From Exploitation Back to Empowerment: Black Male Holistic (Under)Development Through Sport and (Mis)Education a Conversation with Dr. Joseph N. Cooper

In this special Social Justice Olympic Summit edition of Entrepreneurial Appetite's Black Book Discussions, we feature a conversation with Dr. Joesph Cooper, author of From Exploitation Back to Empowerment: Black Males Holistic (Under)Development Through Sport.

About the author: Joseph N. Cooper is the inaugural Dr. J. Keith Motley Endowed Chair of Sports Leadership and Administration at the University of Massachusetts (UMass) Boston. Prior to UMass Boston, Cooper served as an associate professor at the University of Connecticut (UConn) in the Sport Management program in the Department of Educational Leadership and Neag School of Education. Cooper earned his undergraduate degrees in Sociology and Recreation Administration from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill (UNC-CH), master's degree in Sports Administration in the Department of Exercise and Sport Science from UNC-CH, and a doctorate in Kinesiology with a concentration in Sport Management and Policy from the University of Georgia (Athens, GA). His research agenda focuses on the intersection between sport, education, race, and culture with an emphasis on sports involvement as a catalyst for holistic development. He is also the faculty founder of Collective Uplift (CU), an organization designed to educate, empower, inspire, and support individuals to maximize their holistic potential both within and beyond athletic contexts. He has presented research at international, national, and regional conferences and published numerous peer-reviewed journal articles, book chapters, edited books, and op-ed contributions. As a result of his research, he has been cited in various media outlets including the New York Times, Boston Globe, ESPN, Le Monde, ABC News, Yahoo, and Diverse Issues in Higher Education. He is the author of From Exploitation Back to Empowerment: Black Male Holistic (Under)Development Through Sport and (Mis)Education.

About the Book:  From Exploitation Back to Empowerment: Black Male Holistic (Under)Development Through Sport and (Mis)Education by Joseph N. Cooper addresses three major issues: (1) the under theorization of Black male athletes’ socialization processes, (2) the preponderance of deficit-based theories on Black male athletes, and (3) the lack of expansive analyses of Black male athletes from diverse backgrounds. Grounded in empirical research, this text outlines five socialization models of Black male holistic (under)development through sport and (mis)education. The five socialization models include: (a) illusion of singular success model (ISSM), (b) elite athlete lottery model (EALM), (c) transition recovery model (TRM), (d) purposeful participation for expansive personal growth model (P2EPGM), and (e) holistic empowerment model (HEM). Using ecological, race-based, gender-based, psychological, and athletic-based theories, each of the proposed models incorporates critical sociological insights whereby multi-level system factors (sub, chrono, macro, exo, meso, and micro) along with various intersecting identities and additional background characteristics are taken into account. In addition, historical, sociocultural, political, and economic conditions are examined in relation to their influence on Black males’ socialization in and through sport and (mis)education. This nuanced analysis allows for the development of a systematic blueprint for Black male athletes’ holistic development and more importantly collective racial and cultural uplift