Emancipation

By: Markeith Hogan ‘23 Poet

After Kadir Nelson’s Painting “American Uprising”

What is freedom to the melanin breed?

The cries of youth, uncertain of the trajectory their country marches towards? left with the brutality and hate, expected to create the change their nurturers couldn’t

Maybe it’s the physicality of raging mothers over the premature meeting with the hooded entity gripping his scythe exchanging custody of those once theirs

Suffocating tear filled air, chemicals engulf the lungs of the mob, only warded off by cloth created to represent independence

Perhaps it’s the silence of our fallen family, their cries suppressed within the dirt and gravel and laid to rest in the hollow soil we call

America

ing hosted by the Nazi party. These past examples remind us that even though these actions were not characterized in the same vein as modern examples they provide key information into where this trend might have begun.

But those few notable examples in the past pale in comparison to the sheer amount of the laundering of reputations using sports that we see today. It has also seemed to concentrate in four major areas: soccer/fútbol, golf, international sports events, and alternative sports (WWE, Boxing, UFC...). Soccer’s sportswashing has followed two particular routes: acquiring top/ premier level teams (Paris Saint-Germain F.C. owned by Qatar Sports Investments controlled by Nasser Al-Khelaifi from 2011-present,) or hosting tournaments of various followings or sizes (2022 FIFA World Cup in Qatar). Golf has only recently been involved with sportswashing, but the meteoric rise of LIV golf (A professional golf tour financed by the Public Investment Fund, the sovereign wealth fund of Saudi Arabia,) has taken many by surprise and has emerged as a legitimate challenger to the PGA tour. Not only has the World Cup been manipulated but so too have the Olympics ( Sochi 2014 and Beijing 2022). In the realm of alternative sports: many events have been held in countries who are willing to pay top dollar to get the appearance of a modernized accepting nation through sports. Some examples of this are the Crown Jewel, a WWE event in Saudi Arabia, or the numerous UFC events in China, Russia, and the UAE.

Now you might ask; does Sportswashing work? The answer is most often yes. Sports are showing that are beloved around the world, and people are willing to overlook things for the enjoyment of sports glory and excitement. One

Editor-in-Chief

Jackson Baldrate ‘23

Managing Editor

Luke Gormsen ‘24

Editors

Tim Barloon ‘23

Jackson Brewer ‘24 achieved their goal to an of the best examples of this is, in the months leading up to the 2022 World Cup all this news was coming out attacking Qatar for an innumerable amount of different grievances such as LGBTQ rights or working conditions or women’s rights, and we were led to believe that maybe they might change course and actually reform their nation for the better. Then the games kicked off, and the criticism ground to a screeching halt, with a few notable exceptions, because of the shared passion that we as people have for various sports. So in the end, Qatar worked hard to land and put on this World Cup, and they

Billy Cannon ‘24

Daniel Colucci ‘23

Abram Cutler ‘23

Max Diaz ‘24

Teddy Friesz ‘24

Sam Galupo ‘23

Andrew Lavella ‘24

Will Prisco ‘25 extent, to grow their identity on the world stage. This shows the real danger of this disturbing trend: it strikes at a weak spot in our culture and our society and exploits something that we normally unite around. It hijacks that goodwill and uses it to sanitize or legitimize the image or government of a particular nation.

In conclusion, we need to be very careful with how we view sports to avoid being pawns in a game to sanitize or support a nefarious cause. And make no mistake two things drive sportswashing: greed and lust for power, not a desire to play sports.

Moderator: Dr. Harry Rissetto