It appears that this week, the Los Angeles Dodgers' Board of Directors demanded their players “shut up and play” when the organization accepted President Donald Trump’s invitation to the White House. As expected, this move ignited outrage among people in LA and their loyal fan base. Overall, the city's working-class communities did not vote for Trump in the 2024 election; he received 31.9 percent, while Kamala Harris received 64 percent.

In addition, LA has been at the forefront of protesting Trump’s anti-immigration policies, executive orders, the genocide in Gaza, and racist rhetoric toward people from Venezuela, Mexico, Haiti, and beyond.

The Dodgers organization found itself in a unique situation after signing the Japanese star Shohei Ohtani to a ten-year, $700 million contract, which seemed extreme then. However, the organization understood that, in due time, the return on this investment would amount to hundreds of millions of dollars in profit, maybe even billions. The team generated $752 million in revenue in 2024 and expects to exceed that in the 2025 season.

The Dodgers roster consists of players from “third-world” countries and working-class communities throughout the U.S. In addition, despite being so highly paid, the players are considered unionized workers. This moment highlights the strife between workers, owners, and capital, which is critical to understand in a capitalist society.

Whose democracy?

Despite the obvious reasons why the team should refuse to visit the White House, it is essential to have a class analysis of this moment and how we view sports. Regardless of how individual players feel about Trump’s anti-immigrant, anti-gay, and anti-worker policies, do they have any say in what should be a collective team decision to visit the Oval Office? Did anyone ever consult them? What is clear is that the team's ownership body does not care what they think and feel. The Board of Directors has more in common with Trump and his cabinet of billionaires.

The owners are afraid of their massive fan base, which is overwhelmingly blue-collar and will see and call out the contradictions between the few haves and many have-nots. Therefore, accepting the invitation signals to the players that the owners call the shots. As a result, Dodgers players have been stripped of their political power by visiting the White House.

Not long ago, Dodgers manager Dave Roberts publicly stated he would never visit a Trump White House. In 2018, Mookie Betts declined an invitation to the White House after winning the World Series with the Boston Red Sox. Clearly, both Betts and Roberts, and likely others, were not supporters of Trump or his policies. However, the team's current stance on visiting the Trump White House appears to have shifted.

This type of change usually does not come from the players, who have openly opposed Trump. Trump himself has not altered in any way to attract the support of Betts, Roberts, or anyone sympathetic to the oppressed and forgotten of our society. Instead, it likely stems from those at the top, individuals in leadership positions who maintain close ties to the administration in power because they share the same interests as the status quo and the capitalist system.

The board of billionaires, not workers

The billionaires who own and run the team do not care what the people of LA think about economics and politics; they are looking at how they can benefit from the current political climate. The board of directors is closer to Trump than it is to the working-class people of LA who save every penny possible to attend a game. Who can afford to pay a preposterous $21 for a beer?

The team's board of directors is littered with elite figures who benefit from Trump’s tax plan, geopolitics, and economic policies.

Mark Walter, Chairman of the organization and controlling owner, has a net worth of $6 billion and made contributions to the Democratic Party under Obama. Walter is also the CEO of the investment firm Guggenheim Partners and manages more than $300 billion in assets.

Raul Anaya, a member of the Dodgers Foundation Board, is also the president of Bank of America for Greater Los Angeles. B of A and JPMorgan contributed to Trump’s first inauguration in 2017 and did so again for his second inauguration on January 20th, 2025.

Emily Greenspan is a member of the Dodgers Foundation Board and an active supporter of the American Friends of the Israel Museum.

The Dodgers franchise witnessed a 23 percent increase in value from 2024 to 2025. Going from an estimated value of $5.45 to $7.73 billion. The ownership body, Guggenheim Baseball Management, purchased the team in 2012 for $2.15 billion.

These are three of the fifteen board members who decide whether or not the team should buddy up with Trump. Given their portfolio, a Trump visit is not a surprise.

Standing up for justice

Professional athletes in the U.S. have a rich history of putting sports second and standing up for their beliefs. Muhammad Ali, Tommie Smith, John Carlos, Craig Hodges, and Colin Kaepernick are all examples of people who put the community and society’s interests above their individual sports ambitions. It has always been a struggle for African American and Latino athletes to break through in professional sports. Even after “making it,” they were subjected to the ugliness of a capitalist society with racist fans, teammates, and the sports media world that attempted to tear them down every day.

Today, with the amount of money team owners make from exploiting athletes’ “likeness” through merchandise sales, TV contracts, and so on, players have more leverage than ever. Because of how much players can make, team owners use that and are now more powerful than before.

The Dodgers have three of the sixty-three players from Venezuela in the major leagues: Miguel Rojas, Edgardo Henriquez, and Brusdar Graterol. The U.S. government, Republican and Democratic, has had a war on Venezuela since 1999 because Venezuela took its oil back. Nearly 8,000,000 Venezuelans have been forced out of their homeland.

In Trump’s first two months in office, he deported hundreds of Venezuelans to El Salvador’s torture camps without due process. This invitation signals the players to align with the owner's decision without pushback. Therefore, normalize the individual, Democrat or Republican, occupying the White House and accept the status quo, even if it means treating your people with the utmost disrespect and savagery.

In August, it will mark the 80th anniversary of the U.S. military dropping two atomic bombs on Japan. On August 6th, 1945, the first atomic bomb, nicknamed “Little Boy,” was dropped on Hiroshima by a B-29 bomber, “Enola Gay.” On August 9th, the second atomic bomb, “Fat Man,” was dropped on Nagasaki. An estimated 246,000 people died either immediately or down the line. The Dodgers' top players by position are Japanese-born designated hitter and pitcher Shohei Ohtani, starting pitchers Roki Sasaki, and Yoshinobu Yamamoto. Does visiting the White House, where the plans of bombing Japan were drawn out and discussed, bring contradictory feelings for them? Not to mention, there are still 40,000 U.S. soldiers occupying Japan.

The Dodgers' ownership most likely did not consider that accepting Donald Trump's invitation to the White House and capitulating to his administration might rub these athletes and fans the wrong way. Plus, Mark Walter does not wake up scared that ICE might kidnap members of his family as we do here in LA. One does not become a billionaire by considering how others feel; their drive is solely profit-making. This harsh truth is fully revealed by accepting the invitation during a time when families are being torn apart and deported without due process.

The organization's statement that “this is not political” is condescending. Everything is political, and a Trump White House is at the center of politics in the U.S. and the world. As late-Howard Zinn said:

Normalizing his administration at a time when we are seeing the highest number of homeless families, children, and attacks on social programs like social security, Medicaid, and others, is signaling to your team and fan base that it does not matter—this is how it is.

This is not an isolated situation. The Lakers visited the White House under George W. Bush and Barack Obama. Bush was responsible for the illegal invasion of Iraq that resulted in the killing of over one million Iraqis. Plus, the invasion of Afghanistan, where the U.S. killed over one hundred thousand people and destroyed the country. Obama was responsible for the destruction of Libya, the bombing campaigns in Syria, Iraq, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Yemen, Somalia, and for deporting more people than any president in history.

Normalizing a war criminal as a “bad president” allows them to get away with the slaughter of civilians across the Middle East and beyond.

The lost players

Trump and his administration's effort to eliminate diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) as a means of creating employment opportunities for others is nothing but falsehood. It represents a movement within the ruling class to reverse all the social progress achieved through the Civil Rights Movement. As a result, Trump ordered U.S. Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth to “De-Woke The Military.” In doing so, they deleted the only Medal of Honor profile of the only Black soldier who received the award. In addition, he “mistakenly” removed Dodgers legend Jackie Robinson’s Army service in that process.

Today’s athletes who leverage social media have greater reach than ever before. For instance, 15.8 million people watched the World Series featuring the New York Yankees. The deciding Game 5 peaked at 21.3 million viewers, and overall viewership increased by 67 percent compared to the previous year. This national and international attention offers players a platform to address the social issues that many working-class individuals face daily or at least provide a voice akin to that of Colin Kaepernick or Craig Hodges during their playing years.

Naturally, supporting social justice or anti-war issues can provoke a significant backlash from the ruling elite and their stenographers in the corporate-owned media.

The Dodgers' value has doubled since Walter purchased them in 2012, yet 1.3 million people live below the poverty line in LA County. The gap between the rich and the poor is more pronounced than ever, and the diminishing hope among the most disadvantaged is alarming.

LA does not lack resources or assistance—rather, the wealthy hoard all the resources needed to meet people's needs.

The money that Walter and the board use for their vacation trips is our money. If the fans had not purchased a single ticket or piece of merchandise, the board would be bankrupt, consider their investment in the Dodgers a failure, and move on. The LA community invests so much of its money into the team, no matter who the owner is, yet our communities receive nothing in return.

We have a team that submits to Donald Trump and offers the most liberal word salad of a response to justify their visit to the White House while ICE is kidnapping our family members. Meanwhile, the administration continues to send U.S.-made weapons to carry out a colonial genocide in Palestine. If the players refused to “shut up and play,” they could expose the war machine and the interlocking interests of the Military-Sports-Media complex.

Author’s note: This article was originally published with Liberation News on April 6, 2017. It has been republished and archived here.

Last year, in game three of a four-game National Football League pre-season series, San Francisco 49ers quarterback Colin Kaepernick chose not to stand for the National Anthem. It wasn’t the first time he did this but the first time a reporter noticed. That reporter was Steve Wyche.

Like millions of other people across the country, it was after this game that Kaepernick said publicly he’d had enough of the injustice that people of color experience in the United States.

The combination of professional sports and political activism in the United States is nothing new. However, by not only refusing to stand up for the National Anthem, but also calling out the U.S. government for the mistreatment of African Americans and war veterans on national television was one of the boldest political moves we’ve seen or heard in over a decade from a professional athlete.

Even recently, before Kaepernick’s protest, other athletes had expressed their political views about police brutality and racism. Some of these athletes took it to social media and/or joined the community in protest. We saw New York Knicks guard Carmelo Anthony marching with the people in Baltimore, demanding justice for Freddie Gray. We also saw the NBA team Miami Heat post a team picture of everyone wearing a hoodie in solidarity with Trayvon Martin. In addition, we saw players like Kobe Bryant and Kyrie Irving wear “Can’t breathe” t-shirts before a game. Later, we saw three Women’s National Basketball Association teams wear Black Lives Matter t-shirts supporting the movement. Despite these actions, most of us have grown accustomed to most professional athletes saying and doing very little about injustice, racism, and a corrupt presidential cycle.

But in 2017, we’ve crossed a line. The discussion about racism in America has not only intensified in our communities, but it has also reached a critical mass in the sports world. We are now seeing more and more athletes take a stand about the killings of unarmed African Americans and grand jury decisions that have set fire in the streets as the nation watched another killer cop get away with murder.

Kaepernick is joining the ranks of Muhammad Ali with his refusal to fight in Vietnam and Tommie Smith and John Carlos with their Black Power salute at the 1968 Olympics. He’s also joining Craig Hodges, who won two NBA titles with the 1991 and 1992 Chicago Bulls.

Hodges did something no other athlete had ever done before. Hodges was known for his charitable work in oppressed and impoverished Black communities and for calling out Michael Jordan for his lack of involvement in Black communities. After winning the 1992 NBA Championship, the team visited then-president George H. W. Bush at the White House. Unlike the rest of the team, Hodges showed up in a dashiki, proudly representing his West African roots. He then handed the president a letter addressing issues in African American communities. As a result, Craig Hodges never played professional basketball in the United States again and was titled an “embarrassment to the league” by many team owners and executives. Hodges never entirely escaped being banned from playing in the NBA.

Kaepernick, too, has been accused of being un-American, unpatriotic, and a “traitor to the nation.” His situation highlights the cavernous gap that still needs to be crossed in confronting the brutal truth and legacy of racism in the United States. Kaepernick’s statement about police brutality is not some storyline fabricated to drive up jersey sales and television ratings. These are realities known and felt by millions in the United States. There are videos displaying cops killing unarmed people, taking innocent lives.

In addition, Kaepernick’s statements on the corrupt presidential election between Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump also hit a nerve. If anything, Kaepernick is saying what many of us have been thinking. First, anyone who followed the 2016 election knows that Hillary Clinton is a racist, war-mongering mouthpiece for Wall Street. Secondly, anyone with a pulse knows that Donald Trump is an out-and-out racist. That is why the media’s anti-Kaepernick campaign coverage has focused on anything but the actual message and has since stayed there.

Kaepernick is a role model whose example shows that you fight back if you see and experience injustice. If you learn that your government is sending you to fight wars overseas to destroy a country that poses no threat to your freedom, you fight back. If you see a cop get away with murder for killing innocent people, you fight back. Most of all, his situation shows the hypocrisy of a sport that has given second chances to players such as Greg Hardy and Ray McDonald, who were accused of domestic violence and Ben Roethlisberger, twice accused of sexual assault, and yet finds itself in crisis over a player protesting for the victims of racist violence.

Athletes speaking out is nothing new. During the 1960s and 70s, millions of African American workers were actively engaged in a struggle against the intense racism of U.S. society. The civil rights and Black Power movements helped politicize vast sectors of the working class. In this historical context, great athletes like Muhammad Ali, Roberto Clemente, Tommie Smith, and John Carlos inspired people worldwide with their uncompromising solidarity with the oppressed. These sports heroes were often strong advocates in the struggle against racism. In 2017, we see more and more athletes displaying solidarity with every social movement in the last ten years, such as Occupy Wall Street, Black Lives Matter, Fight for $15, and NoDAPL.

But how did we get here?

Did someone call Colin Kaerpernick and all the other professional athletes to take a stand? The honest answer is “no.” We got here because of the power of the people. It was the people who took over the streets in protest in the 1950s, 60s, 70s, and 80s and now demand justice for the killings of unarmed and innocent people. It was the people who took over the streets when George Zimmerman walked away with a “not guilty” verdict. We saw the same after Oscar Grant, Freddie Gray, and Sandra Bland. It was the people, the fans, and the athletes who spoke out and removed two racist NBA owners, Donald Sterling and Bruce Levenson, after they were exposed as racists. The league already knew they were racist, but it wasn’t until the people spoke out that the league was pushed to force them to sell the teams.

Big game protests

Professional sports are a media spectacle, to be sure. Every year, millions of workers nationwide turn their attention to the big game, the Super Bowl, the NBA Finals, the World Series, and other prominent athletic events. These events are huge moneymakers for the capitalist class. Billions of dollars change hands as corporations vie for the best advertising slots, the most prominent billboards along the field, the biggest star’s endorsement of their newest product, and so on.

But in 2017, the Super Bowl opened with a protest of fists in the air after the national anthem as Patriots free safety Devin McCourty and tight end Martellus Bennett expressed their solidarity with the struggle for justice.

After winning the Super Bowl, it wasn’t surprising that Bennett and McCourty were the players with New England who rejected the team's visit to the White House. In the Patriots’ first regular-season game, both players raised their fists after the national anthem. Up to four players have declined to join the team visiting the White House and President Donald Trump.

Seattle Seahawks defensive lineman Michael Bennett made a last-minute decision that came as an embarrassment to the State of Israel and the U.S. empire. Originally, Israel invited a group of professional football players to visit. Israel called this a mission aimed at improving the country’s image and that the visit would help against “the false incitement campaign that is being waged against Israel around the world,” as Israeli Cabinet Minister Gilad Erdan put it. Edran leads the Ministry for Strategic Affairs and has waged a campaign to boost Israel’s image and counter the influence of the BDS movement. In Michael Bennett’s letter rejecting the visit to Israel, he expressed his solidarity with Palestine. He cited the example of Muhammad Ali and the late boxing legend’s support for the Palestinians. Bennett said he, too, wants to be a “voice for the voiceless.”

It was the pressure from the Black community and many other social struggles that ultimately brought the attention to mainstream media of police brutality. Now, we are seeing professional athletes such as Michael Bennett speak out on the genocide of Palestinians at the hands of Israel and the U.S. empire.

How many more Ferguson, Oscar Grant, and Trayvon Martin cases are we going to experience in our communities? Colin Kapernick, Michael Bennett, and millions of Americans are tired of this injustice. They are doing what many of us have done for decades—that is, protesting and standing up for what is right. We have to continue to organize and protest the injustices so that everyone, including professional athletes, working people, and students, can join us in the streets to demand justice.

Speaking the truth was Kaepernick’s only crime. That is why he is being forced out of the sport, just as Hodges was. But the strength that Kaepernick, Hodges, and Bennett have shown should strengthen our movement against injustice, oppression, poverty, and exploitation.

2025 update: Colin Kaepernick is still being blackballed by the NFL for standing up for the people and against police brutality. Kaepernick continues to work out every day, staying ready for the chance to join a team.

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The National Football League (NFL) is the only sport that “owns” a day of the week. It is the dominant force in U.S. television sports. It draws millions of views every Sunday, regardless of economic background, culture, or ethnicity. The 2023 season grew its viewership from the 2022 season. The league’s key Week 1 games have maintained a “must-see” enthusiasm after a record-breaking match between the 49ers and the Chiefs in the Super Bowl. The game drew an audience of 123.4 million eyeballs glued to the screen.

In Week 1, when Miami Dolphins Wide Receiver Tyreek Hill was going to the stadium to check in for work. After all, football players are unionized workers who have a boss. There are 2,423 active and associate members of the National Football League Players Association (NFLPA) and 8,751 former player members. The NFLPA is the union representing the National Football League players. 

The union is designed to improve the working conditions of NFL players, both on and off the field. Whether the union successfully meets the workers’ needs is another topic for another discussion. 

The union has not released a statement about Tyreek Hill’s brutal arrest. 

On August 26th, 2016, Colin Kaepernick, then San Francisco 49ers quarterback, was noticed for his peaceful protest of kneeling during the national anthem. His explanation of his protest was easy to understand: the oppression of Black people in the U.S. and racial inequality. His movement also occurred during a presidential campaign in which Hillary Clinton was against Donald Trump. Eight years apart, all presidential candidates have not addressed or proposed a policy to curb police brutality.     

On Sunday, the Miami Police Department showed the world what a New York University (NYU) study taught us, and that is that Black people are routinely pulled over by police more than any other race.

Tyreek Hill is another example of the issue Colin Kaepernick highlighted nearly eight years ago. 

What If It Was Not Tyreek Hill

In an interview, Tyreek Hill responded to a reporter about Sunday’s encounter with the police by saying, “What if I was not Tyreek Hill.” Unfortunately, for Black people, Tyreek’s experience is nothing new. It is what they have endured for centuries living in the United States. In 2020, new research conducted by NYU assistant professor Ravi Shroff and his associates at Stanford Open Policing Project found evidence that Black people are stopped by the police more than any other race. The report showed that Black drivers were pulled over 20 percent more than white drivers, compared to their share of the residential population. They examined a database of almost 100 million traffic stops across the country.     

In addition, their analysis showed that once they were stopped, “Black drivers were searched about 1.5 to 2 times as often as white drivers, while they were less likely to be carrying drugs, guns, or other illegal contraband compared to their white peers,” the report stated. Shroff also examined the discrepancy in when Black drivers were stopped after or before sunset. The report said, “Black drivers made up a smaller share of those stopped at night when it’s more difficult to discern the race of a driver, which suggests that racial bias may influence stop decisions.” Across the country, the report shows a five to ten percent decrease in Black drivers being stopped by the police at night.       

From 2017 to 2022, Florida’s police department ranked third in the nation in use of force reports, with 107,222. California was first with 186,869, and Texas was second with 134,521. Florida also ranks second with police shootings with 970, landing first again California with 1,685. The Sunshine State is in first place with the use of a taser by the police 19,108 times and second with the use of baton/impact weapons behind California again with 11,816. These numbers are from 2017-2022.  

This year, the police have killed 936 people across the country. That is 46 more people compared to the first nine months of 2023. Of the 936 people killed, 226 were Black people, and 158 were Latino/a people. In addition, Black people are 2.9 times more likely to be killed by the police than white people. 

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Driving While Black

In an interview, Tyreek discussed a tradition passed down in Black and brown families about “the talk.” The advice given to young people by their elders tells them that when the police pull them over, keep their hands in sight, avoid any quick or sudden movements, turn their cars off, and place the keys on the dashboard to signal the officer that they will not drive off. Sadly, this “talk” is still practiced today after generations of facing police brutality in the United States.

Tyreek’s reaction to how the police treated him when he was pulled over is understandable, considering the facts laid out. People were quick to say that Tyreek did not deserve compassion because of his hideous past of child and spousal abuse. Yes, that conduct is unacceptable; people can work on those issues and improve. People can change. But Tyreek Hill cannot change the fact he is a Black man in the United States.