NOlympics LA and confronting our humanity as sports fans

Social Sport

September 28, 2020

NOlympics LA seeks to stop the 2028 Olympics and the harm that it accelerates: displacement, militarization, and the erosion of democracy.This interview is with two NOlympics LA organizers, Albert Corado and Kendall Kaufman.

Albert Corado is an LA native who started organizing after his sister, Mely, was shot and killed by LAPD at the Trader Joe’s in Silverlake, California. He found his way to NOlympics through his outreach to the unhoused.. Around the start of pandemic, he and some friends started another organization called People’s City Council, which messages around rent cancellation and defunding of the police.

Kendall Kaufman graduated in June from UCLA with a Bachelor’s in Civil Engineering and Urban & Regional Studies. She was involved with the UCLA triathlon team all four years of college and was the External Vice President of the Institute of Transportation Engineers chapter at UCLA, as well as the Safe Parking Initiative on campus. She now organizes with Ground Game LA and NOlympics LA and is on two committees with the North Westwood Neighborhood Council (Transportation & Safety and Community Health & Homelessness).

Discussed in this episode:

  • LATimes Article on Albert’s sister, Mely’s murder and unjust aftermath
  • Connection between Olympics and increased brutality of LAPD
  • Organizing as a learning environment
  • Olympics as multiplier of harm: displacement, militarization, and the erosion of democracy
  • Athlete A film
  • The Weight of Gold film
  • Anne Orchier of NOlympics on the Burn it All Down podcast

Quotes:

“If you are a sports fan and you know that all of these things are happening…at what point does it become an issue? And why does it have to come at the expense of peoples’ lives?” -Albert Corado

“Sports is inherelty political, because it’s about human bodies doing the best they can.” -Kendall Kaufmann