By Benjamin Siepak (@benjaminsiepak)
Dr. Harry Edwards and Marc Spears will headline a panel discussion tomorrow at San Jose State University in an effort to promote and address social change in sports.
SJSU’s Institute for Sport, Society and Social Change has teamed up with Bay Area Black Journalists Association to host this event.
“Game Changer,” as it has been titled, will promote and discuss diversity, inclusion and tolerance in today’s sports media coverage.
Media and athletes of diverse backgrounds have lacked real dialogue for years, as stereotypes and misrepresentations are very much alive.
“Words to action” has been the ongoing theme of the movement that was founded by Edwards. He is no stranger to creating social change as it was he who launched the Olympic Project of Human Rights which influenced the historical 1968 political stand of SJSU alums Tommy Smith and John Carlos.
Spears — a senior writer for ESPN’s The Undefeated and an SJSU alumnus — was on stage at the institution’s first event in January.
Other panelists taking the stage tomorrow include San Francisco Chronicle columnists Ann Killion and Scott Ostler, former Mercury News sports columnist Marcus Thompson, Sacramento King’s beat writer Jason Jones and Talia Caldwell of the WNBA’s New York Liberty. Other panelists have yet to be announced.
Sports journalist and 49ers’ commentator Kevin Lynch will be moderating the event along with former 49ers Junior Bryant and Derrick Deese.
The event will be held from 10 a.m. to 12 p.m. tomorrow in SJSU’s Yoshihiro Uchida Hall, room 124.