Paul Wilcox engaged us in a discussion about the Transatlantic Series. Noting the transformative potential of sports, Wilcox noted that they bring people together. As an Honorary Secretary of the Achilles Club, he was able to offer some interesting perspectives about the different. We were able to see photos and videos of athletes at different times in history. As someone who loves to go into the archives to look at materials, this was an especially impactful thing for me to be able to see in the talk.

 I immediately thought of the ways in which sports can be a form of exchange and bring people together, but also how they can maintain barriers and reflect systems of power. I read “What is Intersectionality” in Intersectionality by Patricia Hill Collins and Sirma Bilge for one of my courses, and it illuminated how different power structures come into play on a field that is often portrayed as equal when the players are on it. However, behind the scenes, there are much larger power structures at play. For example, interpersonal interactions can play a huge factor in performance on the field. Bilge and Collins give the example of a Nigerian player on a professional soccer team who was subject to racial epithets from both fans and teammates. These mechanism are a part of a broader system of economic, social, and political marginalization. At times, we forget that these structures creep into our forms of entertainment that are seemingly “fair” and meritocratic. However, they are important and play a large factor in outcomes on an interpersonal and broader level.