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The period between Barack Obamas inauguration as president and the Jan. 6, 2021, insurrection at the U.S Capitol marked a pivotal time for Black Americans to gain dignity and the ability to fully participate in democracy.

These years were a time of reconstruction marking a struggle between those who support the advancement of Black people and those who dont.

Thats the argument of Peniel E. Joseph, a University of Texas at Austin professor of public affairs and history. His new book, The Third Reconstruction: Americas Struggle for Racial Justice in the Twenty-First Century, comes out in early September.

Josephs book, which combines personal memoir with historical research, is largely influenced by Black feminist thought, which reimagines U.S. democracy in a way that centers Black womens identity, politics and humanity.

In the book, Joseph identifies three periods of reconstruction in U.S. history times of racial violence, political divisions, cultural memories and narrative wars but also major political and racial progress.

The First Reconstruction occurred between 1865 and 1898, he argues. The Second Reconstruction was the civil rights era, which he says started with the Brown vs. Board of Education decision in 1954 and ended with Martin Luther King Jr.s assassination in 1968.

The Third Reconstruction was from the election of Barack Obama to the Black Lives Matter protests in 2020, as well as the events that followed, such as the Jan. 6 riot.

In his book, Joseph analyzes the relationship between those he calls redemptionists and those he calls reconstructionists. Redemptionists, according to Joseph, advocate for white supremacy whether they actively voice it or not.

Reconstructionists advocate for a multiracial democracy that looks at society through an intersectional lens. Reconstructionists argue that, regardless of race, gender identity, sexuality or class, one can participate in democracy.

The son of Haitian immigrants, Joseph grew up with his single mother and brother in New York City. His childhood inspired his work, he said, and exposed him to the barriers Black people face. He saw Black people killed long before the BLM movement began, he said.

It was being around my mother whos a historian and a writer in her own right [and] a feminist and social justice advocate that I got introduced to all of this, he said.

His book recognizes Black female leaders such as journalist Ida B. Wells, activist Angela Davis and politician Stacey Abrams as pivotal figures in civil rights and social justice movements spanning the three periods of U.S. reconstruction.

Joseph said he was finally able to dig deeper into the influence of Black feminist thought because this was his first project that was a blend of history and memoir and cultural criticism.

Stacie McCormick, an associate professor of English at Texas Christian University, said its long overdue to discuss the role of Black feminism in social justice. They have often been the driving force behind encouraging people to support social justice movements, she said.

Black Lives Matter is one of the first movements where Black women were centered for their leadership, McCormick said. However, despite the advancements the BLM movement made, McCormick said there still needs to be more acknowledgement for Black women and girls who are killed by the police.

Joseph has been studying Black feminist thought and literature for about 30 years. He said with this new book, the Black feminist intersectional lens helped him understand how the BLM movement garnered so much support following the death of George Floyd in 2020.

Three Black women Alicia Garza, Opal Tometi and Patrisse Cullors started the BLM movement. In 2020, a diverse group of people built on what they started, and queer people, Black women, students and the formerly incarcerated helped lead the effort.

Social justice activism was not strictly for Black people Latino, white, indigenous, Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders joined in.

I think Black people have always been the canary in the coal mine, Joseph said, but having other non-Black people join in solidarity of protests is important.

Joseph said writing the new book was cathartic and illuminating. Everyone is a student of history, he said, trying to process whats happening in their life and society by telling stories about themselves.

Some people want to run away from what I ran toward, he said. I think people will run away from history and might find it too painful or too angry. But I thought in 2020, what was interesting, is that so many people joined that effort.

Joseph is the founding director of UTs Center for the Study of Race and Democracy in the LBJ School of Public Affairs. He formerly taught at Tufts University. He has also published several other books, including The Sword and the Shield: The Revolutionary Lives of Malcolm X and Martin Luther King Jr. and the award-winning book Waiting Til the Midnight Hour: A Narrative History of Black Power in America.

Lisa B. Thompson, a professor of African and African Diaspora Studies at UT Austin, has known Joseph for about a decade. She described him as an excited and deeply interested intellectual. Thompson said it was admirable for Joseph to publish a book about current events in a way that gives non-historians an opportunity to understand what is happening.

I think his way of framing these things helps us understand certain historic cycles, but also is very adamant about keeping our sense of hope about what can happen, she said. Its very inviting [and] comprehensive, and I dont believe hes talking down to people. Hes calling people in to have a conversation that we need to have.

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BLM movement explored in new book by UT Austin professor - The Dallas Morning News

LAKE BUENA VISTA, FLORIDA - AUGUST 01: An overview of the basketball court shows the NBA logo and ... [+] Black Lives Matter before the start of a game between the Denver Nuggets and the Miami Heat at HP Field House at ESPN Wide World Of Sports Complex on August 01, 2020 in Lake Buena Vista, Florida. NOTE TO USER: User expressly acknowledges and agrees that, by downloading and or using this photograph, User is consenting to the terms and conditions of the Getty Images License Agreement. (Photo by Kevin C. Cox/Getty Images)

End racism was spray painted in endzones. Breonna Taylor stickers were affixed to players helmets. George Floyds name was sewn onto jerseys. Professional sports teams and leagues made financial pledges to Black Lives Matter, black community organizations, and assorted racial justice initiatives. Athletes were allowed to kneel without penalty during the national anthem. League-sponsored commercials calling for Americans to work together to dismantle systemic racism aired on television networks across the country, usually during games.

These are just some of the many activities in which pro sports teams and leagues engaged during and immediately following the 2020 summer of racial reckoning.

This was the summer that Breonna Taylor, George Floyd, and Ahmaud Arbery were murdered, and uprisings ensued across the United States and around the world. That August, the Milwaukee Bucks protested the officer-involved shooting of Jacob Blake, an unarmed Black man in Kenosha, Wisconsin, by opting out of their NBA playoff game. All other NBA games that day were postponed. Athletes, coaches, and executives not only joined the movement, but also leveraged their brands in ways they hadnt previously done.

The National Hockey League isnt at all well known for its racial diversity, yet even some of its teams participated in the movement by flashing Black Lives Matter on jumbotrons throughout their arenas. The NHL released a racial justice statement in which it publicly committed to increasing awareness, allyship, and advocacy. It began with the famous Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King quote, Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere.

EDMONTON, ALBERTA - AUGUST 02: A general view of signage and game action is seen in the second ... [+] period of Game One of the Western Conference Qualification Round between the Nashville Predators and the Arizona Coyotes at Rogers Place on August 02, 2020 in Edmonton, Alberta. (Photo by Dave Sandford/NHLI via Getty Images)

Additionally, several NHL players (most of whom are white) proudly wore Black Lives Matter t-shirts to games and press conferences, knelt together on the ice before games, locked arms and hockey sticks to show solidarity with Black Americans, and gestured a shared commitment to racial justice in other ways. The League was left with no choice but to postpone four Stanley Cup Playoff games in August 2020, as NHL players also united in protest against the shooting of Jacob Blake.

To some fans and other Americans, all this seemed like a lot not just for hockey, but for pro sports as an industry. What are teams and leagues doing now that the protests have ended?

It appears the clock has run out on the performative activism that was on display in stadiums and arenas the latter half of 2020. It isnt because systemic racism has since been defeated.

In Los Angeles, all 11 pro sports teams united in July 2020 to form an alliance focused on racial justice. Collectively, theirs was a five-year commitment. Now, more than two years later, what is the Alliance currently doing to dismantle structural and systemic racism in our nations second largest city?

The Lakers, Dodgers, Rams, and eight other teams received significant local and national press when the Alliance was announced. But there has since been little public reporting of where funds have been invested, activities that have been launched, and change that has been enacted (or at least initiated). This begs two reasonable questions: Were teams in L.A. and elsewhere just temporarily inspired by the moment in 2020, and ultimately was it all just for show?

It seems that sports leagues and teams that comprise them didnt fully recognize to what they were committing two years ago. Responding in such bold ways to the murders and shootings of a handful of unarmed Black people in a particular moment in American history was important. But systemic racism is what leagues and teams claimed they were committed to tackling.

Clearly, they didnt understand that sustained engagement, courageous leadership, substantive partnerships with communities of color, public accountability, communication, and a lot more money are required. Racial justice also requires pro sports organizations to grapple with and fix internal racial problems, such as the severe underrepresentation of coaches and executives of color.

Last week, ESPN did an extensive feature on Justin Morrow, an extraordinarily accomplished pro athlete who played 12 seasons on two Major League Soccer teams. Morrow now works in the front office of Toronto FC, the team from which he recently retired as a player. He was one of the founders of Black Players for Change, an independent organization consisting of more than 170 MLS players, coaches, and staff working together in pursuit of racial justice.

Black Players for Change officially launched on June 19, 2020, just three weeks after George Floyds murder. Morrow and the other founders were committed to leveraging their personal platforms as well as the MLS brand to do something meaningful and sustainable. Their commitment endures, despite the ball-dropping that has occurred elsewhere throughout pro sports.

I believe summer 2020 ushered in a new generation of athlete activism characterized by collaboration and coordinated actions to dismantle systemic oppression at multiple levels, Morrow told me in an interview. Athletes are engaging in activism at unprecedented numbers, which has shifted the power dynamic further to the side of the players. With fears of retaliation diminished, the new possibilities are exciting.

In addition to his Toronto FC management role and continued work with Black Players for Change, Morrow is spending two years as a Global Sports Initiative Fellow at the Harvard University Weatherhead Center for International Affairs. A significant portion of his fellowship is devoted to collaborating with a team of experts to determine what racial justice activities occurred across pro sports organizations in 2020, as well as what players and their teammates are doing now. He also wants to know what athletes feel are appropriate and necessary racial justice activist activities in their industry. Starting next week, Morrows team of academic experts will begin surveying hundreds of women, men, and genderqueer athletes throughout MLS and several other pro sports leagues.

More than two years later, athletes are holding up their end of the deal. We continue to push for accountability, and show up where others are falling short, Morrow notes. The amount of work weve done is astounding. I hope the aggregated insights of players across leagues that our survey produces will give us guidance on how to further lobby for change.

Earlier this year, the University of Southern California Race and Equity Center published a report on advancing and sustaining racial justice in pro sports. It includes several reflective questions, a racial justice continuity framework, and numerous concrete actions that will deepen and sustain the momentum of summer 2020. Pro sports teams and organizations claiming a commitment to racial justice really must do more of what is recommended in this publication.

Ultimately, athletes collectively refusing to play until their teams and leagues make good on racial justice promises is the surest way to hold their organizations and the executives who lead them accountable.

Too many people in pro sports who jumped on the bandwagon two years ago are now taking a timeout. Meanwhile, the systemic racism they declared an opponent is still accumulating points and negatively affecting the lives of people of color within and beyond their industry.

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Pro Sports Teams And Leagues Are Dropping The Ball On Racial Justice - Forbes

Its a complicated time to be a Black entrepreneur. Some Black founders in recent years have created formidable startups with towering valuations. But there are still shockingly few large VC-backed startups with Black leaders, and recent months chaos in the venture capital market has taken a disproportionate toll on their companieswiping out diversity gains in fundraising.

On the heels of the Black Lives Matter movement, Black entrepreneurs raised record amounts of venture funding. In the second quarter of last year, they took in $866 millionaccording to Crunchbase data, almost double the previous years US total.But in the second quarter of this year, Black-founded companies raised just $324 million, a 63% drop. Meanwhile, the decline in the VC industry as a whole was not nearly as stark: PitchBook data shows that overall VC funding in the US fell by just 23% in the same period.

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Black Unicorns Are Rare in Tech and the Downturn Could Make It Worse - Bloomberg

Posted on: August 25, 2022; Updated on: August 25, 2022By Craig Brandhorst, craigb1@mailbox.sc.edu, 803-777-3681

The History of American College Football: Institutional Policy, Culture, and Reform, edited by Christian Anderson and Amber Falluca, examines the role of the popular American sport on college campuses from its 19th century roots to its contemporary cultural dominance. Anderson is an associate professor in the College of Educations Department of Educational Leadership and Policies. Falluca is associate director at the Center for Integrative and Experiential Learning and an instructor who teaches a course on intercollegiate athletics and higher education. The two also co-curated a companion exhibit at the universitys Museum of Education at Wardlaw College.

The book begins with your chapter, Christian, looking back at the 100th anniversary of college football or whats generally agreed upon as the 100th anniversary, 1969 and most of the subsequent chapters also focus on that first 100 years. Why that inflection point?

Christian: College football made a lot out of the 100th anniversary. They had a centennial game between Rutgers and Princeton, who played what is generally considered the first college football game in 1869. They had a nationwide homecoming queen. Then they had the Game of the Century between Texas and Arkansas. ABC Sports got them to change the schedule because they anticipated that these two teams would be undefeated at the end of the season, and they were. President Nixon was in the stands and awarded Texas a plaque to name them national champions. Thats one part. Its also just how it fell out. The chapters all happened to fall within that first 100 years, except for the chapter about the NCAA versus Board of Regents decision in 1984. But even that didnt just pop up out of nowhere. The events of the previous 30 years shaped that decision.

You also emphasize mythmaking. You write the mythology looms larger than life in college football and argue that we need to understand the function and purposes of those myths. What is that function on our campuses or in the larger culture?

Christian: Were always trying to make meaning out of our lives and football just seems to fit that niche by helping us make sense of who we are and who we arent. We all seem to give over part of our identity to our football team in the fall. If your school is 12-0, or 10-2 or 6-6, it affects your mood and your campus mood and your communitys mood. Basketball is huge, baseball is huge, they all have their own rhythms, but theres just something about football.

Politics and history also run throughout. And some of it is eye-opening. One chapter explores the relationship between football, masculinity and the Lost Cause in the South following the Civil War.

Amber: When I read that chapter in draft form, I kept asking myself, How did I not know these facts already? One example is the name Ole Miss for the University of Mississippi. Thats how its commonly referred to. On their uniforms, on the helmets, it still says Ole Miss, and you think nothing of it. Then you learn the history, that the nickname originated with the school yearbook. Then when you unpack that, you learn that the yearbook was a reference to the slave masters wife or mistress.

So we have this sport where the student athletes are largely African-American males. Its no question in Division I, particularly within the Power Five conferences. Theyre members of the team, representing their school, but at the end of the day theyre wearing this emblem. Thats a fascinating societal puzzle, especially today. Given all that has happened with Black Lives Matter, why has that not come to bear yet? Or will it come to bear?

We mentioned the NCAA earlier. The second-to-last chapter is about Board of Regents versus the NCAA, the 1984 Supreme Court case that opened the floodgates to the commercialization of college sports.

Amber: The 1984 case speaks to this opportunistic piece of college football, with television. Who controls the revenue? Who will not only reap the rewards from the monetization, but in essence, who will have the power and influence as a result? With the NCAA prevailing, it really set an additional course I wont even say new course, because there was momentum already.

Theres even an anecdote about the rule change forbidding the dangerous flying wedge formation, how the NCAA perpetuated its own mythology on the matter as you write, Christian, to assert their indispensability. Their timeline was wrong, they overstated their role, but whatever. They asserted their indispensability, and they havent lost it.

Christian: Well, let me tie this back to the 1984 case. Byron White, the Supreme Court associate justice, had been a football player himself. In dissenting against the majority decision, he talks about the history of intercollegiate sports. He says, look, were getting far afield from the educational value. When we talk about student athletes, were really moving into something that more closely resembles professional sports. Most likely, even if they had ruled differently in 1984, we would have ended up somewhere close to where we are now. The forces were too big.But that ruling really sped things up.

We started with the 100th anniversary of college football. We just passed the 150th. Theres a lot of debate about those salaries, the big budgets, and the sport continues to evolve. If there were a sequel, what are the chapters?

Amber: I think what well see with some of the emerging legislation is the student athletes are the drivers. You cant ignore it. So I think well see implications of Image and Likeness (NIL), good and bad. It gives a good opening for student athletes to finally say, Youre going to market me, Im going to get a piece of the pie. And I think thats great. But one thing Im curious about is the dynamic that creates within a team structure in a sport like football. Are there the haves and the have nots? And how does that play out on the field? Does it influence how the coach interacts with the players or how they recruit student athletes?

And how about you, Christian?

Christian: You know, the origins of college football were students playing students, setting it up and organizing it. It was very student-run, almost intramural except that it was intercollegiate. It wasnt us playing a pickup game on the Horseshoe. It was us challenging Clemson, or, in the early days, even the YMCA and high schools. I mean, you look at some of those early schedules and its bonkers who they were playing.

But then faculty got involved in trying to oversee it, and some were even coaches. Then you saw the administrative take over. Faculty still had a role, but their role diminished. Now were almost coming full circle. Well never have student control like in the earliest days, but theres more student influence, like Amber was saying. So I think that if you were to write the 50-plus years since 1969, you could devote half of the book just to the student athlete. In fact, the term student athlete would be chapter one.

Banner image: University of South Carolina football team, 1898, Garnet & Black yearbook. Photo provided by University Libraries.

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Topics: Faculty, Research, History, College of Education

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Big game on campus - UofSC News & Events - University of South Carolina

By M.D. Kittle

MADISON On the anniversary of the August 2020 riots that devastated Kenosha, Republican gubernatorial candidate Tim Michels campaign is out with a new social media ad hammering Gov. Tony Evers on his handling of the destructive demonstrations.

The ad, titled No Regrets, opens with a clip of a mask-wearing Evers telling reporters that his administration had filled every request for assistance as the rioters like the fires they set raged out of control.

Evers is caught in a lie, as the video includes audio of a newscaster reporting that Kenosha County officials were frustrated after their request to deploy 1,500 National Guard members wasnt fulfilled.

Our county is under attack. Our businesses are under attack. Our homes are under attack. Our local law enforcement agencies need additional support to help bring civility back to our community, the Kenosha County Board of Supervisors urgently wrote to the governor.

Scores of businesses, government buildings, and residential properties were damaged or destroyed in the Black Lives Matter riots, causing more than $50 million in damage.

An email obtained by Empower Wisconsin shows a staff member from U.S. Sen. Ron Johnsons office effectively telling Evers top aide to wake up and smell the smoke.

Maggie our office have received numerous calls from folks in Kenosha pleading for help, wrote Julie Leschke, Johnsons deputy chief of staff to Maggie Gau, Evers chief of staff, in a frantic email sent at 8 a.m. on Aug. 26 Theyre really scared and reporting that police are standing down and letting the rioters destroy and take over.

Leschke asked the same question Kenosha city and county officials had been asking for three days.

Will you be talking about steps the governor will be taking? Will he accept the Presidents offer to help? the Johnson staffer wrote.

As has been well documented, the governor was slow to deploy the National Guard, and he failed to provide adequate support when he eventually consented. And Evers initially rejected federal law enforcement assistance from then-President Donald Trump in what clearly was an act of political pettiness.

I did turn down the bringing in the Homeland Security, Evers says in a clip in the Michels ad.

The campaign video is filled with scenes of the chaos from those nightmarish days, including vehicles on fire at a car dealership beneath a Black Lives Matter sign.

I feel confident that we met our obligations, Evers says in the video. I would not change anything we did. I have no regrets.

The Michels ad ends by urging voters to, Have no regrets on November 8th. Fire Tony Evers.

Evers campaign did not return a call seeking comment.

Watch the video here.

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Michels ad hits Evers on Kenosha riots - Empower Wisconsin