Sports-world wokeness - two recent examples

Dodgeball, for cryin' out loud:

When the Canadian Society for the Study of Education meets in Vancouver at the Congress of the Humanities and Social Sciences, a trio of education theorists will argue that dodgeball is not only problematic, in the modern sense of displaying hierarchies of privilege based on athletic skill, but that it is outright “miseducative.”

Dodgeball is not just unhelpful to the development of kind and gentle children who will become decent citizens of a liberal democracy. It is actively harmful to this process, they say.

Dodgeball is a tool of “oppression.”
It is not saved because some kids like it, according to an abstract for the presentation, led by Joy Butler, professor of curriculum and pedagogy at the University of British Columbia.

“As we consider the potential of physical education to empower students by engaging them in critical and democratic practices, we conclude that the hidden curriculum offered by dodgeball is antithetical to this project, even when it reflects the choices of the strongest and most agile students,” it reads.

This “hidden curriculum” in dodgeball is far more nefarious than your average gym class runaround. Dodgeball is “miseducative” because it “reinforces the five faces of oppression,” as defined by the late Iris Marion Young, a social and political theorist at the University of Chicago.

As Butler’s abstract describes it, those “faces” are “marginalization, powerlessness, and helplessness of those perceived as weaker individuals through the exercise of violence and dominance by those who are considered more powerful.” Young’s list of these fundamental types of oppression also includes exploitation and cultural domination.

The audience for this argument is primarily teachers, including gym teachers, who are identified as part of the problem, for not acting on values they otherwise understand and claim to hold.

“Despite the fact that many physical educators understand their vital role in helping students develop robust, equal, productive relationships and critical awareness, their practices on the ground do not always reflect this agenda,” the presenters write. “We suggest that this tension becomes sharply visible in the common practice of allowing students to play dodgeball.” 

And this from the world of basketball has been germinating for a while, but now appears to be gaining traction:

A number of NBA teams have been considering ditching the term “owner” and high-level conversations have taken place over the past year, according to a report from TMZ.

These conversations have focused on the idea that the term “owner” feels racially insensitive in a league that is predominantly made up of black players.

Several high-ranking sources from multiple teams tell us people have been talking about the issue for a while but it gained steam in late 2018 when Draymond Green appeared on LeBron James' show, "The Shop," and argued against teams using the term.

"You shouldn't say owner," Green said ... noting the title should be changed to either CEO, Chairman or something like Majority Shareholder.

During the show, Jon Stewart agreed and explained, "When your product is purely the labor of people then owner sounds like something that is of a feudal nature."

Two teams have already made the change. The Philadelphia 76ers changed their titles from “owners” to “managing partners” and “co-owners” to limited partners.” The Los Angeles Clippers refer to their owner as “chairman” now.

"Chairman" isn't gender neutral, so I'm sure that will change soon enough.

Most teams are still using the term “owner” and are currently not being pressured to make the change. However, the league itself has changed its term for team owners to something they consider more racially sensitive. "We refer to the owners of our teams as Governors; each team is represented on our Board of Governors," an NBA spokesman told TMZ.

This is why I can't sign on to the everything-is-basically-fine-except-for-some-peripheral-nuttiness-people-are-lucky-to-be-alive-in-a-time-of-such-great-comfort-convenience-and-opportunity view of the present moment.  There is nothing that this rot does not permeate. From the arts to the corporate world to institutional religion to science and now, to the one area of life in which humans had historically retreated to blow off steam and test their skill, the dismantlers of our civilization are on the march.