The NFL is Colin Kaepernick’s antagonist. Expecting billionaire team owners to be serious about social justice, with or without Jay-Z, is a mistake. By Jamil Smith, Rolling Stone — “Inspire Change” could be something you say if you are trying to make people aware of a particular problem. But with regards to the National Football League and racial injustice, that job is already done. Colin Kaepernick, along with his fellow football…
They attract money and attention to the predominantly white universities that showcase them, while HBCUs struggle. What would happen if they collectively decided to go to black schools? By Jamele Hill, The Atlantic — In the summer of 2018 Kayvon Thibodeaux, who was then ranked as the top high-school football player in America, visited Florida A&M University, in Tallahassee. When a player of Thibodeaux’s caliber visits a perennial football power—say,…
Fans believe she can fly! By S.E. Williams, Black Voice News — Simone Biles thrilled gymnastic enthusiasts on Friday, August 15 as she secured her sixth national gymnastics title with a near flawless routine and “double-double” dismount on the uneven bars during the U.S. Gymnastics Championships in Kansas City, Missouri. With this sixth championship, Biles became the first woman in nearly seventy years to accomplish such success in this regard….
How the Nazi persecution of Jews shaped the African-American freedom struggle. By Clive Webb, History Today — Martin Luther King delivered his celebrated ‘I Have a Dream’ speech on 28 August 1963 at the March on Washington. Less well known is that one of the other speakers that day was Rabbi Joachim Prinz, a political émigré who had fled Nazi Germany in the 1930s. His presence at the march demonstrated…
By Astead W. Herndon, The New York Times — An air of solemnity hangs over Lucy McBath’s bid for Congress. It is present in her campaign stump speech, when she recounts the 2012 murder of her son, Jordan Davis, a black teenager who was shot and killed by a white man at a gas station when the 17-year-old refused to lower the volume of the rap music playing in his…
Fifty years ago this week, two proud Olympians raised their fists to call attention to social injustices. Their gesture made my heart swell with pride. By Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, The Guardian — In the summer of 1967, 100,000 fashion-forward and social-forward youth gathered in San Francisco in what has famously been called the Summer of Love. Similar gatherings occurred throughout the US, Canada, and Europe, all in an effort to reject the…
By Earl Ofari Hutchinson, The Hutchinson Report — Trump could care less about LeBron James’s new I Promise public school. He could care even less about his IQ. What he does care about is James’s name, image, and willingness to take shots at him. The name first. James is the most recognizable pro athlete in the country. That makes him the perfect foil for Trump to continue to wage his…
Could it trigger a long-awaited “Jock Spring”? By Robert Lipsyte, The Nation — Snatching immigrant babies may have scored some points for President Trump with his base, but it was never going to light up the scoreboard like tackling black jocks. That one really played to the grandstands. The complicated combination of adoration and resentment so many white males feel for those rich, accomplished über-men is a significant but rarely…
By Patrisse Cullors, HuffPost — Right after the acquittal of Trayvon Martin’s killer in July 2013, Alicia Garza, Opal Tometi and I were devastated. We’d been following the proceedings closely. We’d watched the media criminalize 17-year-old Trayvon and humiliate his family to justify his cold-blooded murder presumably because his assailant was white-presenting. Still, we were sucker-punched by the acquittal. We stood perplexed; hadn’t we elected our first black president? Yet it was clear;…
By Mohammed Girma, The Conversation — In this age of globalisation few events draw more attention than sport as the World Cup in Russia illustrates with billions of people across the globe glued to their screens. At this time in football crazy Africa, specialists and ordinary fans are watching, discussing and analysing the World Cup. But the excitement and euphoria come with a unique challenge to the continent’s religions. Africa remains firmly devout across…
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