SFGATE: Oakland Roots plan protest in support of Black Lives Matter
Published on September 05, 2020 at 04:00PM by Douglas Zimmerman
On March 7, the Oakland Roots pro soccer team celebrated its first victory of the National Independent Soccer Association spring season.
A few days later, pro athletes nationwide began testing positive for COVID-19, which resulted in the cancellation of almost all sports leagues, including the Roots’ remaining spring matches.
Then in late May, the police killings of George Floyd and Breonna Taylor sparked protests throughout the United States. Pro athletes expressed their support for the Black Lives Matter movement, with actions ranging from wearing custom jerseys to the postponement of NBA playoff games. The police shooting of Jacob Blake in Wisconsin reverberated in the NISA as well, and last weekend’s three scheduled NISA matches were postponed.
The Roots were not part of those three matches, but they say the cause of racial justice will be top of mind when they hit the field for the first time in six months for their fall season opener on Sunday. "We will play the games and use our platform on the field to bring attention to the issues of inequality and racism in our society," the team wrote in a recent statement. "We will use our jerseys to honor the names of those murdered by police and to make statements of unity and change."
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