WNBA's Mystics and Sparks Lock Arms During National Anthem

The WNBA's Washington Mystics and Los Angeles Sparks joined together to lock arms during the national anthem before Wednesday night's nationally broadcast game on ESPN2, per Lindsay Gibbs of ThinkProgress.org.

The action came in response to the events in Charlottesville, Virginia, where over the weekend a white supremacist gathering to protest the removal of a Robert E. Lee statue turned violent.

"We just want to stand united in lieu of the socio-political climate, just to remind everyone that it’s important to stay together in the midst of some tumultuous times," Los Angeles forward Nneka Ogwumike said before the game. "I think there’s a lot of people that have a lot of opinions, but when it comes to discrimination, that’s just not what we’re about."

The WNBA player's association supported the display from the players:

"

#PressRelease: Director of Ops Terri Jackson's statement on #UNITY of @WashMystics & @LA_Sparks before tonight's game. #CHARLOTTESVILLE pic.twitter.com/VBfK2Azj0Z

— WNBPA (@TheWNBPA) August 16, 2017"

"This league, we want to use our voices, we want to use our platform, to send the message that we accept and love every person," Mystics guard Natasha Cloud added. "It doesn’t matter what color you are, what religion you are, what sexual preference you have. Across the board, we’re human. We’re all supposed to be loved and respected."

They haven't been the only athletes to speak out following the horrific scenes in Charlottesville and Donald Trump's controversial public statement that both the white supremacist protestors and what he labeled as the "alt-left" protesters were at fault for the violence. 

Many athletes and teams took to Twitter to condemn the acts in Charlottesville, including NBA players like LeBron James, Jeremy Lin, Enes Kanter and Harrison Barnes:

Others plan on protesting the national anthem, much as former San Francisco 49ers quarterback Colin Kaepernick did last season.

"I can't stand for the national anthem," Michael Bennett, a defensive end for the Seattle Seahawks, told Jill Martin of CNN. "I can't stand right now. I'm not going to be standing until I see the equality and freedom."

"There's a reality that I'm a black man in America, and there's things that are going on pertaining to minorities, pertaining to women, pertaining to kids, pertaining to religion, and we can't be hiding behind it," he added. "We're fighting for what America is built on: That's the freedom, the equality, the justice for all and the liberty, and those are the things that I'm actually trying to remember and honor when I sit down for the flag."

Kaepernick's protest led to many other athletes kneeling or raising a fist or taking some other action before games last season to join his protest against police brutality and racial discrimination. Given the latest events in Charlottesville and the reaction across the sporting world to both the incident and Trump's response to it, athletes across the sporting world will continue making their voices heard in the political spectrum.