The University of Iowa men’s basketball team fouled Jersey in their first-round March Madness clash against the Richmond Spiders on Thursday.
Days.
Their standard black and gold color scheme was mixed with the word “parity” on their backs, their numbers and last names placed below. It is a clear commitment to the message of social justice. And while most parties don’t use uniforms to promote it, Iowa isn’t the most popular party.
The hockey players started the initiative before the 2020-2021 season, when America was in the throes of social and political upheaval, and they did more than a word on the back of their uniforms. Messages like “Peace,” “Love” and “Equality” were given in front of their warm-up jerseys, and the coaches wore “anti-racism” and “anti-hate” pins with their suits.
Former power forward Luca Garza, who won the Nicemith Player of the Year award at the end of last season, strongly supported the initiative.
“Luke was the main guy who wanted to start this with us,” said then-junior Joe Wiscamp. “I think having a balance on the back of our jersey is a pretty simple word that means a lot and sends a strong message.”
Related: Endscape: HBCUs have better seeds
Wiscamp half-right. Equality should work in our country constantly. After all, we cannot be a republic that stands for “freedom and justice for all” without fighting for equality. But according to the social justice movement, the problem with equality is that it is not really striving for equality.
Advocates of social justice believe that black people are constantly oppressed. But instead of working to achieve equal status in society, many of them want to make sure that whites believe in the extent to which they have been harmed (past or present), as well as gain positions of power. They seem to have been systematically denied (as we have seen in the Brian Flores case).
To make matters worse, white people – many of whom have been convicted of the sins of their ancestors, whether or not they have committed a “sin” – believe that they are doing something good when they preach these messages – as the Hawkeyes unfortunately, they What they are doing is spreading a message that is admirable in itself, but they become toxic because they have an undertone of social justice.
Although for the rest of the season we don’t have to watch this promotion from the Hawkeyes. The Big 10 Conference champions lost to Spiders, 67-63, on Thursday in Buffalo, New York.