HOT TAKE = The business of sports in America perpetuates white supremacy and reinforces systemic racism in our society.

(and the sport of ultimate is broadly trying to commercialize itself into this same oppressive system)
Karl Marx suggested that "religion is the opium of the people." In an increasingly secularized society, this function is performed by sports entertainment.
It's not a coincidence to me that the most active protest movements of 2020 came during a period when all televised sports were on pause. Sports didn't exist as the distraction they otherwise provide on a daily basis.
Existing power structures benefitted by the resumption of televised sports at the earliest opportunity.
Meanwhile the return of sports is a false signal that things are "back to normal" as the pandemic takes more and more lives each day.
Pro leagues w/ their SIGNIFICANT resources have struggled to contain COVID spread. The NBA bubble is celebrated as some virtuous achievement by isolating players & workers from their families for several months at massive cost for the ultimate benefit of mostly rich white dudes.
NCAA Football & Men's Basketball is ground zero for this oppression, where mostly black & brown athletes serve as unpaid labor in unsafe pandemic conditions so their universities (academic institutions!) gain millions and pay bloated salaries to mostly white male coaches & ADs.
Meanwhile the NCAA pays millions to lobby Congress or appeal to the Supreme Court to protect a bogus concept of "amateurism" which was conjured ENTIRELY to streamline universities exploitation of revenue-generating athletes...and doesn't exist in any other country in the world.
Instead of CANCELING EVERYTHING due to COVID, universities double-downed on all the cruelty of their system because making money is more important to them than the lives of their students.

si.com/college/2020/1…
Sports media is complicit in this oppression by under-reporting or downplaying COVID infections among athletes or the very REAL risk of Myocarditis on even the healthiest of athletes, as with Keyontae Johnson at Florida.

Meanwhile, national participation in youth sports is plummeting alongside the explosion of expensive youth travel club-teams which increasingly cater to rich white families while poorer families lose access to youth sports options.

theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/…
At all levels, the sports business model in America has been corrupted by oppressive capitalism. Maximizing profit is the goal, at the expense of community wellness and such that marginalized groups are squeezed out of opportunities or exploited to generate profit for others.
The sport of ultimate has lurched toward the same business models of traditional American sports. We have pay-to-play youth travel programs (YCCs) and our elite competitions are positioning for "visibility & exposure" opportunities to pursue big money sponsorships & media rights.
As we careen down this well-trodden sports business path, I wonder - if we succeed and get that big payday, WHAT HAPPENS NEXT? What sort of control over the future of ultimate do we relinquish once we're bound by the power & influence of big money financial interests?
As the sport of ultimate reckons with its own issues of white supremacy and seeks to become a safer space for BIPOC, can we hold any faith that following the traditional sports business model will reconcile with our evolving values?
Make No Mistake! - Ultimate needs a massive expansion of resources & infrastructure. We'll need considerable financial investment to make that happen. In order to detour from the brutal system I've described above, we'll need radical new ideas for our business and governance.
This is the work I hope our leaders and community will embrace. If we have any hope of simultaneously progressing our values while growing the business of our sport, I believe we MUST find an alternative path of financial investment.

(END OF THREAD!)

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More from @being_ulti

1 Jan
(A THREAD REGARDING MY GENERAL PERSPECTIVES TOWARD HUMANITY)

Before going into HOT TAKES, I thought it might be helpful to add some flavor context on my assumptions for human behavior and how they inform my work as a disc org ED and my thinking about ultimate's future.
I'm an instinctively CYNICAL person. My default setting is to assume that humans act from their own self-interest EVEN when their actions contribute to the greater good. When interacting with others, I'm always seeking to detect or understand their underlying motives.
To others, this can seem like a shitty way to operate, and it CERTAINLY means I'm not everyone's go-to person for happy funtime vibes. But I'd argue strongly that this approach has helped me a lot, both personally & professionally, to maintain a positive outlook toward humanity.
Read 9 tweets
1 Jan
The "How Did I Survive 2020?" FAKE ANSWERS ONLY tweet contest is COMPLETE!

The Top 10 submissions have been ranked and will be shared over the next hour until 2021 2021 2021 2021 IS HERE in Northern Virginia!!!
First, a big thank you to the folks who submitted responses but didn't make my final 10:
@wicked_sassy @asigal22 @Lana_del_rico @PeanutDweck @LayneScherer @joe_walsky @blakekrapfl @nards_deli11 @magscolvett @public_enembe @GraceRelf @ashleyowza
@wicked_sassy @asigal22 @Lana_del_rico @PeanutDweck @LayneScherer @joe_walsky @blakekrapfl @nards_deli11 @magscolvett @public_enembe @GraceRelf @ashleyowza Starting off at #10:

HOW DID I SURVIVE 2020?
Pouring myself into meaningless twitter arguments.

From @kdubsultimate
Read 16 tweets
31 Dec 20
My COVID thread was exhausting but we're NOT DONE YET.

Return-to-play questions aren't SOLELY focused on community health & the virus. Orgs are challenged to address how return-to-play plans will accommodate marginalized groups. There's serious risk of backsliding on DEI work.
To their credit, USAU addressed this in their Return-To-Play guidance:

"Barriers that prevent people
marginalized by society...from returning to play equitably are likely to manifest as playing opportunities are
reintroduced and are subject to special...requirements."
Indeed, the special requirements I addressed (cost increases especially) will serve to reduce opportunities for folks with financial barriers. Returning-to-play during the pandemic will cost more to organize. That's going to reduce opportunities for participation.
Read 5 tweets
31 Dec 20
And here we are. The LAST DAY of 2020!

I've thought a lot over how best to use my Being Ulti powers to close out this shitstorm of a year. What game or gimmick would be cheeky & fun but give folks a chance to blow off some steam without getting TOO heavy? Here's my idea!
The "How Did I Survive 2020?" FAKE ANSWERS ONLY tweet contest!

Submit your FAKE ANSWER for how YOU survived 2020 using the linked form. I'll rank and tweet out my favorite submissions TONIGHT in a fast & furious twitter storm to end the year.

docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAI…
My example =

HOW DID I SURVIVE 2020? By scrolling my Twitter feed as much as possible and gaining constant encouragement and inspiration from news and social media posts.
Read 6 tweets
30 Dec 20
Here’s a pic of myself and Chris Beach-Rehner. We were frisbee teammates with JMU @hellfishulti where CBR earned his nickname “The Unit.” Together we formed the Twin Towers starting forward line of the Hellfish’s intramural basketball team (and scored all the team's points). Image
@hellfishulti I’ve got fond memories of an overnight road trip to Red Tide Clambake in '06 (& awful memories of sleeping in his tiny-ass car). Unit couchsurfed at my house in Arlington VA one summer while interning in D.C. Later he moved to Portland, OR and was big in the ultimate scene there. Image
@hellfishulti Chris Beach-Rehner took his own life in the Winter of 2015. As one who is not typically predisposed to feelings of grief & mourning, losing the Unit was brutal. He was such a unique, over-the-top personality and I miss him a lot.

rhinoultimate.com/cbr-memorial-t…
Read 11 tweets
9 Sep 19
The class I teach tonight (poetry) is all set and the class I take today (boxing) won't start for a bit, so let's talk origins. I got into this lateish, 25, with no sports background and no one in my life who'd ever played, so some very specific stars had to align to get me here.
I gave some of this in the bio and a fuller rendition on @SinTheFields (starts halfway in, but like, listen to the whole thing, learn some league draft strategies, subscribe to Ultiworld, etc.), but the very short version is… ultiworld.com/2019/06/21/sin…
…on a whim (actually after one of @jodyavirgan's three annual frisbee tweets, so good work growing the sport), I started watching the 2017 college finals, and — intrigued by both the sport itself and this wild hidden world around it — went down a rabbit hole and never came back.
Read 26 tweets

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