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| Fred Opie and US National Team Players as the national anthem was playing before a lacrosse world championship game in Australia in 1990 |
The
U 19 Lacrosse world championship is going on this week in Finland. It reminds
me of my time at a similar world championship in Australia in 1990. As an
African-American in Australia I felt like a museum piece with so many Aussies
staring at me. Seeing an occasional aborigines on city streets warmly greeting
me gave me a sense of solidarity with this ethnic group which like my own has a
long history of struggling against marginalization. Their fraternal greeting
as fellow blacks in a white controlled world said to me that they understood
that we shared similar experiences. It
might be similar to the same way lacrosse players in North America greet each
other when they come in contact in the spaces controlled by the big three—football,
basketball, and baseball. Yesterday I heard a
segment on the radio about an aboriginal music group called the Black Arm Band
Company. Like Woody Guthrie, Bruce
Springsteen, Bob Dylan, and KRS1, their music is dedicated to raising people's consciousness
about the injustices in their society. As the first African-American to make
the US national team, it disturbs me how the current club lacrosse and
tournament scene are building economic barriers to more people having the
opportunity to play our game at every level.
U. S. National Team: http://www.laxmagazine.com/teamusa/men/index
The Black Armband Company: http://www.npr.org/2012/07/04/156204104/aboriginal-musicians-band-together-to-expose-oppression
Lacrosse and Native
American Sovereignty: http://lacrossememoir.blogspot.com/2010/07/iroquois-lacrosse-more-than-fun-and.html
Iroquois
National Lacrosse and 1990 World Games: http://lacrossememoir.blogspot.com/2010/07/iroquois-pay-back-at-1990-lacrosse.html
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