will unite us. One team. One dream. Be the change.”
Major League Baseball joined its players on June 10, announcing donations to the NAACP Legal Defense and Education Fund, the Equal Justice Initiative, the Color Of Change and the Jackie Robinson Foundation.
