{"id":9920,"date":"2017-04-12T13:50:10","date_gmt":"2017-04-12T17:50:10","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.bu.edu\/com\/?p=9920"},"modified":"2017-05-17T17:59:01","modified_gmt":"2017-05-17T21:59:01","slug":"second-bu-play-it-forward-summit-tackles-race-and-gender","status":"publish","type":"bu-article","link":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/com\/articles\/second-bu-play-it-forward-summit-tackles-race-and-gender\/","title":{"rendered":"Second Annual Conference Tackles Race and Gender"},"content":{"rendered":"<figure id=\"attachment_9911\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-9911\" style=\"width: 646px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><img loading=\"lazy\" src=\"\/com\/files\/2017\/04\/h_butoday_Kevin-Merida-espn-undefeated_featured-994x5591.jpg\" alt=\"Kevin Merida\" width=\"636\" height=\"424\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-9911\" \/><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-9911\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">ESPN\u2019s Kevin Merida (&#8217;79), a BU trustee, says athletes can help focus attention on issues that concern them. Photo courtesy of ESPN Images<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>It\u2019s no surprise that racism and misogyny crop up in stadiums and ballparks as much as anywhere else in America today. \u201cSports are a microcosm of the rest of society,\u201d says <a href=\"http:\/\/espnmediazone.com\/us\/bios\/kevin-merida\/\">Kevin Merida<\/a> (\u201979), ESPN senior vice president and editor in chief of <a href=\"https:\/\/theundefeated.com\/\"><cite>The Undefeated<\/cite><\/a> sports blog. But now, says Merida, who is also a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/today\/2017\/kevin-merida-james-stergios\/\">BU trustee<\/a>, \u201cathletes are speaking out on issues. They\u2019re seeing the same kind of social issues everyone else is seeing and reacting to them. Because of the influence they have, a lot of their reactions get attention.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Race and gender in sports are in focus for this Friday\u2019s second annual <a href=\"http:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/playitforward\/\">Play It Forward<\/a> sports communication summit, cosponsored by the College of Communication and BU Athletics, with additional support from <a href=\"http:\/\/www.wbur.org\/\">WBUR<\/a>, BU\u2019s National Public Radio station, and the University\u2019s <a href=\"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/thurman\/\">Howard Thurman Center for Common Ground<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cOne of the reasons we\u2019re doing this conference is because in this day and age sports journalists need to be conversant with more than just the Xs and Os, what goes on out on the field, and who was drafted with the first pick,\u201d says COM lecturer and summit host <strong>Andrea Kremer<\/strong>, chief correspondent for the NFL Network, correspondent for <cite>Real Sports with Bryant Gumbel<\/cite> on HBO, and cohost of <cite>We Need to Talk<\/cite> on the CBS Sports Network.<\/p>\n<p>Learn more about <a href=\"http:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/playitforward\/\">Play It Forward<\/a>.<\/p>\n<a href=\"http:\/\/www.bu.edu\/today\/2017\/play-it-forward-summit-tackles-race-and-gender\/\" class=\"button bg-green\">Read the full article on BU Today<\/a>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>It\u2019s no surprise that racism and misogyny crop up in stadiums and ballparks as much as anywhere else in America&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":12984,"featured_media":0,"template":"","meta":{"bu_prepress_billboard":"","_bu_prepress_primary_term":"","_bu_prepress_primary_term_manual":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"bu-publication":[],"discipline-type":[],"bu_edition":[],"media_type":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/bu-article\/9920"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/bu-article"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/bu-article"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/12984"}],"version-history":[{"count":11,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/bu-article\/9920\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":9938,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/bu-article\/9920\/revisions\/9938"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9920"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9920"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9920"},{"taxonomy":"bu-publication","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/bu-publication?post=9920"},{"taxonomy":"discipline-type","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/discipline-type?post=9920"},{"taxonomy":"bu_edition","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/bu_edition?post=9920"},{"taxonomy":"media_type","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media_type?post=9920"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}