[marathonarthur]

Oh dear, the news from the W&S today of play suspended by Osaka playing a political card is so very sad.  Surely her own background should tell her that races can unite successfully?

I am old enough to believe that sport should build bridges etc etc rather be the place for highlighting differences and letting the nasty side of life dictate. 

Good news of the four GB players to reach semis, all now on Friday, though. 

[amongsttheleaves]

sport should build bridges etc etc rather be the place for highlighting differences and letting the nasty side of life dictate.    

The statement from the ATP, WTA, and USTA suggests that they want this pause in play for one day to be an act of bridge building, a moment of solidarity, with the sport trying to do better than it has done in the past. Osaka didn’t make them do it, she’s withdrawn from the tournament.

This isn’t really about ‘politics’, it is about people and human rights, however, sport is political, particularly in the US. Do your really view Racism as a political issue?

[moonglow]

The statement from the ATP, WTA, and USTA suggests that they want this pause in play for one day to be an act of bridge building, a moment of solidarity, with the sport trying to do better than it has done in the past. Osaka didn’t make them do it, she’s withdrawn from the tournament.

This isn’t really about ‘politics’, it is about people and human rights, however, sport is political, particularly in the US. Do your really view Racism as a political issue?

If they pause play for this one day, will they pause it for more days after today?

I realise Osaka withdrew but she did that because of what happened in the US.

What about the male players - I think they support the one day pause, they might suggest more pauses?

Also let's say the tournament was taking place in Australia - would there have been a pause in play if there had been a stabbing in the US at the time?

After all the Covid delays & lockdowns, it would have been nice to have seen more tennis.

[althusser]

I understand your feelings, Arthur, but in many ways the whole point of the current protests in America's sports world about systemic racism and murders of unarmed black people is, obviously, that this is one of the major areas where black people are extremely prominent and highly respected and looked up to by huge numbers of Americans regardless of their race. They have INFLUENCE and they are using it to draw attention to the continuing cruelties and inequities. I'm quite sure that such athletes feel they have a moral obligation. Not to mention personal interest, since we're all well aware that in America black men in particular, however famous they are, are vulnerable to completely unprovoked violence on the part of police and others, as happened to tennis's James Blake:



Expanding the debate into areas like sport for publicity is happening because not enough is being done in other parts of the public arena, and because if it is not made very obvious to them in ways such as these, too many people can pretend the problems aren't real. And of course it has been done many times before, most notably perhaps vis-à-vis South Africa over apartheid:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sporting_boycott_of_South_Africa_during_the_apartheid_era#:~:text=Olympic%20Games,-Main%20article%3A%20Apartheid&text=In%201968%2C%20the%20IOC%20was,nations%20and%20others%20forestalled%20this.&text=The%20IOC%20adopted%20a%20declaration,total%20isolation%20of%20apartheid%20sport.

Please forgive me for being so vehement. It's difficult to get across how desperately worrying it is to be living under the current government and presidency of the United States and how deep-seated the social and political problems here really are.

[moonglow]

I understand your feelings, Arthur, but in many ways the whole point of the current protests in America's sports world about systemic racism and murders of unarmed black people is, obviously, that this is one of the major areas where black people are extremely prominent and highly respected and looked up to by huge numbers of Americans regardless of their race. They have INFLUENCE and they are using it to draw attention to the continuing cruelties and inequities. I'm quite sure that such athletes feel they have a moral obligation. Not to mention personal interest, since we're all well aware that in America black men in particular, however famous they are, are vulnerable to completely unprovoked violence on the part of police and others, as happened to tennis's James Blake:



Expanding the debate into areas like sport for publicity is happening because not enough is being done in other parts of the public arena, and because if it is not made very obvious to them in ways such as these, too many people can pretend the problems aren't real. And of course it has been done many times before, most notably perhaps vis-à-vis South Africa over apartheid:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sporting_boycott_of_South_Africa_during_the_apartheid_era#:~:text=Olympic%20Games,-Main%20article%3A%20Apartheid&text=In%201968%2C%20the%20IOC%20was,nations%20and%20others%20forestalled%20this.&text=The%20IOC%20adopted%20a%20declaration,total%20isolation%20of%20apartheid%20sport.

Please forgive me for being so vehement. It's difficult to get across how desperately worrying it is to be living under the current government and presidency of the United States and how deep-seated the social and political problems here really are.

Thanks for your interesting post Tamara

[moonglow]

I don't know why she waited so long to withdraw. She might have wanted to see if other players would support her?

If I lived in the US I might understand things better, as it is it's very worrying for all who live there.

Maybe Biden would be able to pull the country together I don't really know.

Donald Trump has lots of supporters though.

But this isn't the US discussion thread ......

I really hope they'll play on Friday and that this won't escalate and that the USO will take place next week as planned.

(I thought it was going to be the USO draw today) ?

[moonglow]

^  Ok right thanks

[moonglow]

^  ATL has  just set up a thread called "Andy at the US Open"
I don't know if it's possible for Osaka to rescind her decision to withdraw - would she want to rescind her decision anyway?  I don't think she'd want to do that.
There's a thread in the chit chat section where anyone can talk about the US and Trump and Biden or anything US related