Is the the beginning of a major change in how college athletes are seen, and how they see themselves? Damon Young thinks so.
I wasn’t alive in the 50s and 60s and 70s when mass boycotts to protest racial injustice was more commonplace and more infused with our national cultural zeitgeist. I, like most of you, am very aware of the Montgomery Bus Boycott and other, less publicized, boycotts (like the New Orleans citizens boycott). But, again, reading about the spirit of a time in a textbook and hearing about it from your parents is a vastly different experience than living through it.
I am, however, old enough to remember the late 80s and the 90s. As well as (obviously) the last 15 years. And I can honestly say that I have never seen a more meaningful and more effective American boycott than the one staged by the University of Missouri football players, whose actions forced President Tim Wolfe to resign.
Now, there have been other boycotts and protests where the stakes were higher. The recent unrest in Ferguson and Baltimore and Cleveland and other cities — as well as the #BlackLivesMatter movement — happened as a result of actual lives being taken by law enforcement. And, while the conditions at Missouri have apparently been racially antagonistic for some time, there’s no real comparison between that and the unjust murder of another human being. But this particular act, this present-day congealing of our racial, athletic, academic, and political worlds, will resonate for decades and might fundamentally alter revenue-generating college athletics, college itself, and, to quote Dr. David Leonard, the “religiosity of American sports culture.”
This is some major shit.
Because, as absurd and problematic as the countless calls for the players to have their scholarships revoked were, it’s equally absurd that a couple dozens or so kids threatening to not play one football game had such an extensive and decisive impact — on the college, the state, the conference, and the nation — that it took less than 72 hours to get the university president out.
It’s nothing short of amazing that those kids had the wherewithal and courage to put their scholarships and livelihoods (current and future) on the line to stand up for what they believed in, and it’s nothing short of terrifying that nothing anyone else on that campus would have done would have mattered the same way. No hunger strikes — and thank you, Jonathan Butler, for sparking this flame — no protests, no petitions signed by students and teachers, no votes of no confidence would have earned the same result as quickly.
Well, it’s not terrifying to me. But it should be to every Division I football and basketball coach in the country, and every administrator who happens to be at a school where the head ball coach makes 10 times as much money as the chancellor. This could very well be the college athlete’s Neo in the hallway moment; when this exclusive and presumably powerless and thoughtless population becomes fully aware of the power they possess. And if this does happen — if this collection of young and mostly Black men continues to decide to wield this power — it will reverberate down (to high school sports) and up (to professional sports). And then there will be more serious conversations about taking fundamental steps to pull the plug on this power. On reexamining our country’s relationship with sports.
And then, well, and then we’ll see what happens next.
Originally appeared at Very Smart Brothas
We know that the human brain is not fully developed intellectually until around the age of about 25. These students are all generally between the ages of 18 to 21 or so. As well as the haters they cite. So what society is saying is that they trust the intellectual arguments and leadership coming from those who haven’t developed enough to do so. We treat them like kids in all other aspects but agree with their assessment of absolute right and wrong. That makes no sense to me at all. Which leads me to my point that well organized activists… Read more »
There’s courage, and then there’s courage. Calling something a boycott doesn’t mean it’s a boycott. Let’s keep this in perspective. These are football players on a losing team with no chance of a bowl appearance who threatened to stop playing. They did not threaten to give back their scholarship money in protest, or refuse to accept tutoring help from the Athletics Department, or give back the free college swag. Presumably, if they had to carry out their boycott, they would have continued to maximize whatever benefits they could. (That’s what I would have done.) If any of them turned pro,… Read more »
The president and chancellor were rightly to blame for some things and unfairly blamed for other things. They should have provided better leadership when it came to making campus safer, and they should have tried harder to demonstrate that they gave a damn about students of color on campus. They were clearly out of touch with some obvious changes that needed to happen. At the same time, is it realistic to blame a college president for racial slurs that one student says to another student off campus? I would be very cautious about any in-coming president who would claim he/she… Read more »
It was truthfully reported that the mu student body president Payton Head, had posted on Facebook that the kkk was confirmed in campus and that he was working with the mupd, the state trooper division and the no national guard in light of this development. Talk about irresponsible! Was he asked to resign his post? Later he apologized and said he’d relied on unverified sources which maybe true to some degree, possibly, but he really is fully culpable because he clearly said that HE was working with the above entities. The more national guard had not even been consulted much… Read more »
At some point, if it has not happened already, anti-oppression movements start to turn on each other, or they begin to subdivide according to levels of victimization. For example, I bet there will be intense, really ugly arguments within the UM protest community about whether Jewish people should count as privileged people or oppressed people. (“They’re white, they’ve never been oppressed!”) Soon social justice allies will start making very nasty, pointed comments directed at people of mixed ancestry, middle class people of color, black women with straight hair, fair-skinned Latinos, international students from Japan, etc. If you are a person… Read more »
Sorry but this topic really resonated with me. It appears that black Americans believe that the majority of white Americans don’t support equality and agree tacitly with the aforementioned dumbasses. This is because we don’t speak out as much as black Americans would like. That is seriously a wrong assumption. Much like regular Americans believe Muslim Americans must agree with the terrorist because THEY don’t speak out loud enough to satisfy us. But then we are criticized for making that assumption. Is both not the same or is only one standard apply here? This is what is confusing the he’ll… Read more »
SOMWONEstarted a rumor that the I’ll and friends. Stupid smartphones. 🙂 that should have read someone started a rumor that the KKK AND friends…..not I’ll. Youth though in the end is all about passion. Not necessarily truth of the matter.
Ooh, be careful. Someone’s going to say you mixed up “I’ll” and “KKK” and therefore secretly you associate yourself with the Klan. Or that autocorrect is inherently racist and therefore you are a racist for using it. Before you deny these allegations, you should know that saying you’re not racist is evidence that you really are. You are simply automatically wrong for criticizing or disagreeing with the protests in any way. That seems to be how the U.M. movement works right now.
Is anyone *really* investigating the swastika written in feces on the bathroom wall? Okay, so It’s not exactly the Reichstag fire, but it is kind of suspicious in that context. We’re supposed to assume that it was put there by a white supremacist, which it probably was, but there are other possibilities. It’s a fair question to ask who benefited from it more, the people promoting racism or the people fighting it? If I could bring down a college president by drawing on a bathroom wall, I’d be tempted to do it. There’s also a real possibility it was put… Read more »
I think the main problem Damon Will be separating facts from agendas. For example. Today the Mizzou campus was in a tizzy because SOMWONEstarted a rumor that the I’ll and friends were on the prowl on campus and ready to do their thing to push back on the protest. But guess what. Anger started a motion but all of it was NOT true. So there’s a few dumbasses that shout nasties. Are you sure that that was true in the first place and if they were how do you as an individual know much less a group that takes action??… Read more »