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Megan Rapinoe comments bring back debate about athletes’ social views

Professional athletes taking a stand for social issues was back in the news this week after the U.S. Women’s National Soccer team declared they would refuse to visit the White House if invited.

Members of the U.S. Women’s National Soccer Team, who won the World Cup on Sunday, have spoken out repeatedly for equal pay, and sued U.S Soccer for gender discrimination. The lawsuit, filed in March in U.S. District Court, alleges that U.S. Soccer “paid only lip service to gender equality.”

Jessica Lubell, 58, thinks professional sports figures’ public opinions influence people and that “all athletes have freedom of speech.”

The World Cup championship team follows other professional athletes like Colin Kaepernick, who expressed his political and social views even when it put his career in jeopardy. In 2016, Kaepernick kneeled during the national anthem to protest police brutality against African Americans.

Megan Rapinoe, a member of the Women’s National Soccer team, has kneeled during the national anthem in past games. Last week, Rapinoe said she would not visit the White House in a video that went viral.

Some people in Washington, D.C interviewed this week said athletes shouldn’t be afraid to use their freedom of speech and their views can influence people, especially their fans.

But, others think athletes’ views don’t influence people.

American University student Jake Masucci, 19, believed that famous people’s public opinions have “no influence on me but see how they can for other people.”

The athletes’ protests sparked outrage by many in the United States, including President Donald Trump. In a Washington Post-Kaiser Family Foundation poll from 2018, more than half of respondents said it was “never appropriate” to kneel during the national anthem.

President Donald Trump tweeted in 2018 that, “The NFL players are at it again – taking a knee when they should be standing proudly for the National Anthem. Numerous players, from different teams, wanted to show their ‘outrage’ at something that most of them are unable to define. They make a fortune doing what they love.”

Dana Spencer, 25, supports athletes kneeling during the national anthem.

Spencer believes it is “a great way to bring a touch to an issue.”  

In a 2003 article titled “The Influence of Famous Athletes on Health Beliefs and Practices” in the Journal of Health Communication, the authors wrote that sports stars do influence the thinking of their fans.

“Results indicate parasocial interaction with an athlete regarded as a public role model likely leads to audience identification with that person, which in turn promotes certain attitudes and beliefs,” the study said.

Radhika Mehta, 17, has views that support that research.

“A lot of people look up to athletes and it might influence others to think the same politically and socially,” Mehta said.

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With protests on the rise this year, district residents split on political effect

girl at bus stop

Washington, D.C. residents offered divided views on protests that are on the rise this year and what effect they are having on the country.

Interviews conducted this week in the district showed many people were split on the issue of protests, that range from major demonstrations like the March for Our Lives to smaller marches by restaurant workers.

Luke Baker, 19, has definitely noticed the spike in protests around the district, saying he thinks the men and women want “an overhaul.”

“That’s beautiful,” said Baker, who lives in Texas and was working at American University this summer.

“If we didn’t protest,” Baker said, society would “be a hellscape or a utopia.”

Not everyone agrees.

Keiran Bly, 28, believes that protesting is a poor way of solving problems. Bly said to make change people should run for political office.

Bly said he wished for protest fatigue, but didn’t believe that the people protesting would tire out any time soon.

The most recent figures from a nonpartisan crowd counting group show Bly may be right.

The amount of protests in 2018 has already surpassed the total number of protests in 2017, according to Crowd Counting Consortium, a public interest group founded by two political science professors.

The CCC estimated that in 2017 there was over 8,700 protests nationwide. Through May 2018–the most recent numbers available–the number of protests already had reached 9,710.

Not everyone plans on attending protests.

Rishi Mittal, 17, fears attending marches or rallies nearly a year after a self-described neo-Nazi allegedly plowed his car into a group of counter-protesters killing Heather Heyer. Mittal said he worries about “another Charlottesville” and said he prefers to watch at home on television.

Josh Ledyart, 21, hasn’t been to a protest in the last year due to a lack of free time, but he said he is supportive.

girl at bus stop
Samantha Danzinger, 20, thinks protests may be adding to the feeling of partisan divide. Photo by Kendall Gilvar.

“The protests put a lot of pressure on unpopular policies,” said Ledyart, who believes the spike in protests was caused by the Trump administration’s policies that showed what he calls a “lack of respect for humanity.”

Pamela Oliver, a sociology professor at the University of Wisconsin, attributed the rise to a “protest wave” that she said is common when one political party is out of power.

“I do think the people opposed to President Trump and the Republican policies feel both especially outraged and highly motivated to protest,” said Oliver, who is an expert in collective action and social movements.

Oliver also said in an email interview that the current round of protests had “a strong partisan element.” Oliver also cited large amounts of protests by Democrats during the George W. Bush administration and that less Democrats protested during Barack Obama’s tenure in office.

“Another thing that happens is that people who are not protesters get tired of the disruption after a while and start becoming more supportive of repressive measures to force protests down,” Oliver said by email.