If you're watching the 2020 BMW Championship at Olympia Fields Country Club near Chicago, you may see that multi-time PGA Tour winner Cameron Champ is wearing golf shoes with two different colors: one white, one black.
Cameron Champ is wearing one white shoe and one black shoe in an effort to draw attention to racial issues in the United States, sparked by the police shooting Jacob Blake seven times in the back, with his back turned to officers, during a confrontation in Kenosha, Wis.
“It has to end.”
@Cameron__Champ is making a statement against racial injustice this week at the BMW Championship. pic.twitter.com/D53U1fQWcN— PGA TOUR (@PGATOUR) August 27, 2020
"It's just spreading awareness and sticking by what I believe, what I believe in and what needs to be changed. And so I'm going to do as much as I can," Champ said to the PGA Tour.
"I've seen a lot of other athletes speak out about it. It's a situation where people don't want to talk about it, which I get, but at the same time, it's reality. It's what we live in."
This latest incident of police violence against an African-American suspect has led to protests and strikes across sports. The Milwaukee Bucks, Wisconsin's NBA team, refused to play Game 5 of their Eastern Conference first-round playoff series against the Orlando Magic as a means of sending a message about how African-Americans are treated by police and more broadly in American society. The NBA cancelled its slate of games for the day after the players union agreed to not take the court.
Similarly, the WNBA slate was cancelled, and several games were cancelled in Major League Soccer and Major League Baseball.
Champ has previously drawn attention to racial issues with the same gesture. In February 2019, Champ also wore one white shoe and one black shoe in the second round of the Waste Management Phoenix Open to call attention to the start of Black History Month.
“It’s the start of Black History Month so I thought I’d kick it off and support it,” Champ said. “With my interracial background, my dad’s side being African-American, my mom’s side being Caucasian, it’s something that means a lot to me and something I wanted to support.”
