A couple of weeks ago, the Phoenix Suns basketball team dressed for a game donning jerseys that read “Los Suns.” They wore the jerseys to protest Arizona’s new and controversial immigration law. And there’s talk about moving next year’s All Star game out of the state.
Major league baseball is stepping into the fray too—their union warned that if the current law goes into effect, they will “consider additional steps necessary to protect the rights and interests of our members.” Hundreds of baseball players are foreign citizens and half of the 30 teams go to Arizona for spring training. The economic impact of teams going elsewhere is potentially devastating.
The very visible symbolic action of wearing the jerseys is important, and threatening to act with the pocketbook is one of the most effective tools around to influence policy and politics. Everyone knows that money talks.
But one of the best things about all of this, at least for me, is that these actions were a happy and eye-opening surprise. Aren’t politics and sports strange bedfellows? Guess I’m guilty of some stereotyping about athletes and professional sports teams, some of it based on the highly publicized accusations about players behaving very badly. In this case, I give kudos and credit where it is due. Bravo to the Suns and to professional baseball for speaking out in an appropriate way and not being afraid to become involved in a controversial issue that matters to their players.
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