Racism in Sports

In an ongoing effort to foster dialogue and educate our community on racial justice issues,
Falmouth Community Television (FCTV) presents the sixteenth episode in a series of programs entitled
THE Conversation. Co-hosted and co-produced by Onjalé Scott Price and The Rev. Will Mebane, the series offers a timely dialogue on race with a local focus. The topic of this episode of THE Conversation is “Racism in Sports.”

Ms. Scott Price is the COO of Mizar Imaging in Woods Hole and a member of the Falmouth Select Board. The Rev. Mebane is the rector of Falmouth’s St. Barnabas’s Episcopal Church.

Joining the co-hosts for this episode of THE Conversation are nationally recognized guest panelists Richard Lapchick, Ph.D. and Jen Fry. Olympic Gold Medalist Colleen Coyne also appears on the program.

Human rights activist, pioneer for racial equality, internationally recognized expert on sports issues, scholar, and author Richard E. Lapchick, Ph.D. is often described as “the racial conscience of sport.” Dr. Lapchick became the only person named “One of the 100 Most Powerful People in Sport” to head up a sport management program. He is CEO of the Institute for Sport & Social Justice (ISSJ), formerly the National Consortium for Academics and Sports, and director of The DeVos Sport Business Management Program at the University of Central Florida. This landmark program focuses on the business skills necessary for graduates to conduct a successful career in the rapidly changing and dynamic sports industry. Recipient of numerous prestigious national and international awards and honorary degrees, Dr. Lapchick is considered among the nation’s experts on sport and social issues and has made multiple appearances on Good Morning America, Face The Nation, The Today Show, ABC World News, NBC Nightly News, the CBS Evening News, CNN, and ESPN. Author of 17 books, Dr. Lapchick is a regular columnist for ESPN.com and The Sports Business Journal. He has written more than 550 articles and has given more than 2,800 public speeches. He has spoken in the U.S. Congress, at the United Nations, in the European Parliament, and the Vatican. He was inducted into the Sports Hall of Fame of the Commonwealth Nations in the category of Humanitarian along with Arthur Ashe and Nelson Mandela. In the Fall of 2021, he was named the Muhammad Ali Humanitarian of the Year.

Jen Fry is owner/CEO of JenFryTalks, a social justice education firm that uses conversation to educate and empower those within athletics through an anti-racist lens on issues of race, inclusion, intersectionality, diversity, and equity. Her clients include the NCAA, the Southeastern Conference (SEC), Harvard, Yale, Florida State University, Michigan State University, and UCLA. Jen Fry is a native of Arizona, a Division II athlete, and a veteran volleyball coach with over 15 years of experience at the collegiate level with coaching stints at Elon University, the University of Illinois (2011 National Runner-Up), Washington State University, and Norfolk State University. She became a social justice educator when she realized there was a need to educate our student-athletes of all ages and the administration, staff, and coaches who train them through an antiracist lens on issues of race, inclusion, intersectionality, diversity, and equity. She is currently working on her Ph.D. in Geography at Michigan State University.