I chose to talk about Naomi Osaka during the 2020 U.S. Open. There were a lot of police brutalities building up during this time, and her way of speaking out was wearing different masks with the names of the victims of the police brutality. The U.S. Open is such a big deal, and so is Naomi Osaka, so this was a perfect way for her to speak out, and it gained a lot of attention. A lot of athletes were speaking up, and she helped push the word out and keep the conversation about what was happening from dying. Majority of the media coverage on her brilliant idea was positive, and she got an overwhelming amount of positive support from the media and the people. Most people were not only impressed with her athleticism and performance, but also with her intelligence in how she went about speaking out. Of course, there were some who were not happy and, in a stereotypical fashion, said she shouldn’t get involved and should stick to playing the sport but that was a very small number of people. Social media was a huge part of this and was the reason it got around so quickly. People, news sites, and influencers posted pictures of her in these masks and reposted them. The stories of each person she had on her masks got retold and spread hundreds of thousands of times. It brought light to each person’s story. Naomi explained why she did it, saying it was an easy way to speak out, and visuals are the best way to do so. She knew she would have a bunch of cameras pointed at her, and she could spread the word without even saying a word. The media helped her immensely by spreading the pictures and videos of her with the mask on. The media is always going to have people on the opposite end, but in general, the media did a great job of spreading the word and spreading it positively. Naomi is one of the best examples I could think of for an athlete showing activism. She successfully used all the hype and interest around her name and in one of the biggest sports competitions in the world to bring awareness to social injustice happening to people of color and police brutality, all without even saying a word. The competition also helped by allowing her to continue playing regardless of these masks, and the media did their part in spreading the word and images.