What the students – Payton Head,
Missouri Student Association President,
Graduate student, Jonathan Butler, the
#ConcernedStudent1950 organization, their football team, and others – at the University
of Missouri accomplished by forcing the
UM System President Tim Wolfe to resign is game-changing. (Read about it by clicking here.)
I’ve often wondered how African
Americans could play sports for many of these southern universities with such a
rich and dark history of mistreatment of Blacks. Basketball, and
particularly, football, feed the coffers of these institutions with teams made
up of 50, 60, or 70% African Americans, while the universities’ “Student”
populations range in the mid-single digits. Missouri specifically sits at 8%.
One can only imagine the long road
of protests, sit-ins, op-eds, fasting, prayers, etc., that would have been
necessary to bring about this resignation – if, indeed, that would have ever
been enough.However, when the football team engaged in the work of justice
activism, well, “stuff“ happened fast.
Incredible.
Across the country, you’d better
believe university boards, and athletic directors and coaches are ruminating
over what happened in Missouri. Could it happen at their school? Or
importantly, what should they be doing to reduce the possibility of a similar
situation.
Some will take the high road.
Perhaps reviewing diversity policies, documenting processes to effectively
handle harassment, proscribing response times to concerns, and developing an
office of the ombudsman to address discrimination claims, all in an effort to
create a better campus environment.
Unfortunately, some will take that
low road. Roger Groves, in his article in Forbes
Magazine (Read it here)
suggests that one of their solutions might be to ask their coaches if they are
“recruiting the ‘right kind of people.’”
Out of all of this, one thing is
clear and evident. Disruption, particularly of finances, and also of
reputation, morale, and perceptions, is a lever that can be used to create
change. My prayer is for our students and student-athletes to embrace this
lesson as we move this country, kicking and screaming, into a more humane and
less racist society.
This tectonic shift in power
dynamics, has given me an answer to my earlier ruminations: Our brothers who take
the courts and fields each week to toil for these universities are critical
partners for real change in these institutions that have for so long been
steeped in racial trauma and white privilege.
#BlackLivesMatter
Daryle Brown
Trinity UCC Justice Watch
Team
