Discussion: the role that sport can play in preventing violence

Your exam question asks you to discuss the role that sport can play in preventing violence. You must use the excerpt from Will Jawando’s memoir My Seven Black Fathers: A Young Activist’s Memoir of Race, Family, and the Mentors who Made Him Whole and the video “Picking up hobbies, not guns, message behind West Side community basketball game” as sources of inspiration.The video is a short news story about various sports initatives that are meant to help children and young people build positive communities and learn good values, which can help prevent them from finding a sense of community in local gangs instead.

You can begin by saying that Jawando claims that basketball players are key role models for Black children. According to him, the positive influence of these athletes reduces the negative influences that the children might have from other sources, such as gangs or other negative role models.

According to Jawando, “basketball defined Black boyhood. You proved yourself on the asphalt court.” (l. 18). This shows that basketball is an activit...