The Rituals of Sports and Politics

The Unnecessary Ritual of Athletes’ Visits To The White House

by Mark Anthony Neal | Atlanta Post

In the coming days, the National Basketball Association will crown a new champion. Someone will be crowned “MVP,” somebody’s “legacy” will be assured and still others will thank God, their mothers and their therapists in nationally televised post-game interviews. And of course there will be the endless self-congratulations on Twitter. It is all seemingly choreographed and no more so than with the eventual visit to the White House and photo-op with President Obama, who we all know is a big sports fan. Seems a win-win for all involved.

The practice of bringing sports champions to the White House became particularly noticable during the Presidency of Ronald Reagan, also a big sports fan, during the 1980s. Reagan’s administration was as astute as any, in taking advantage of such publicity opportunities. In an era defined by the global expansion of America’s symbolic power, what better opportunity is there than the President of the so-called most powerful nation in the World, meeting with the “champions” of the world. It most cases visits to the White House illicit very little reaction except when it’s somebody’s favorite team.

Six years ago, though, traditionalists were up in arms when members of the Northwestern University Women’s lacrosse team, wore flip-flips—albeit designer ones—to their visit to the White House. The subsequent brouhaha, known at the time as “Flip-Flop-gate,” seemed perfectly pitched for one of the most timeless of political faux-pas, the political flip-flop. The Chicago Tribune, reported the story with the headline, “You Wore Flip-Flops to the White House?,” while pundit after pundit opined about the diminishing values of American Youth. By the summer of 2007, the White House had an official dress-code policy for visitors, specifically stating “no flip-flops.”

Read the Full Essay @ The Atlanta Post

Waldo Johnson Explores Ideas Surrounding Plight Of Black Men

Q & A: Social Scientist Explores Ideas Surrounding Plight Of Black Men
by The Atlanta Post

Dr. Waldo Johnson, a social scientist at The University of Chicago, has put together a book that he hopes will gets us closer to understanding the plight of Black men, whose trials and tribulations are yet to be fully explored in academia. His book, Social Work with African American Males: Health, Mental Health and Social Policy, integrates the perspective of several Black scholars and, hence, integrates both a professional and personal insight into “what’s hurting and helping young Black men.” We spoke to Dr. Johnson to learn more about this important work.

What inspired you to write this book and collaborate with others on this project?

The book is the result of a research conference that I hosted at the School of Social Service Administration at the University of Chicago in May, 2005. Earlier drafts of several of the chapters contained in the book were presented as conference papers at the conference. At the encouragement of my dean, I decided to organize the research presentations and invited several other scholars to contribute research papers to form the edited volume.

Because the focus of the conference was social work responses to African American males across the life course, I invited social work and other social science scholars whose research examines the various social statuses and well-being indicators represented in the volume. As a fatherhood research scholar, I realized that my capability to address all of these issues and social statuses was limited. I also sought to identify new and emerging scholars, many of whom were junior research faculty, as contributors to the volume because my early research efforts were supported by mid-career and senior scholars.

I recognized that the younger scholars would either bring fresh perspectives to persistent issues and problems that plague African American males or would be addressing emerging issues and identifying human and social capital among African American males for solving problems.

Obviously you’re familiar with your subject matter but what would you say was the most most surprising finding, for you, that came from this book?

I am broadly familiar with the various issues and problems that are addressed in the edited volume. I have addressed a number of these issues in my own research. The most surprising findings are not simply the approach that individual contributors take in conducting this scholarship contained in the volume but also their personal motivation for doing so. For example, my earlier research which focused on unwed fatherhood among low income African American males emerged as a result of my prior social work practitioner career engaged in adolescent pregnancy prevention programming aimed at high school and young adult African American males.

As a social work practitioner and subsequently as a social work researcher, I came to recognize that the lack of strong paternal and son relationships contributed significantly to the escalation of intergenerational adolescent and young adult fatherhood among those in my studies. As an African American male growing up in Americus, Georgia located in the state’s southwestern region, I enjoyed a strong, positive relationship with my own father. My interest in examining the growing phenomenon of unwed and nonresident fatherhood among low-income African American males emerged as I began to consider how profoundly different my life course might have been under such circumstances.

However, like many of the contributors to this edited volume, I recognize the fragility of our respective social statuses and how as African American males, many of us have been touched personally or indirectly by many of the issues and problems examined in this volume. Recently, I participated in a social science research scholars network meeting focused on masculinity and the wellbeing of African American males in which one of the speakers asked those in the audience to stand if they knew someone personally who is or have been incarcerated. In a room of approximately fifty early and mid-career African American research scholars, all holding at least a doctoral degree and many on faculties at some of the nation’s top colleges and universities, less than ten persons remained seated. I dare say that incarceration does not impact the lives of our peer colleagues in this manner. The increasing pervasiveness of such issues and problems among African American males heightens the urgency that we as African American social science researchers share in seeking viable solutions.

Read the Full Interview @ The Atlanta Post