[Marxism] Fwd: Against football | Louis Proyect: The Unrepentant Marxist
POSTING RULES & NOTES #1 YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. #2 This mail-list, like most, is publicly & permanently archived. #3 Subscribe and post under an alias if #2 is a concern. * On 11/17/14 6:30 PM, Wythe Holt jr. via Marxism wrote: Football was a path of upward mobility for my grandfather. He was reared in utter if genteel poverty in the 1870s and 1880s. He began playing football at college, as he was able to eke out two years at Virginia Military Institute in the early 1890s, paid for largely by a grandmother who thought he (and his brother) had the most promise of any of her many grandchildren and saved up a bit of money (giving all she had to the two brothers, and not to her other grandchildren) to help with the amounts that my grandfather and his brother earned in various jobs. I think he was 19 or 20 when he first got to college. He was the star of their team and the alumni paid for a 5th semester for him, so he could play football. Back home, he organized (with his brother) what we would today call a semipro football team, the Hampton Athletic Club (he was from Hampton, VA), and for several years they played football against other semipro teams but also against college squads such as Prince to n and University of North Carolina. Football helped him to overcome the stigma he felt from being poverty-stricken, it made him many friends, and was something he treasured the rest of his long life. Wythe I know that Wythe is too modest to talk about his own background but at the risk of making him blush, I would urge comrades to check this out: WYTHE HOLT by Morton Horwitz∗ It is a great pleasure to be asked to celebrate the distinguished career of Wythe Holt. I have known Wythe for over thirty years. We became friends during his year as a Law and Humanities Fellow at Harvard in 1975-76. The young Wythe already displayed that extraordinary combination of, on one hand, passionate outrage at injustice and empathy for society’s underdogs and outsiders, and, on the other, a sweetness and gentleness of spirit that made it a privilege to be his friend. Wythe’s academic career expressed his moral and political commit- ments, much of it during a time in Alabama when it took real moral courage to identify openly with Marxism or to advocate progressive positions on questions involving race or class. Wythe began his teaching career in 1966 during George Wallace’s first term as governor of Alabama and three years after Wallace’s notorious “stand at the schoolhouse door” speech shouting defiance against Brown v. Board of Education. During Wythe’s first twenty-one years at Alabama, Wallace, his wife, or one of his close supporters, occupied the governor’s mansion. I never heard Wythe complain about being isolated or marginalized, though for many years he surely encountered real pressure to conform. He stood firm and found his community where he could—among sympathetic Alabama faculty and students when he could and among legal historians and members of the Conference on Critical Legal Studies when he could not. Ultimately, I suspect, it was his commitment to scholarship that sustained him through those many years as an outlier. Wythe’s most fertile scholarly period was during the 1980s, a time when a physically stricken Wallace continued to dominate state politics, while returning to the less rabid racial politics of his pre-demagogic days. full: http://www.law.ua.edu/pubs/lrarticles/Volume%2058/Issue%205/Horwitz.pdf _ Full posting guidelines at: http://www.marxmail.org/sub.htm Set your options at: http://lists.csbs.utah.edu/options/marxism/archive%40mail-archive.com
Re: [Marxism] Fwd: Against football | Louis Proyect: The Unrepentant Marxist
POSTING RULES & NOTES #1 YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. #2 This mail-list, like most, is publicly & permanently archived. #3 Subscribe and post under an alias if #2 is a concern. * I sent Louis a copy of my incomplete manuscript of a new book in which a large section reviews the history of football as part of the project of muscular Christianity to toughen up upper class white boys to be more suitable for the military, which is why for quite some time Harvard was the dominant football team. Teddy Roosevelt was a big part of this. After a while, so many players got injured and killed, that Teddy Roosevelt called a conference in the White House to change the rules a bit. Earlier, she had dismissed the injuries as a reasonable price to pay for the process of toughening up young men. On Sun, Nov 16, 2014 at 1:53 PM, Louis Proyect via Marxism < marxism@lists.csbs.utah.edu> wrote: > POSTING RULES & NOTES > #1 YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. > #2 This mail-list, like most, is publicly & permanently archived. > #3 Subscribe and post under an alias if #2 is a concern. > * > > On 11/16/14 4:41 PM, Wythe Holt jr. wrote: > >> Thanks for this good sense, Louis. Football -- which unfortunately I >> like to watch -- breeds violence and disregard of human health through its >> practices, through the devotion of all connected with the sport to violence >> and to "hitting" (the euphemism always used by football people for what >> they teach players to do to other players, usually as violently as >> possible), through its macho pseudo-manliness mantras and obedience >> systems. I hope that all of this about permanent injuries, concussions, >> and the (often sexual) violence wreaked upon family members and the young >> coming into the sport -- as you so rightly emphasize -- brings about the >> demise of this vicious and hurtful sport. Wythe >> > > The latest on all this. > > NY Times, Nov. 14 2014 > Florida State Player Fled Crash but Got Only Traffic Tickets > By MIKE McINTIRE and WALT BOGDANICH > > TALLAHASSEE, Fla. -- In the early morning hours of Oct. 5, as this college > town was celebrating another big football victory by Florida State > University, a starting cornerback on the team drove his car into the path > of an oncoming vehicle driven by a teenager returning home from a job at > the Olive Garden. > > Both cars were totaled. But rather than remain at the scene as the law > requires, the football player, P. J. Williams, left his wrecked vehicle in > the street and fled into the darkness along with his two passengers, > including Ronald Darby, the team's other starting cornerback. > > The Tallahassee police responded to the off-campus accident, eventually > reaching out to the Florida State University police and the university's > athletic department. > > By the next day, it was as if the hit and run had never happened. > > The New York Times looked into how the police handled the case, reviewing > law enforcement records and interviewing witnesses, lawyers, the police and > a university representative. The examination found that Mr. Williams, > driving with a suspended license, had been given a break by the Tallahassee > police, who initially labeled the accident a hit and run, a criminal act, > but later decided to issue Mr. Williams only two traffic tickets. > Afterward, the case did not show up in the city's public online database of > police calls -- a technical error, the police said. > > A starting cornerback for the Florida State University football team left > the scene of a collision on Oct. 5 but was not charged with a hit-and-run, > an examination by The New York Times found. That contrasts with another > case in the same area in the same month. > > Mr. Williams eventually returned to the scene. But Tallahassee officers > did not test him for alcohol. Nor did their report indicate whether they > asked if he had been drinking or why he had fled -- logical questions, since > the accident occurred at 2:37 a.m. The report also minimized the impact of > the crash on the driver of the other car, Ian Keith, by failing to indicate > that his airbag had deployed -- an important detail, because Mr. Keith said > in an interview that the airbag had cut and bruised his hands. > > The university police, who lacked jurisdiction, nevertheless sent two > ranking officers -- including the shift commander -- to the scene. Yet they > wrote no report about their actions that night. Florida State dismissed the > role of its officers in the episode as too minor to require a report or to > be entered into their own online police log, comparing it to an instance > when campus officers responded to a baby opossum falling from a tree. > > The car acci
Re: [Marxism] Fwd: Against football | Louis Proyect: The Unrepentant Marxist
POSTING RULES & NOTES #1 YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. #2 This mail-list, like most, is publicly & permanently archived. #3 Subscribe and post under an alias if #2 is a concern. * On 11/16/14 4:41 PM, Wythe Holt jr. wrote: Thanks for this good sense, Louis. Football -- which unfortunately I like to watch -- breeds violence and disregard of human health through its practices, through the devotion of all connected with the sport to violence and to "hitting" (the euphemism always used by football people for what they teach players to do to other players, usually as violently as possible), through its macho pseudo-manliness mantras and obedience systems. I hope that all of this about permanent injuries, concussions, and the (often sexual) violence wreaked upon family members and the young coming into the sport -- as you so rightly emphasize -- brings about the demise of this vicious and hurtful sport. Wythe The latest on all this. NY Times, Nov. 14 2014 Florida State Player Fled Crash but Got Only Traffic Tickets By MIKE McINTIRE and WALT BOGDANICH TALLAHASSEE, Fla. — In the early morning hours of Oct. 5, as this college town was celebrating another big football victory by Florida State University, a starting cornerback on the team drove his car into the path of an oncoming vehicle driven by a teenager returning home from a job at the Olive Garden. Both cars were totaled. But rather than remain at the scene as the law requires, the football player, P. J. Williams, left his wrecked vehicle in the street and fled into the darkness along with his two passengers, including Ronald Darby, the team’s other starting cornerback. The Tallahassee police responded to the off-campus accident, eventually reaching out to the Florida State University police and the university’s athletic department. By the next day, it was as if the hit and run had never happened. The New York Times looked into how the police handled the case, reviewing law enforcement records and interviewing witnesses, lawyers, the police and a university representative. The examination found that Mr. Williams, driving with a suspended license, had been given a break by the Tallahassee police, who initially labeled the accident a hit and run, a criminal act, but later decided to issue Mr. Williams only two traffic tickets. Afterward, the case did not show up in the city’s public online database of police calls — a technical error, the police said. A starting cornerback for the Florida State University football team left the scene of a collision on Oct. 5 but was not charged with a hit-and-run, an examination by The New York Times found. That contrasts with another case in the same area in the same month. Mr. Williams eventually returned to the scene. But Tallahassee officers did not test him for alcohol. Nor did their report indicate whether they asked if he had been drinking or why he had fled — logical questions, since the accident occurred at 2:37 a.m. The report also minimized the impact of the crash on the driver of the other car, Ian Keith, by failing to indicate that his airbag had deployed — an important detail, because Mr. Keith said in an interview that the airbag had cut and bruised his hands. The university police, who lacked jurisdiction, nevertheless sent two ranking officers — including the shift commander — to the scene. Yet they wrote no report about their actions that night. Florida State dismissed the role of its officers in the episode as too minor to require a report or to be entered into their own online police log, comparing it to an instance when campus officers responded to a baby opossum falling from a tree. The car accident, previously unreported by the news media, comes amid heightened national scrutiny of preferential treatment given to athletes, including articles by The Times examining how the authorities have sometimes gone easy on Florida State football players accused of wrongdoing. The Tallahassee police conducted virtually no investigation of a 2012 rape accusation against quarterback Jameis Winston, the 2013 Heisman Trophy winner. Mr. Winston is scheduled for a student disciplinary hearing Dec. 1, nearly two years after the accusation was first made. He has denied sexually assaulting anyone. Elijah Stiers, a lawyer from Miami who helped write a state law enacted this year that toughened penalties for hit-and-run drivers, said the basic facts of the Oct. 5 crash had warranted criminal charges and a sobriety test. “Two-thirty in the morning, people fleeing on foot — at the very least you’ve got to charge them with hit and run,” he said, adding, “You don’t get out of it just because you come back to the scene.” The Times also showed its findings to the Tallahassee police chief, Michael DeLeo, who said in
Re: [Marxism] Fwd: Against football | Louis Proyect: The Unrepentant Marxist
POSTING RULES & NOTES #1 YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. #2 This mail-list, like most, is publicly & permanently archived. #3 Subscribe and post under an alias if #2 is a concern. * Thanks for this good sense, Louis. Football -- which unfortunately I like to watch -- breeds violence and disregard of human health through its practices, through the devotion of all connected with the sport to violence and to "hitting" (the euphemism always used by football people for what they teach players to do to other players, usually as violently as possible), through its macho pseudo-manliness mantras and obedience systems. I hope that all of this about permanent injuries, concussions, and the (often sexual) violence wreaked upon family members and the young coming into the sport -- as you so rightly emphasize -- brings about the demise of this vicious and hurtful sport. Wythe From: Marxism on behalf of Louis Proyect via Marxism Sent: Monday, October 13, 2014 1:08 PM To: Wythe Holt jr. Subject: [Marxism] Fwd: Against football | Louis Proyect: The Unrepentant Marxist == Rule #1: YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. == For the past few months, there has been a steady barrage of news reports on the moral failings of football players with a tendency to put the blame on those in positions of responsibility both in the professional and amateur realms. But as you might expect, there has been an utter failure to put football into a broader social and political context, something I hope to do in this essay. full: http://louisproyect.org/2014/10/13/against-football/ Send list submissions to: Marxism@lists.csbs.utah.edu Set your options at: http://lists.csbs.utah.edu/options/marxism/wholt%40law.ua.edu _ Full posting guidelines at: http://www.marxmail.org/sub.htm Set your options at: http://lists.csbs.utah.edu/options/marxism/archive%40mail-archive.com
Re: [Marxism] Fwd: Against football | Louis Proyect: The Unrepentant Marxist
POSTING RULES & NOTES #1 YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. #2 This mail-list, like most, is publicly & permanently archived. #3 Subscribe and post under an alias if #2 is a concern. * On 11/16/14 4:21 PM, Wythe Holt jr. wrote: Thanks for this good sense, Louis. Football -- which unfortunately I like to watch -- breeds violence and disregard of human health through its practices, through the devotion of all connected with the sport to violence and to "hitting" (the euphemism always used by football people for what they teach players to do to other players, usually as violently as possible), through its macho pseudo-manliness mantras and obedience systems. I hope that all of this about permanent injuries, concussions, and the (often sexual) violence wreaked upon family members and the young coming into the sport -- as you so rightly emphasize -- brings about the demise of this vicious and hurtful sport. Wythe Whythe, I assume that this was meant for the list. Comrades need to remember that due to the quirks of our Mailman configuration, you need to make sure that the list address is included in your reply. (marxism@lists.csbs.utah.edu) _ Full posting guidelines at: http://www.marxmail.org/sub.htm Set your options at: http://lists.csbs.utah.edu/options/marxism/archive%40mail-archive.com
[Marxism] Fwd: Against football | Louis Proyect: The Unrepentant Marxist
== Rule #1: YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. == For the past few months, there has been a steady barrage of news reports on the moral failings of football players with a tendency to put the blame on those in positions of responsibility both in the professional and amateur realms. But as you might expect, there has been an utter failure to put football into a broader social and political context, something I hope to do in this essay. full: http://louisproyect.org/2014/10/13/against-football/ Send list submissions to: Marxism@lists.csbs.utah.edu Set your options at: http://lists.csbs.utah.edu/options/marxism/archive%40mail-archive.com
