ONCE again the athletes of the United States have shown the rest of the world that sports stars are in a position to raise awareness of the injustices around the world.

I wrote about this topic last year when talking about the Black Lives Matter movement and how athletes like Serena Williams and Colin Kaepernick were using their position in society to speak up, reaching people who may not pay attention to the news if it has nothing to do with sport.

I said then that sport has the power to unite and make a change in ways unimaginable and the point remains truer than ever.

With the election of Donald Trump as US president and the ongoing brutal Israeli occupation of Palestine, we are once again seeing a rise in players across multiple sports standing up to say enough is enough.

NFL defensive end Michael Bennett of the Seattle Seahawks is boycotting this week’s league-sponsored trip to Israel as he refuses to be used as a pawn for the government in its bid to undermine the boycott, divestment and sanctions movement.

That decision was later backed by former athlete John Carlos, who raised his fist at the 1968 Olympics. He said: “I’m flattered this young man quoted me and I’m overwhelmed that seeds I may have planted almost 50 years ago have played even a small part in developing such a terrific person of principle. It’s true. You are either in or you’re out. And Michael Bennett is in.”

Golden State Warriors guard Steph Curry became another in a growing list of athletes to speak out against the bigoted president Trump.

Sportswear Under Armour CEO Kevin Plank last week referred to Trump as “a real asset for the country” and lauded his plans to “make bold decisions and be really decisive.” Curry’s response was short, witty but to the point.

He said that he agreed with Plank “if you remove the ‘et’ from the word ‘asset’,” later adding that if “the leadership is not in line with my core values, then there is no amount of money, there is no platform I wouldn’t jump off if it wasn’t in line with who I am.”

Michael Bennett’s brother, Martellus, has been joined by more of his teammates in the pledge of skipping the planned visit to the White House for the “honourable” visit, something the winner of the Super Bowl, as well as champions of other US sports, are expected to do.

As well as free safety Devin McCourty, linebacker Dont’a Hightower, running back LeGarrette Blount, defensive tackle Alan Branch and defensive end Chris Long all said they make a stand and it wouldn’t surprise me if more join them.

What’s interesting from my perspective is that Long is so far the only white Patriot to boycott the visit and has openly spoken out, as a white man, against the NFL’s and US’s sea of silence when it comes to the unlawful killings of ethnic minorities at the hands of police officers.

In an interview in September, Long said: “I’ve had a lot of thoughts about it, and it’s hard, because you want to talk to the media, you want to say something about it. As you know with the media, it’s a long conversation and if you talk about it for a few minutes, they might take 10-15 seconds out of your quote and take you out of context, and run with the narrative.

“But I’ll make it pretty clear, I support my peers in exercising their right to protest. This is a wonderful country, and I think everyone agrees on that, but there are things in our country that can improve. I don’t think that by acknowledging as a white male that the United States isn’t the same for me, maybe, as it is for everybody, the same great place, that we’re complicit in the problem or that we’re saying the United States isn’t a great place.

“If we’re saying there are incidents of oppression in this country, systematically or individually in this country, I don’t think saying: ‘Well, in country X, Y or Z it’s 10 times worse’ is making things any better.

“I think that may be true but why can’t we improve?

“I play in a league that’s 70 per cent black and my peers, guys I come to work with, guys I respect who are very socially aware and are intellectual guys, if they identify something that they think is worth putting their reputations on the line, creating controversy, I’m going to listen to those guys.”

After reading that, his boycott of Trump comes as no surprise.

Long, as a white man living in the US in 2017, is treated differently to ethnic minorities. You only have to look at how US fencer Ibtihaj Muhammad, the first US athlete to ever compete while wearing a hijab, was detained for nearly two hours without explanation after President Trump’s travel ban was instituted a few weeks ago.

“I can’t tell you why it happened to me,” she said last week,” “But I know that I’m Muslim. I have an Arabic name. And even though I represent Team USA and I have that Olympic hardware, it doesn’t change how you look and how people perceive you.”

And Long drew praise from Kaepernick, the San Franciso 49ers quarterback who began kneeling during the US national anthem in protest last pre-season, who said: “I think it was huge that Chris stood up and took that stand. I don’t know if he realises how much that means to this movement and trying to get things changed.”

Some people have attempted to use humour as a way to get through what is seen by many as a dark time in the world. However, for NBA star JJ Riddick, a white male, the situation the world finds itself is far from a joke.

“I’m a voracious reader,” he said in an interview at the start of the month. “I’ve become sort of obsessed with Trump in the last six months. I don’t really speak about it, not because it’s not my place or I don’t have a voice — I do. But I would say this: There’s been a lot of jokes and side comments from people in the league about [White House Press Secretary] Sean Spicer and alternative facts and all that stuff but I don’t think any of it is funny.

“I’m actually horrified right now. People who are losing their healthcare, women who are losing their right to decide what to do with their body, that’s not funny to me. So, you can joke about crowd size [at Trump’s inauguration] and all of that BS but it’s not funny.”

Riddick also touched upon the bubble athletes live in, saying: “What we do is not real life. This is a make-believe world but once you walk outside the arena you’re in the world and I think our guys need to try to be involved with it.”

Some of his guys, and women, are involved in it but some isn’t enough, we need more. A lot more.

As always, there will be those who are more than happy with the way the world is going. Last week I mentioned the Patriots trio Tom Brady, Bill Belichick and Robert Kraft but there are of course more.

NBA player Kent Bazemore of the Atlanta Hawks has a different take on Trump.

When asked on his thoughts on Plank’s comments, he said: “That’s kind of what my thoughts were when he won the presidency. Have a businessman in office, because that’s the way the world’s trending.

“Even in the NBA, there’s more business and entrepreneurship in athletics these days. And I’m living proof [that if] you take care of your brand, good things happen to you.

“We’ve been living some stuff that’s been written for 200-300 years. The world has changed. The world has gotten a little smarter. It’s good that we have somebody that’s hip in that aspect to try to change it.”

Hip would not be word I would use to describe Trump but I guess everyone is entitled to their opinion, no matter how wrong it is.

What’s important is that sport has more Redicks and Longs than it does Bazmores and judging by the last few weeks, months and years, we do.

And has Bennett likes to remind people: “I’ll be done playing football some day but I’ll be black forever.”

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