Arizona athletes, teams take part in ‘Black Out Tuesday’ on social media

Members of the Arizona sports community participated in an online demonstration in which users posted a blank black image to social media, sometimes accompanied with statements or commentary.

Several top record labels organized Black Out Tuesday as violent protests erupted around the world sparked by George Floyd’s death as well as the killings of Ahmaud Arbery and Breonna Taylor. MTV and BET went dark for eight minutes and 46 seconds in support of Black Lives Matter and racial injustice. Music-based companies Live Nation and TikTok, as well as the Recording Academy, posted to social media that they planned to support and stand with the black community.

The Cardinals, Coyotes, Diamondbacks, Mercury, Suns and Arizona football had posted the image to social media on Tuesday at time of this writing.

Many local athletes — as well as those around the country — did the same.

#BlackOutTuesday pic.twitter.com/WxeaEsZKe1

— Arizona Cardinals (@AZCardinals) June 2, 2020

Among the many athletes and coaches to participate were the Cardinals’ Chandler Jones and Patrick Peterson, the Suns’ Mikal Bridges and Frank Kaminsky, the Diamondbacks’ Archie Bradley, the Coyotes’ Darcy Kuemper, Clayton Keller and Taylor Hall and Arizona State’s Bobby Hurley and Charli Turner Thorne. Others are likely to join in throughout the day.

Some included statements with their posts, Hall among them:

“While I will never truly understand the anger and fear in the black community, I want to learn and understand how I can support them,” Hall wrote. “One thing I do understand is that I’ve been given white privilege my entire life and will never know anything different. It is past time for our conversations to change among the white community. I believe our demographic has the best chance of making positive change for the generations to come. I am listening, and I am learning.”

In the wake of Floyd’s death, members of the sports world have already partook in the online conversation regarding race relations in America. Peterson and Arizona football head coach Kevin Sumlin were among those to make statements since Floyd was killed in police custody in Minneapolis.

The Associated Press contributed to this story.

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