Most of the world loves its freedom of speech. Everyone has their opinions on a topic, regardless of how much they know about it, and that is their right. Celebrities, too, are no exception to this. Most of them actively voice their opinions on topical concerns on a public platform. From Hollywood starlets to athletes, In recent years, many have jumped into the deep waters of political activism in whatever way they can—not always in subtle underlying tones of politicking. It is evident, vociferous, and bold. While they are as human as the rest of us, the value of their opinion is magnified because of the platform they enjoy. This makes all of us ponder over the question which has posed itself time and again, whether celebrity viewpoint on a political parley do more harm than good to the cause they are upholding.

For decades, celebrities having opinionated political discourse has been a tricky terrain to walk on, both for the household name expressing them and the zealots it reaches. They always run the risk of alienating an entire fraction of their fanbase and the repercussion it befalls, whether that’s in terms of ticket sales, negative press, or dissolved endorsement deals. This is why many in the business, in their own words, ‘Like to stay out of it.’ 

Sports’ paragons have long been a faction of this multitude, with most of them staying as far away from politics as their publicists would like them to be. One bears no qualms that sports have this beautiful way of bringing people together. Be it, children, on a playground or entire nations, sports often creates unparalleled unity between people. As a consequence, a sportsperson is very likely to amass a vast fanbase. They often hold a massive, larger than life influence over their followers. When they use this influence for good, the outcome is truly magical. Hence the reason why in recent years, there has been a paradigm shift in the way sports and politics interact with each other. As the political, demographic and scenarios have changed, many came to the podium to declare their resentment towards injustice and bigotry if and when they see it.

The fight against Racism

“I’ll be damned if I’m gonna win all these championships and have all this success and not use it to make a change.”  

                              –Lewis hamilton

The brutal death of George Floyd shook numerous people to their core—none more so than Formula One driver and reigning champion Lewis Hamilton. The seven-time World Champion took it upon himself to lead the fight against racism in his sport. A sport which, peculiarly, has always predominantly had white male athletes. In fact, Hamilton is the only black Formula One driver in history.

Hamilton strongly believes that he has been given the opportunity of representing his people in the sport for a reason and is determined to unlock the mystery of the lack of black representation in Formula One. Last year, he founded the Hamilton Commission, an organization that aims to improve the representation of people of colour in UK motorsport. Though the Championship winner has forever been an activist for anti-racism, in 2020, the killing of George Floyd, in particular, spurred him on to take up a more prominent role in the fight against racist injustices. 

Lewis Hamilton leads a pre-race demonstration against racism. [Photo credits: Getty Images]

Through his persistence and incredibly outspoken stance, Lewis Hamilton has also demanded the FIA, Formula One’s governing body, to do more in tackling inequality within the sport. The Briton led F1 into the fight for diversity and holding pre-race anti-racism gestures. Hamilton claimed he had an extra desire for success due to his fight against racism. 

“I had this extra drive in me this year to get to the end of those races. It was a different drive than what I’ve had in me in the past … to get to the end of those races first so that I could utilize that platform [for Black Lives Matter] and shine the light as bright as possible.”

LeBron Vs Zlatan

Politics is a breeding ground for controversy. Oftentimes, sports stars, while wanting to induce change and resolve underlying oppressions with good intentions, are met with the trident of altercations. Evident to this fact was the recent dust-up between the two sporting giants, clashing on each other’s indulgence over non-sporting issues. The tussle between the two started when Swedish footballer Zlatan Ibrahimovic spoke out against LeBron James for getting himself involved in political affairs outside the basketball court. The AC Milan striker felt that athletes of a certain status shouldn’t get involved in politics because it is not their niche. “I don’t do politics. If I were a political politician, I would do politics. That is the first mistake people do when they become famous and reach a certain status. Stay out of it. Just do what you do best because it doesn’t look good”, was Zlatan’s justification. 

This obviously did not go down well with LeBron, whose past advocacy over the Black Lives Matter and other racial injustices underpin movements showed his polar opposite solicitude on the topic. He quickly clapped back during a press briefing stating that he would never stick to just sports. He reiterated that he knew how powerful and influential his voice was and would forever speak up against social injustice. 

Continuing to reprimand the criticism, LeBron called out Ibrahimovic, citing his hypocrisy by referring to Zlatan’s interview with Canal+, where he talked about being a victim of undercover racism in his own native country and not getting the due credit from the Swedish media and public due to his non-traditional Swedish name. It’s not the first time people have taken issues with James’ longtime activism. Back in 2018, in the wake of midterm elections, Fox News commentator Laura Ingraham told him and fellow  NBA star Kevin Durant to just “shut up and dribble.”

LeBron-Zlatan conflict of opinions over political indulgence. [Photo credits: Getty Images]

This isn’t the first time a black athlete has been openly vocal about their disdain for certain issues. NBA players in the past have revolted silently against racial inequality and injustice pertaining to the circumstances in the U.S by “taking a knee” during the national anthem. Many, of course, took this as a gesture of disrespect and incivility towards the country, stirring a cauldron of backlash and finger-pointing.

The NBA forward, however, has come under hellfire not only for his political backings but also for not being fervent about the treatment of Uighur Muslims in China in the wake of his sponsorship ties to the country. The NBA is trying to enter the Chinese market, a country where more than a million Uighur Muslims have been over the last few years for an apparent re-education.

Many point out the blatant assailable hypocrisy of the situation since Lebron hasn’t used his ‘powerful platform’ and voice about the case, which he otherwise so passionately defends. The player’s business connections to China evidently play a significant role in this locale, and in the broad view, in his exploits of shrinking his responsibility of speaking out against the nation’s brutality towards a minority group. By selectively speaking out, the four-times NBA championship winner assuages his intentions and reflects the overall sentiment of convenient ersatz activism, going as far as to call Houston rockets general manager Daryl Morey “either misinformed or not really educated on the situation” when he championed his convictions about the former British colony.

Even with all these debacles, it’s imperative to note down the amount of push that movements and narratives such as Black Lives Matter got just because people like LeBron James and Kareem Abdul Jabbar were hugely vocal about them. If it wasn’t for public figures dating long back to Mohammad Ali to present-day activist like Colin Kaepernick, putting their well-built careers on the line for calling out social injustice infringed in the system for the wake of the betterment of the future generations, the envelope of change would’ve been long lost in this backlash. It’s relatively easy to call out a celebrity with public outreach for not being tight-lipped about issues and a lot harder to remember that celebrities, even with their shiny mantle of fame, are people. People have opinions, and simply discrediting those opinions would be unfair.

India and Cricket

Cricketers are the most popular people in India. They are idolised, worshipped, and looked up to. Naturally, many of them are approached to endorse multiple things. These may be as basic as skin care products and shampoos and as complicated as political candidates. Many cricketers, however, steer clear of those involvements that affect their careers. They signed up an athlete, not a politician. Many of them simply put curtailments on voicing their thoughts about issues. Cricket Players has been one faction that has successfully managed to not divulge into publicly expressing dissatisfaction over any issue over the past few decades.

Politics and cricket are two crossroads that never unite. Many cricket giants have strolled towards politics post-retirement, but few have taken any risks at the peak of their careers. However, of late, a few have started to a calculated stance, not always a definitive one, but a stance regardless. There seems to have been a shift in Indian cricketers as more and more have sought to foray their opinions into the political hemisphere. The Farmers’ protest, in particular, highlighted the change. Numerous cricketers took a political stance on the matter; some even clashed with each other over their opinions. 

Indian cricketing legends Sachin Tendulkar and Anil Kumble came out to say that the protests were an ‘Internal issue’ when multiple western celebrities decided to raise awareness about the protests on social media. Additionally, India cricket team captain, Virat Kohli, urged the country to remain ‘united’ in a time of crisis. To some, it was a clear attempt at defending the government and swaying public opinion about their stance. In response, Sunrisers Hyderabad seamer Sandeep Sharma questioned Tendulkar’s tweet claiming that the farmers deserved to be heard by the world. Manoj Tiwary, another Indian cricketer, declared the cricketers as puppets who were acting on government instructions. The issue with cricketers expressing their opinion here was that it was selective and trimmed to the extent where it felt more like a carefully curated PR statement. The route they took was delayed and came after a lot of criticism against the government. It seemed like a little too less and a little too late.

The tweet which the AAP put out, pleading Tendulkar to show his support for the farmers. [Photo credits: Getty and Twitter]

Tendulkar, revered as a god in India, was widely supported by the Indian public. In fact, one of India’s largest political parties, the Aam Aadmi Party took to Twitter to publicly request Tendulkar to tweet in favour of the farmers. They pushed back against the likes of Rihanna, claiming that western celebrities had no right to comment over the protests. Muddled political opinions covered Twitter in India—the numerous tweets confirmed the changing landscape of cricket and politics in India. It was clear that over the years, the two would become more and more intertwined, with more and more cricketers voicing their opinions on political matters. How much this will affect the Indian public, only time will tell. 

Politics and Samba Football

They say football is worshipped in Brazil, and that isn’t far from the truth. Brazilian culture, in its essence, involves a lot of football. The sport brings together masses of Brazilians—from the streets to massive stadiums, hordes of men and women indulge in the beautiful game. Ever since its introduction in 1894, the game has grown and become so strongly embedded in the Latin American country that it is now considered a religion.

Brazil has produced some of the greatest footballers to ever grace the game—these mortals have attained god-like statuses in their home country. As a result, they often have incredible sway over the general public. A significant number of former footballers have expressed their stances on Brazilian politics. While holding such a strong say over the future of the country, footballers must be careful in voicing their seminal opinions. Unfortunately, that has been far from the case. 

The 2018 Brazilian general election brought with it a myriad of controversies—once football became involved, the situation grew uglier. The entire controversy of Brazilian politics revolved around one man: Jair Bolsonaro. Proclaiming the current president to be a man who splits opinion would be an understatement. Bolsonaro, a retired military officer, has publicly said he would favour the use of torture, has been convicted in court for racial abuse, and has once told a member of parliament that she is ‘too ugly to even rape’. 

Shockingly, the president received immense support during the general elections, especially from some incredibly high-profile footballers. Of these, perhaps the most eminent were Barcelona and Brazil legends, Rivaldo and Ronaldinho. Both footballers used social media to express their support for Bolsonaro. Additionally, Tottenham Hotspur forward Lucas Moura took to Twitter to demonstrate his support for Bolsonaro. All three footballers are immensely popular in Brazil and, as a result, have many followers who would blindly trust their opinions.  

Bolsonaro shockingly received public support from Barcelona legend Ronaldinho. [Photo credits: Marcos Correa / Presidência da República]

However, of the three footballers, Moura, in particular, received waves of criticism on the internet. Olympique Lyonnais legend Juninho Pernambucano, another widely popular Brazilian footballer, came out in public to criticize the players who supported Bolsonaro’s campaign. The former free-kick master labelled Bolsonaro and those supporting him fascist. However, it was to no avail.

Bolsonaro ended up winning the election, and Brazil has been on a landslide ever since. The country is as polarised as ever, with the president and his sons at the centre of it. The whole family is under investigation for a range of crimes, from embezzlement to money laundering. These personal issues coupled with Bolsonaro’s atrocious handling of the pandemic, an economic collapse, and his policies on the Amazon rainforest makes it safe to say that the criticism he receives is merited. The fact that sportspersons have had a role to play in this domino effect makes us question them further. 

Conclusion

Even after analyzing both ends of the balance, the situation presents a dichotomy. Should celebrities remain neutral or voice their opinions on a public platform? It is impossible to find one definitive answer. It is necessary for the VIPs to probe closely into the affair they are vocal about. There’s an inherent sense of responsibility and culpability alike if you are gathering your thoughts on the rostrum while the world is keenly watching you. The influence they hold indeed comes at a cost, and those who chose to ensnare themselves in this quagmire should understand that stature and what it encompasses. Neither should this mean they remain or feel voiceless like a tamed lion when a patently indefensible and biased situation presents itself, without charging the social responsibility and try to bring a change in the social structure that they so heavily sway.

It’s important to mention the delicacy of the situation here. It’s especially irksome to everyone when popular faces treat these high-end issues as a cash grab or a mean of reserving their twenty minutes of fame, both harming not only the cause but the overall intent of the gesture itself. When those in power start to toady up to others in power out of fear or for a favour, In that moment of levity, we all lose.

Watching from the other side of the tunnel, we as a crowd need to stop idolizing and hyping up these engagements more than what they are, someone’s opinion. If your rulings towards an issue take into account how your favourite celebrity feels about it, then you equally share part of the blame. At the end of the day, Celebrities speak up about something which they might feel passionate about, but blindly giving yourself into that pit without questioning it or researching about it is equally perilous. While they have to educate themselves thoroughly, as the general public, we have to do it too. Educate ourselves and form an individual opinion. 

Featured Image Credits – CNN