Approximately three months ago, Div. 47’s Athlete Activism webpage went live. This was made possible by the vision laid out by Div. 47 leadership and their desire to make sure that different perspectives were reflected in the work that we do. Sport has long been a catalyst for raising awareness and forwarding local and national dialogues on issues such as race and ethnicity, gender, LGBTQ rights, religion, socioeconomic status, sexual violence, privilege, microaggressions and many other social topics.
Through the accomplishments of individuals such as Jack Johnson, Jim Thorpe, Babe Didrikson-Zaharias, Jackie Robinson, Althea Gibson, Billie Jean King, Arthur Ashe and Nancy Lieberman, just to name a few, our culture and how we view ourselves as a society has changed. It is with this awareness that Div. 47 leadership wanted to make sure that such an impactful aspect of sport and performance psychology was given more prominence on our division page.
Over the next few months, we are hoping to develop brief articles on various milestones, individuals or teams in the history of sport that reflect diversity, inclusion, and/or activism; along with how these events moved our cultural dialogue. We also have a section on the Athlete Activism page titled “Reflections on Diversity and Inclusion” on which different diversity questions will be asked. We are hoping to feature five to 10 responses from our membership to those questions.
If you would like to contribute a brief piece on sport history or add a reflection to the diversity question of the month, please contact me.