Thread by @being_ulti

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.

https://twitter.com/nkalamb/status/1341738752427888640

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!)