IU Professor Preaches the Power of Athletics to Next Generation

By: Emi Carmona

News Reporting Wallace Article

Jul. 9, 2025

First-year Indiana University Media School Professor Brandon Wallace’s first encounter with racial stereotypes was on his high school basketball court in Eagle River, Wisconsin. As a non-starter on his JV team, he wasn’t used to being feared. He found himself being “double-teamed,” disregarding his “lack of abilities and skills” on the court.

“I was trash, and not a threat to score,” Brandon said.

Brandon claimed that his experience as a minority in athletics growing up shaped his interest in racial profiling in sports. In this instance, Wallace shared he had an advantage because of the myth regarding African-Americans’ natural athleticism. He brought his experience to the forefront while speaking at Ernie Pyle Hall.

Through years of sports, he became hyper-fixated on the correlation between sociology and sports. On Tuesday, the Indiana University Professor stood in front of a crowd of approximately 100 high school students attending IU’s High School Journalism Institute explaining his passion for advocacy and education in Sociology and Sports Media.

When Wallace attended college, he often enjoyed watching American football, particularly a fan of former San Francisco 49ers quarterback Colin Kaepernick’s protest; kneeling during the national anthem. Wallace found himself interested in advocacy amongst police brutality protests, the Black Lives Matter movement, and many social injustices. “I wanted to make the world a better place,” said Wallace. After completing his doctorate at Maryland University, Wallace contributed to Kaepernick’s “Know Your Rights Camp”.

Dr. Wallace explained the political aspects of sports before a room of aspiring sports journalists, saying, “We expect an escape from politics when we wind down to watch a game, yet it shows up when you least expect it”. Brandon said that sports are “mined with political values” such as nationalism, activism, stereotypes, and even capitalism.

Wallace shared the general idea of his latest book, “Beyond a Kneel: How Social Movements Harness the Power of Sport,” a piece outlining the power of athletics and how they impact society. The author and professor said, “Sports are influential in shaping national conversations”. Growing up with sports, Wallace shared that he learned many life skills from the athletic environment, but was also negatively impacted by the verbal abuse of coaches.

In connection to his experience as a teenager playing basketball, he explained that it provided him with brotherhood, solidarity, and an advanced sense of discipline. He expressed how sports leave a mark on everyone, “whether we like it or not”. Tying back to his own experience, he believes that sports can leave you with an irreversible attitude of violence, divisiveness, and competition.

Professor Wallace shared his upcoming project delineating the attention economy, and our chipping attention spans in the realm of sports, in a room of lit phones, side conversations, and many distractions.

“Out of muscle memory, we all want to pick up our phone and scroll,” said Brandon.

He even expressed that he found it extremely difficult to get started on his next book,  constantly scrolling on his phone in procrastination. Wallace explained the impact of sports betting and its contribution to the feeling of instant gratification through the dopamine hormone.

“The psychology of it is that social media is established on the addiction of dopamine,” said Wallace.

Wallace revealed that sports betting is the same system, only more extreme, given the concept of gambling. This idea was elucidated to a room of non-legal minors, incapable of betting on sports.

“We all have that friend who will stay up until 4 a.m. for a bet on Chinese ping-pong; this is pure addiction,” said Professor Brandon.

Brandon expressed his concern, saying he considered calling gambling addiction hotlines on some of his “DraftKings addicted” friends. In reference to some of the newer terminology within social media, Brandon spoke on “ragebait,” a dopamine-releasing subset of content inducing rage or annoyance.

Brandon’s final message of the night: “I try to pick up the slack and speak out for those who can’t.” His address drew an arsenal of questions and inquiries from HSJI students captivated by his motivation and journalistic journey.