URI Defends 'Academic Freedom' of Professor Who Links Tom Brady With Rise of White Supremacists
GoLocalProv News Team
URI Defends 'Academic Freedom' of Professor Who Links Tom Brady With Rise of White Supremacists
As GoLocal reported Friday, Kusz took a look at Brady in the chapter “Making American White Men Great Again: Tom Brady, Donald Trump, and the Allure of White Male Omnipotence in Post-Obama America,” in the soon to be released “The Palgrave Handbook of Masculinity and Sport.”
Kusz points to Brady’s representation beyond the athletic field — into advertisements and entertainment — and writes the following.
GET THE LATEST BREAKING NEWS HERE -- SIGN UP FOR GOLOCAL FREE DAILY EBLAST“Brady’s stature as an idealized American national body is rationalized through both white supremacist ideas embedded in these portrayals….Brady’s performance of white masculinity is constitutive of, and constituted by, a set of ideas, affects, and exclusions that remarkably similar to those that fuel Trump’s project to ‘make America great again.'”
"He's a good friend of mine. He's always been so supportive of me," Brady said of Trump on Boston sports radio station WEEI in 2015. "He's always invited me to play golf and I've always enjoyed his company. I support all my friends in everything they do."
URI Cites Freedom of Speech
"As a public university, we are bound by the First Amendment. Freedom of speech and freedom of the press are indispensable to a democracy and to the future of our country. In addition, the University of Rhode Island is guided by its Cornerstone values that promote independent choice, intellectual curiosity, open-mindedness and free expression," URI wrote in a statement to GoLocal.
Kusz, whose work at URI as a faculty member in the English and Gender and Women’s Studies programs “focuses on stories produced in American sports media,” looks at Brady’s relationship with Trump — and his off-field relationships.
“Understanding the pattern of cultural meanings articulated to Tom Brady’s body and performances of white masculinity in the past five years, must be situated and understood within the context of the white conservative backlash to the Obama presidency that set the stage for Trump’s unexpected win,” writes Kusz.
“That Brady consistently invites white majority groups to go on these Kentucky Derby ‘boys only’ excursions is noteworthy given the fact that he plays in a sport where 67& of the players are African-American,” writes Kusz.
In his academic biography, Kusz writes, "More broadly, I take seriously the critical study of popular culture, understanding it not only as a key terrain through which people develop their perceptions and beliefs about themselves, their social worlds, and American/global history and culture, writ large, but as an index of the dynamic ideological currents circulating through various American social formations."
The three top personas in the New England Patriots organization all have long-standing personal relationship with President Donald Trump. Patriots owner Bob Kraft, head coach Bill Belichick and Brady have all voiced support for Trump over the years.
When Trump campaigned in Rhode Island in 2016, he said that the media should "leave Brady alone," regarding his four-game suspension.
On the eve of election day, Trump told reporters that got a call from Brady, letting him know he had voted for him.
In 2019, actor Daniel Radcliffe, best known for his role as playing Harry Potter, said he was rooting for the Los Angeles Rams in the Super Bowl — and that New England Patriots quarterback Tom Brady should “stop winning” and “take his MAGA hat out of his locker.” In 2017, Brady displayed a Make America Great Again hat in his NFL locker, and said he supported Trump because "there would be a putting green on the White House lawn."
Kraft has been a long-time Trump supporter and said Trump was "working very hard to serve the best interests of the country," during an appearance on Fox & Friends. Trump came to Kraft's defense after the Patriots owner was arrested on prostitution charges in Florida.
In 2016, Belichick wrote a public letter of support for Trump's Presidential campaign.