Who is responsible?

In today’s society, people are being beaten, raped, sold, and even killed for the color of their skin, their sex, or for how they identify themselves.  People in and out of the sports world believe that it is an athletes responsibility as a well paid individual who is in the medias attention to speak up against these hate crimes.  But is it really? Some athletes are among the highest paid individuals in the nation; their lives are always in the news, and should one thing happen to them, pretty much the whole world knows.  Because of this lime light, many think that it is part of their job to get the nations attention to focus on change for the betterment of our nation.  You can easily find NBA players wearing “I can’t breathe” shirts or pictures of football players with their hands in the air representing hands-up, don’t shoot.  Although it is morally right for them to be doing this, they are not required at all and usually do this by choice.  So why are people putting this pressure on them? Some say that black athletes should be doing things like this for the betterment of black lives, but shouldn’t it be everyone’s responsibility? And it’s not just about black lives and how much they matter, but it should be about all lives that matter.  For example, you don’t usually hear about women athletes wearing shirts saying “don’t touch me” to stop human trafficking or anyone wearing a “Save the Planet” shirt. People need to realize that it is all of our responsibilities to help this planet improve for the better, not just people who are paid a great amount of money to do what they love and are put into the medias attention without choice. So the next time you think that only well paid individuals can help further the peace of our world, think again and do it yourself.