“We are happy, but we recognize that these are still crumbs thrown at us from a white supremacist system,” said Bear Alexander, a member of the Omaha-based ProBLAC organization, told BuzzFeed News. “The fact that it had to go to the grand jury is shameful. We are now changing our signs and chants from ‘arrest Jake Gardner’ to ‘convict Jake Gardner,’ and it is still ‘no justice, no peace.’”
If convicted, Gardner could face up to 95 years in prison, per .
*New York – Nielsen (NYSE: NLSN) recently released findings from its first ever “Promoting Racial Equality in Sports” study capturing U.S. sports fans’ attitudes on racism.
Conducted in July 2020 following nationwide protests against systemic racial injustice and incidents of police brutality, the study sheds new light on support among sports fans for the Black Lives Matter movement and their beliefs on the roles of different players in the sports ecosystem in driving positive social change.
Through these new insights, Nielsen Sports enables sports properties and teams as well as brands that are activating through sponsorship, TV broadcasts and social media to make more data-driven decisions and effectively connect with audiences.
According to the Nielsen Sports study, sports fans outpace the general population in terms of support for racial equality and related movements. Drilling into the numbers, nearly 7 in 10 sports fans indicated support for the Black Lives Matter movement. Additionally, nearly 1 in 3 sports fans have personally contributed either time or money to Black Lives Matter.
The study also surfaced new insights relating to fans’ expectations of athletes, rights holders and brands in promoting racial equality. Top-level findings include the following:
The study also explored attitudes and behaviors of fans by league, comparing loyalists of the MLB, MLS, NBA, NFL, NHL and NASCAR across various dimensions. Among the key findings:
“While the problems of racial inequality and systemic injustice are difficult and sensitive, it is critical to tackle them,” said Lyndon Campbell, Senior Vice President, Head of Sports Leagues and Rights Holders at Nielsen Sports. “Brands and rights holders that authentically align with these critical issues as they engage sports fans can drive positive social change while also achieving business objectives. This is the definition of a win-win situation.”
Nielsen Sports is the premier provider of analytics and insights within the sports industry offering the most reliable source of independent and holistic market data in the sector and the most complete view of consumer trends and habits worldwide.
Brienna LaCoste
Flowers Communications Group
“Please stop and let me finish my question, sir. Should that be removed, within a 36 to 72-hour period, without my medication, I will be dead,” she continued. “And I want to know what it is you’re going to do to assure that people like me who work hard, we do everything we’re supposed to do, can stay insured. It’s not my fault that I was born with this disease. It’s not my fault that I’m a Black woman and in the medical community I’m minimized and not taken seriously.”
