r/TrueReddit • u/coolbern • 17d ago
Policy + Social Issues A leader in sports activism, Harry Edwards has some final lessons to share. Edwards, the leading scholar in the sociology of sport, has continued his work in the face of a terminal cancer diagnosis.
https://wapo.st/41qneFN2
u/coolbern 17d ago
A former Black Panther party member, Edwards has outlived many of his contemporaries and encountered his own detractors over his esteemed career. He was fired from his position as an assistant professor at San Jose State after the Olympics protest, which prompted him to complete his doctorate in philosophy from Cornell in 5½ years. He also endured death threats and being investigated by J. Edgar Hoover and the FBI.
“They had me down as armed and dangerous, which was nothing but a shoot-to-kill edict, in that day and age,” he said. “I’m blessed to simply still be here.”
After decades of engaging in what Martin Luther King Jr. referred to as “the right to protest for right,” Edwards has entered another fight that he already has conceded. In 2022, Edwards was diagnosed with myeloma, a cancer in the bone marrow that causes pain throughout the body. Over time, the other two cancers have developed. “There’s no elixir that I’m going to take that’s going to get rid of that,” he said. “I’m good with it. I have no problems with it. That’s part of the deal on this planet. Nobody gets out of life alive.”
Even as he understands the end is nearing, Edwards remains committed to working on projects that will last long after he’s gone, mixing in some productivity with his regular doctor visits. Edwards is completing a six-part documentary on the intersection of sports, race and activism called “The Struggle and the Power” and a 12-part video series called “The Last Lectures.”
Finding a reason to live that we can believe in is the only correct answer to the question Country Joe McDonald asks in his Feel Like i'm Fixing to Die Rag: What are we fighting for?
Harry Edwards has understood that fight all his life. You don't have to have a trophy to be a winner.
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