Abstract
ABSTRACT These last few years have been marked with a new wave of sports activism with a wide array of professional athletes drawing attention to racial injustices and calling for policy reform to address racial inequalities. While extant research has made some progress in developing our understanding of professional athletes' political influence, we have limited knowledge of this new wave of sports activism. Building on research on sports history, system justification, racial order, and racial threat, we develop a Sports Activism and Racial Status Quo (SARSQ) theory asserting that sports activism is associated with racial justice topics and approval of sports activism is related to support for disrupting the racial status quo. Using survey and interview data, we find evidence that provides some support for this theory. Sports activism is associated with professional athletes making statements that raise awareness of racial injustices such as innocent Blacks dying in the hands of the police. Some favor sports activism because they approve of athletes, regardless of race, stepping out of their social arrangement, raising awareness of institutional racism, and prompting sociopolitical change. Further, members of racially minoritized groups do not provide outright approval of sports activism, speaking to the importance of continued research in the area.
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