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…
Ever since his “It’s not like I’m black, you know?” comment, Neymar has served as a focal point in Brazil’s cultural reckoning with racism, whitening, identity and public policy. By Cleuci de Oliveira, New York Times — Years before he became the most expensive player in the world; before his Olympic gold medal; before the Eiffel Tower lit up with his name to greet his professional move from Barcelona to…
By Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Sports Illustrated — I have never been prouder to be an American. That might seem like a strange confession in these dark times, when there is so much divisiveness in the country. Every day we are faced with cringe-worthy behavior by our country’s leaders: sexual harassment, enabling hate groups by publicly echoing their messages, the enactment of policies that curtail the constitutionally guaranteed civil rights of the…
“For African Americans, it is not about standing, sitting, or kneeling for the National Anthem? it is about unarmed African Americans lying in a grave who were shot and killed…
By William Rivers Pitt — It is amazing how quickly and willingly so many people, when pressed by a discomforting situation, will take on a societal self-policing role that favors…
By Earl Ofari Hutchinson, HuffPost — Dallas Cowboys owner Jerry Jones took a knee over Trump’s insult. Shad Khan, Jacksonville Jaguars owner, linked arms with his players. Nearly a dozen NFL…
By Jesse Jackson — Colin Kaepernick, the former quarterback of the San Francisco 49ers, is being blackballed — itself a revealing phrase — from the National Football League with the…
American Shame: Colin Kaepernick is jobless for thought crime By William Boardman — To watch America’s structural racism at work, one need look no further than the National Football League…
On Wednesday August 23rd, people gathered at the offices of the National Football League [NFL| in Manhattan NYC. By some accounts 3-4 thousand people attended. The rally was in support of quarterback, Colin Kaepernick who refused to stand for the Star Spangled Banner prior to the beginning of the football game but instead choose to kneel rather than pay homage to the flag that represents the racism which is so prevalent against the Black population in the United States, especially in the murder of Black people by police, a crime that goes unpunished. As a result of his doing…
Topics: NYPD and FBI Surveillance of Muslim Mosques, Standing with Colin Kaepernick, Trump and Aftermath of Charlottesville, The Life and Legacy of Dick Gregory. Guests: Imam Talib Abdur-Rashid, Mosque of Islamic Brotherhood, New York, NY and Mark Thompson, Host, Make It Plain, SIRIUSXM, New York, NY