East Side Freedom Library

Sports, Activism, and Equity: A conversation with Dave Zirin and Mi’Chael Wright


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Join us for a special event about the intersection of sports, activism,  and equity with special guests Dave Zirin and Mi’Chael Wright. This  event is a fundraiser for the East Side Freedom Library to support our  equity work in community.  

About Dave: Named one of UTNE Reader’s “50 Visionaries Who Are Changing Our World,”  Dave Zirin writes about the politics of sports for the Nation Magazine  as their first sportswriter in 150 years. Winner of Sport In Society and  Northeastern University School of Journalism’s ‘Excellence in Sports  Journalism’ award, Zirin is also the host of the Edge of Sports podcast.  He has been called “the best sportswriter in the United States,” by  Robert Lipsyte. Dave Zirin is, in addition, a columnist for SLAM  Magazine and the Progressive. Dave is a graduate of Macalester College  in Saint Paul.  

About Mi’Chael: Mi’Chael N. Wright is a PhD student in the Dept. of Sociology at the  University of Minnesota, Twin Cities. Her primary research focuses on  sociology of media, sociology of mental health, collective memory and  trauma, and identity. She is specifically interested in how digital  communities, which can be simultaneously encouraging and hostile,  constitute the identity development of Black and Brown adolescent girls.  Mi’Chael is also interested in digital sociology, a sub-discipline of  sociology that highlights the role of digital media in everyday life and  its contribution to social relationships. Mi’Chael is a former Division  I athlete who organized taking a knee in 2016 and has much to share  from that experience.  

About the new book, The Kaepernick Effect Riveting and inspiring first-person stories of how “taking a knee”  triggered an awakening in sports, from the celebrated sportswriter.  “The Kaepernick Effect reveals that Colin Kaepernick’s story is bigger  than one athlete. With profiles of courage that leap off the page, Zirin  uncovers a whole national movement of citizen-athletes fighting for  racial justice.” —Ibram X. Kendi, National Book Award–winning author of  Stamped from the Beginning and How to Be an Antiracist.  

In 2016, amid an epidemic of police shootings of African Americans, the  celebrated NFL quarterback Colin Kaepernick began a series of quiet  protests on the field, refusing to stand during the U.S. national  anthem. By “taking a knee,” Kaepernick bravely joined a long tradition  of American athletes making powerful political statements. This time,  however, Kaepernick’s simple act spread like wildfire throughout  American society, becoming the preeminent symbol of resistance to  America’s persistent racial inequality.

View the video: https://youtu.be/OYt8aLPnebk

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East Side Freedom LibraryBy East Side Freedom Library

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