NEWS RELEASE UC Berkeley Sociologist Harry Edwards On Sport In Society

Press release from UC Berkeley News:

Public Affairs

2022-04-08

Read the transcript.

Follow Berkeley Talks, a Berkeley News podcast that features lectures and conversations at UC Berkeley. Review us on Apple Podcasts.

In Berkeley Talks episode 138, Harry Edwards, a renowned sports activist and UC Berkeley professor emeritus of sociology, discusses the intersections of race and sport, the history of predatory inclusion, athletes’ struggle for definitional authority and the power of sport to change society.

“You can change society by changing people’s perceptions and understandings of the games they play,” Edwards said at a March 1 campus event sponsored by the Institute for the Study of Societal Issues (ISSI) and Cal Athletics.

“I’m saying whether it’s race relations in America, whether it’s relations between the United States and the Soviet Union and China, whether it’s what’s going on in South Africa with apartheid, you can leverage sport to change people’s perceptions and understandings of those relationships. Change society by changing people’s perceptions and understandings of the games they play.”

Watch a video of the talk on ISSI’s YouTube page.

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This press release was produced by UC Berkeley News. The views expressed here are the author’s own.