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Principled woman leads the way with protest
At Philosophy Football’s Why Black Matters seminar, Dave Zirin spoke to Kadeem Simmonds about the first athlete to protest at the recent killings in the US, a young female basketball player called Ariyana Smith

Ariyana Smith. To many it’s just a name and up until a few days ago I had no idea who she was. But once I had heard her story, it is a name I will never forget.

On November 29 Smith made the “Hands up, don’t shoot” gesture at a university basketball game. She lay on the court for four-and-a-half minutes — Michael Brown lay dead on the streets of Ferguson for four-and-a-half hours — before getting up with her fist raised and leaving the gym.

Unfortunately for her, her name isn’t as famous as basketball superstar LeBron James or the players of American Football franchise the St Louis Rams. 

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