Kaepernik Mural, Oakland, by Stephen Coles (CC BY-NC-SA 2.0)

How might sports connect to social progress?

A sense of fair play, of having a level playing field, has always been essential for sports. What if leveling the playing field in society can start by leveling the playing field in sports? What role could or should there be for athlete activism to help us make progress toward a more just society? There’s a long history of sports and activist athletes contributing to social progress, whether we’re talking about Jess Owens, Althea Gibson, and Jackie Robinson in the past, or about Venus Williams, LeBron James, and Colin Kaepernik in the present. There are also loud voices telling athletes to “shut up and play.” We’ll be exploring these issues and more in our upcoming Community Conversation on November 12, 2020 (1:00-2:15 pm EST). 

If you’d like to think ahead about sports and justice, you might check out some of ideas on empowering athletes from the Interactivity Foundation’s discussion project on the Future of Sports and Society. You can also find some related stories here. What would you add to this conversation? Please register here and make sure to join us for a generous conversation!

This Community Conversation is the third in our four-part series What IF? The Future of Sports and Fitness. It is part of an ongoing collaboration with IONA Senior Services, who are handling the registration for the series.