Black athlete activism

 A broad title, but it is finals week and grading has crushed my creativity.

More accurately, I want to discuss the power of the contemporary Black athlete. In full transparency, and given that the current system(s) still favor (while simultaneously exploiting) Black men athletes, I am mostly talking about men.

That being said [aside coming]...in the last week of my Sport, Race, and Ethnicity course, we talk about athlete activism past and present and the materials I use discuss both men and women. The podcast Throughline has an episode called On the Shoulders of Giants that starts with boxer Jack Johnson before discussing the activism [the podcast uses the term protest] of runner Wilma Rudolph, and basketball player Mahmoud Abdul-Rauf.*

I pair this with an article about the WNBA's campaign to unseat (she had been appointed by the governor following a resignation) former Atlanta Dream team owner Kelly Loeffler in the 2020/21 special election for a Senate seat. 

This is all to say that Black women athletes are activists too. But today I am talking about Black men--specifically college men based on two recent-ish events. 

First, last month the University of Missouri removed funding from the Legion of Black Collegians, the school's Black student governance body. The group, along with several other affinity-based student organizations, will no longer receive a portion of the student fees that go to student groups. Admin said this was to comply with the Department of Justice's regulations on DEI. In addition to having no funding, the group can no longer just exist as a recognized university organization. (Though is is confusing because the linked article said they can apply for funding just like any student group. So unclear how both recognition and funding operates at Mizzou.) 

When I saw this story, I immediately thought of the football team's boycott in support of the 2015 effort by Black students and their allies to create a better environment for Black students on campus. That fall, after a series incidents, including the student body president being called a racial epithet, a coalition called Concerned Student 1950, camped out on the university quad and issued a list of demands --including the resignation of the then president. The leader of that movement was on a hunger strike until demands were met. When Black members of the football team heard about the protest, they committed to boycotting games. Demands were met in less than 48 hours. 

Earlier this year, the Columbia Missouran did a series on these events. The players when reflecting on the situation now, certainly recognize the power they had. Would this and could this happen today? That is a much longer discussion--that definitely should occur--and it raises questions of the effects of NIL on activism and the continued silo-ing of DI athletes from student life. Could the Mizzou team today fight the de-funding and de-DEIing of their campus? Maybe. They could certainly try. 

What can any athlete--or more specifically--a group of athletes do? The college sports landscape has changed so vastly in the past ten years, I find it difficult to predict. Scratch that--I believe college athletes working together CAN effect a lot of change. Whether they have more to lose--or believe they do--is an issue. Ongoing questions about the burden and consequences of doing that work and what role White athletes can and should play are important to dissect. But maybe some of that discussion is coming?

ESPN commentator Ryan Clark has (re?) started the conversation by calling on Black athletes to not sign with schools in states that have gerrymandered. 

Or maybe he has not made that call? There seems to be some (AI generated?) misinformation out there about what Clark has or has not said and in what context.

  His interview on CNN with Laura Coates (he allegedly made the initial statement on his podcast, The Pivot Podcast, but I have not been able to find it) was more of a discussion rather than an explicit call. But he did talk about the history of athlete activism and the role of Black athletes. 

Regardless, there is a "movement" to #boycottSEC. It seems to be an internet only thing. Oh, the fickle power of the hashtag. I have doubts whether it will turn into anything substantial--but it is a conversation starter and conversations can precipitate action, as they did at Mizzou a decade ago. 

There is no perfect activism or activist. Movements come and go; groups break apart and re-form (and sometimes reform). Voting rights activism has been around for over a century. It is not a new conversation. Talking about how college athletes might be part of that work is not singling them out or asking them to take on the burden alone. It is widening the sphere of the work; it is asking for more stakeholders to come forward and use the power they have. 

* Bonus for educators who might want to use this podcast: because there is also a book by the same name, students who might seek to reduce the amount of time it takes to complete a related assignment will likely end up "finding" the book and thus it is very easy to determine who may have used AI-generated assistance...if that is something folks are concerned about.