On February 26th, 2012, a 17-year-old African American boy named Trayvon Martin was racially profiled, shot, and killed for wearing a hoodie by a white man named George Zimmerman on his way back from getting skittles from a store not far from where he was staying. Shortly after his death, his story and case became a big deal in the news. His story became such a big deal it caught the attention of LeBron James and the Miami Heat. Since some of the players on the Miami Heat stayed in Miami and also had children, the story hit home to them. On March 23rd, 2012, LeBron James tweeted a picture of the Miami Heat in hoodies to bring attention to the issue and support Trayvon Martin. That tweet was on every sporting channel and news source within minutes. But it didn’t stop there. Later that night, LeBron James honored Trayvon Martin again by wearing Rip Trayvon Martin on his shoes during a game against the Detroit Pistons. LeBron James teammate Dwayne Wade also honored Trayvon Martin in the Detroit Pistons game win that night by wearing We want justice on his shoes. After the game sporting channels, and sporting news outlets covered what LeBron James and the Miami Heat did. What they did was so impactful that it made world news networks, and the discussion of their activism continued for days. A post on Twitter and writing on shoes hugely affected sports because before that gesture, it had been a while since activism had been seen in sports. That gesture made it ok for athletes to speak out and show solidarity on other issues, like two years later when NBA players wore I can’t Breathe T-Shirts for Eric Garner. Another reason why what they did was impactful was that it was the first time sports activism had been done on social media. Before that, you never saw athletes posting about activism on social media or trying to be an activist on social media. Mostly everybody took what LeBron and Miami did well, but he received some backlash because some people just wanted him to stick to sports.
