WHY TENNIS NEEDS MORAL REBELS, USTA! By Javier Palenque

The present article is an adaptation to tennis from an article published in 2020 in the Conversation by Catherine Sanderson.

Here’s why some people are willing to challenge bullying, corruption, and bad behavior, even at personal?risk. Are you listening ?USTA leadership?

Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger, a longtime Republican, has spent the last two months standing up to intense and highly public pressure from members of Congress, who urged him to throw out legally cast ballots, and from President Donald Trump, who asked him to “find 11,780 votes” to change the outcome of the election.

Rep. Adam Kinzinger of Illinois became the first Republican member of Congress to call for Trump’s immediate removal from office by the 25th Amendment, following the mob riot at the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6. Ben Danielson, a well-regarded medical director of a Seattle medical clinic, resigned in November to protest ongoing racism in the hospital, noting concerns about his “own complicity as a representative of a hospital that does not treat people of color as it should.”

All these people spoke up to call out bad behavior, even in the face of immense pressure to stay silent. Although the specifics of each of these cases are quite different, what each of these people share is a willingness to act. Psychologists describe those who are willing to defend their principles in the face of potentially negative social consequences such as disapproval, ostracism, and career setbacks as “moral rebels.” Here is why tennis needs many “Moral Rebels”

Analysis of the word, from experts

Moral rebels speak up in all types of situations – to tell a bully to cut it out, to confront a friend who uses a racist slur, to report a colleague who engages in corporate fraud. What enables someone to call out bad behavior, even if doing so may have costs?

The traits of a moral rebel

First, moral rebels generally feel good about themselves. They tend to have high self-esteem and feel confident about their judgment, values, and ability. They also believe their views are superior to those of others, and thus that they have a social responsibility to share those beliefs.

Moral rebels are also less socially inhibited than others. They aren’t worried about feeling embarrassed or having an awkward interaction. Perhaps most importantly, they are far less concerned about conforming to the crowd. So, when they have to choose between fitting in and doing the right thing, they will probably choose to do what they see as right.

Research in neuroscience reveals that people’s ability to stand up to social influence is reflected in anatomical differences in the brain. People who are more concerned about fitting in show more gray matter volume in one particular part of the brain, the lateral orbitofrontal cortex. This area right behind your eyebrows creates memories of events that led to negative outcomes. It helps guide you away from things you want to avoid the next time around – such as being rejected by your group.

People who are more concerned about conforming to their group also show more activity in two other brain circuits; one that responds to social pain – like when you experience rejection – and another that tries to understand others’ thoughts and feelings. In other words, those who feel worst when excluded by their group try their hardest to fit in.

What does this suggest about moral rebels? For some people, feeling like you’re different than everyone else feels bad, even at a neurological level. For other people, it may not matter as much, which makes it easier for them to stand up to social pressure. Doing what is right for a greater cause is the reason the USTA executives need to be held accountable.

These characteristics are agnostic as to what the moral rebel is standing up for. You could be the lone anti-abortion voice in your very liberal family or the lone abortion rights advocate in your very conservative family. In either scenario it’s about standing up to social pressure to stay silent – and that pressure of course could be applied to anything. Kids learn to stand up for what they believe in when they see their role models doing so.

The path of a moral rebel

What does it take to create a moral rebel? And why does tennis need more Javier’s to hold the Ol’ Boys accountable?

It helps to have seen moral courage in action. Many of the civil rights activists who participated in marches and sit-ins in the southern United States in the 1960s had parents who displayed moral courage and civic engagement, as did many of the Germans who rescued Jews during the Holocaust. Watching people, you look up to show moral courage can inspire you to do the same. Understanding America and making sure we leave it better for future generations as elders and using the great sport we call tennis as a means to accomplish this is my driver and promise to the country.

A budding moral rebel also needs to feel empathy, imagining the world from someone else’s perspective. Spending time with and getting to know people from different backgrounds helps. White high school students who had more contact with people from different ethnic groups – in their neighborhood, at school, and on sports teams – have higher levels of empathy and see people from different minority groups in more positive ways. This is critical to understand tennis in America and the failure of USTA’s management year after year. The leadership is simply obtuse and retrograde and what is worse out of touch with the new nation.

These same students are more likely to report taking some action if a classmate uses an ethnic slur, such as by directly challenging that person, supporting the victim, or telling a teacher. People who are more empathetic are also more likely to defend someone who is being bullied. In America, the tennis constituents are bullied by the USTA, which confronts people, lacks goodwill, and coerces people to do what it wants when people know that it is not in the interest of the game. This needs to be called out by Moral Rebels.

Finally, moral rebels need particular skills and practice using them. One study found that teenagers who held their own in an argument with their mother, using reasoned arguments instead of whining, pressure, or insults, were the most resistant to peer pressure to use drugs or drink alcohol later on. Why? People who have practiced making effective arguments and sticking with them under pressure are better able to use these same techniques with their peers.

Moral rebels have characteristics that enable them to stand up for what’s right. But what about the rest of us? Are we doomed to be the silent bystanders who meekly stand by and don’t dare call out bad behavior? Is tennis doomed by the lack of guts of the leadership? of course, the answer to that is yes, unless, of course, they accept to be led in the proper way and that is, the mission comes first, the status quo last and the ol’ boys have got to go.

Fortunately, no. It is possible to develop the ability to stand up to social pressure. In other words, anyone can learn to be a moral rebel. In the case of the leadership of the USTA, none understand the mission, yet they can read it. None of the executives fights for the under-served kids, yet they benefit from them, none of the executives acts like the mission matters when the opposite is true. They all need leadership, morally upright and righteous. None of the Ol’ boys knows what that means. So you cannot expect anything good to come out of people who are not gifted.

So, now that you have understood the need to have all people stand up to the mismanagement of the sport, you will understand that the good fight is as American as apple pie. Won’t you join me in acting morally correct and rather than act as a moral rebel, how about doing what is right for the nation, the kids, the parents, the government, and of course the sport?

Won’t you join me in calling the ineptitude out of the sport and demanding change for the benefit of all? I say it is about time to get new leadership on board, people who will look after the sport, honor the non-profit status, and help as many kids as is humanly possible. This is how you build tennis, and this is how we leave the sport for future generations in a better state than we received it. This is called responsibility.

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