Widespread Kneeling Seen Across MLB On Opening Day

With the 2020 MLB season starting on Thursday the league kicked things off with two games between the New York and Yankees and the Washington Nationals followed by a west coast matchup between the Los Angeles Dodgers and the San Francisco Giants. It was no surprise to observe that several players on every team were spotted kneeling during the national anthem showing solidarity with the Black Lives Matter Movement. The Giants – who had several players take a knee during the national anthem before preseason games earlier this week – were joined in kneeling by the Dodgers most notably newly acquired and extended star outfielder Mookie Betts.

With the season entering full swing, it is expected that there will be many more forms of protest that will be observed from most, if not all, teams. This has been echoed around other sports leagues with the NBA painting Black Lives Matter on their courts in Orlando and letting players replace the names on the back of their jerseys with messages promoting racial equality and bringing light to police brutality. It will be interesting to see where these protests lead in terms of inciting societal change and how they progress or change over time. The coordinated protests across these leagues have made a powerful statement by America’s African American community, and it will be interesting to see how other leagues like the NFL will follow this example when it eventually restarts.