Although Dr. Harry Edwards supposedly pioneered the sociology of sports, Dr. Nathan Hare wrote his PhD at the University of Chicago on Sports, and he was a professional boxer himself. But Dr. Hare was so radical he was kicked out of a Negro college, Howard University, where he lectured on sociology and taught Black Power radical Stokely Carmichael, aka Kwame Toure'; he was partly ousted from Howard for bringing Muhammad Ali to campus after he had refused to fight in Vietnam, after all, Ali said, "The Vietcong never called me a Nigger!" Later, Dr. Nathan Hare, after Howard also found his boxing career unacceptable for one of their academics, landed at San Francisco State College/now University to become the first chair of Black and Ethnic Studies at a major American university, igniting the longest student strike in American academic history.
Today as we replay the political history of athletes such as Muhammad Ali, Tommy Smith and John Carlos, reincarnated in the persona of Colin and now a host of other brothers who have suddenly awakened to the reality of life in racist, white supremacist America, despite their status as muli-million dollar running dogs for professional athletics, we are not shocked at the response of white America, led by the president who has further inflamed the torch of racism by calling the mostly Black athletes sons of bitches. Oh, shit, that white nationalist motherfucker Trump truly crossed the line of propriety by playing the dozens. Now you know Homey don't play dat, not with sacred holy Mother (Of God).
For sure, the politics of American sports has reached a level never seen before, even when Muhammad Ali refused to serve as a running dog for American imperialism or when John and Tommy gave the Black Power salute to protest American racism at the Olympics in Mexico City.
It is indeed wonderful to see the Black athletes unite with the suffering masses of North American Africans. These brothers (and surely their are sister athletes as well) have put their careers on the line for social justice, in the identical manner of Ali, Tommy and John. We salute them and welcome them home.
--Marvin X
9/29/17
