Sports-activism

Last semester, I was a part of the coalition of Black, Indigenous, and people of color first-year Barnard students that boycotted a required course called Big Problems: Making Sense of 2020—an act that culminated in a letter written to the Barnard administration. In short, the letter outlined an extensive list of our demands and detailed what our problems with the course were; particularly, its performative nature, the way it catered to white students, and how it depended on BIPOC students to exploit their lived experiences and traumas.

The Ivy League Presidents voted in favor of canceling conference play for spring sports on Thursday, ending speculation that spring competition might resume. The conference previously delayed the start of spring sports until at least the end of February in a directive that canceled winter athletics.

Athletes have a platform that historically they have used to further social and political movements. Look into the history of athlete activism with Frank Guridy, associate professor of history and African American studies at Columbia.

A coalition of student organizations led by Columbia-Barnard Young Democratic Socialists of America has come together to call for a tuition strike against Columbia. The strike, which has amassed 3,200 signatures over two months, aims to hold the University accountable to students, staff, and community members for how it handles its wealth.

Content Warning: This episode of The Ear discusses sexual violence and rape.

The buzzer calls the end of the matchup, but that was never necessary. The game could have been over at minute 14. The Columbia men’s basketball team has just lost its 11th consecutive game (with two more losses to follow) and I am accidentally spilling my nonalcoholic beer on the lacquered hardwood of the Jonathan D. Schiller Court of Levien Gymnasium in the Dodge Fitness Center. The imitation brew is all over my skirt, which was an impractical garment for sitting on the seats of the press box to begin with. The rub between my tights and the vinyl is uncomfortable, not painful, but it is a distraction throughout the game. The stickiness of the beer makes the situation even less sexy.

Performative activism has been widely discussed on Columbia’s campus, but what about another type of activism that is similarly misguided—one that has all the necessary components but lacks the backing of experiential knowledge? Nowadays, many “activists” who jump on the bandwagon of popular ideas like criminal justice reform and prison abolition aren’t able to provide comprehensive solutions that fully grasp the scope and nuances of the issues at hand because they aren’t from the impacted communities.

Dear readers,

As COVID-19 cases continue to surge across the United States, the Ivy League announced that it will cancel all winter sports practices and competitions on Thursday afternoon. All winter teams—men’s and women’s basketball, swimming, squash, fencing, and men’s wrestling—will be prohibited from competing, but practices will be allowed to take place if they follow each respective university’s and state’s safety guidelines.