Part of ESPN’s 5.5-hour primetime programming block on sports and race around the world
The Undefeated Presents Time for Change: We Won’t be Defeated will feature a roster of thoughtful and respected ESPN anchors, analysts and contributors, high-profile athletes, authors and a psychologist exploring Black athletes’ experiences with injustice on Wednesday, June 24, at 8 p.m. ET (encore presentation at 11 p.m., ESPN2).
The one-hour television special produced by The Undefeated, ESPN’s multiplatform content initiative exploring the intersections of sports, race and culture, is part of five-and-a-half hours of primetime programming (8 p.m. – 12:30 a.m. overnight) devoted to issues of race in sports around the world on Wednesday night.
SportsCenter anchors Elle Duncan, Michael Eaves and Jay Harris, joined by ESPN college sports reporter and NBA studio host Maria Taylor, will host Time for Change via a series of roundtable conversations. The special will examine the recent protests, the privilege of being White, Black athletes and their experiences with racism, the role that sports can play in bringing about sustainable change, and more.
Participants will include:
- Angela Charlton – former Oklahoma City Thunder team psychologist
- Patrisse Cullors – Black Lives Matter co-founder
- Chris Fowler – ESPN college football and tennis play-by-play commentator
- Domonique Foxworth – ESPN and The Undefeated contributor, former NFLPA President and NFL player
- Torii Hunter – Former MLB star for the Minnesota Twins, Los Angeles Angels, and more
- Evander Kane – NHL player for the San Jose Sharks
- Ibram X Kendi – author of How To Be An Antiracist
- Clark Neily – vice president for criminal justice at the Cato Institute
- Louis Riddick – ESPN NFL Insider and former NFL team executive and player
- Tim Wise – author of White Like Me
- Captain Sonia Wiggins-Pruitt – national chairperson, National Black Police Association
- Clinton Yates – The Undefeated columnist, ESPN Audio host and Around the Horn commentator
Additional elements within the show:
- An essay about the neck, a body-part symbol of violence and oppression against Black Americans, from The Undefeated’s Soraya McDonald, who was recently named a Pulitzer Prize finalist for Criticism;
- Essays by ESPN’s Tom Junod on White privilege, and Tom Rinaldi on the art of listening;
- First-person descriptions of brushes with racism and injustice from ESPN’s Malika Andrews, Scoop Jackson, Jerry Bembry, John X. Miller, Ryan Smith, Tiffany Green and Freddie Coleman;
- Essays by The Undefeated senior writer Lonnae O’Neal, on being a Black mother, and ESPN MLB analyst Doug Glanville on the eight-plus minutes in the killing of George Floyd and why it happened
- An original composition by award-winning African American poet Kwame Alexander titled “American Bullet Points.”
Time for Change is part of The Undefeated’s comprehensive coverage of the protests and social justice reform efforts that have come to the forefront following the killings of Ahmaud Arbery, Breonna Taylor, George Floyd and Rayshard Brooks.
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