These days I can’t blog about events or issues that are meaningful to me until they’re old news — which of course in today’s world can mean only days or weeks past. The upside of my delayed response is an opportunity to use a wider lens and see more connections
Continue readingTag: activism in sports
wmtc: bill russell, rest in power: a trailblazing activist
Basketball legend Bill Russell died this month at the age of 88. Although I remember his playing days, it’s not Russell’s incredible and indelible sports record that leads me to honour him. If you’re not familiar with Russell’s life as a trailblazing activist, this is an excellent history lesson; if
Continue readingwmtc: what i’m reading: like other girls: best youth fiction i’ve read in a long time
A girl wants to play football. That’s all. Well, not quite all. Mara wants to be herself. And that self wants to play football, among other things. Mara isn’t trying to make a statement. She doesn’t want to be political, and although she knows she’s gay, she doesn’t want to
Continue readingwmtc: which side are you on: the unprecedented strike by nba players is a watershed moment for justice
First of all, it’s not a boycott. It’s a strike. And a wildcat strike to boot. When the players on the Milwaukee Bucks chose not to play in the NBA playoffs — joined by their baseball counterparts, the Brewers, with other teams quickly following — they became part of a tradition
Continue readingwmtc: what i’m reading: ali: a life by jonathan eig
Ali: A Life is an extraordinary book about an extraordinary person. It’s an epic page-turner at more than 500 pages. This is simply a fascinating book about an utterly fascinating person. If Muhammad Ali hadn’t existed, you couldn’t make him up. No fiction character on this scale would be believable.
Continue readingwmtc: what i’m reading: ali: a life by jonathan eig
Ali: A Life is an extraordinary book about an extraordinary person. It’s an epic page-turner at more than 500 pages. This is simply a fascinating book about an utterly fascinating person. If Muhammad Ali hadn’t existed, you couldn’t make him up. No fiction character on this scale would be believable. It
Continue readingwmtc: maya moore’s quest for justice
Long ago (in internet terms), in the early days of what we then called the Blogosphere, one of the primary functions of blogs was to share other posts and articles of interest that we came across online. Social media has taken over that function — and much less effectively. How
Continue readingwmtc: retro blog part 1: maya moore’s activism
Long ago (in internet terms), in the early days of what we then called the Blogosphere, one of the primary functions of blogs was to share other posts and articles of interest that we came across online. Social media has taken over that function — and much less effectively. How
Continue readingwmtc: thank you megan rapinoe!
I have a list of topics I want to write about, and I’m not finding any time when my brain is working to write. So on this topic I’m taking the easy and totally lame way out and posting a Facebook share. And that’s fine, because no matter how much
Continue readingwmtc: thank you alex cora and many red sox for doing the right thing
Thank you Alex Cora, Mookie Betts, David Price, Xander Bogaerts, Rafael Devers, Jackie Bradley Jr., Hector Velazquez, Christian Vazquez, Eduardo Núñez, and Sandy Leon! These players and their manager declined to attend the White House visit purporting to honour the 2018 championship team. The Trump White House could not be bothered
Continue readingwmtc: thank you, colin kaepernick!
Another awesome athlete protest that I have no time to write about. I can only thank Colin Kaepernick for his courage.Joy of Sox speaks for me: To Mookie Betts (And Others): The Right To Protest Has Nothing To Do With The Military.
Continue readingwmtc: solidarity from scotland to palestine via soccer
At a football (soccer) match between the Scottish Celtic team and an Israeli team, Hapoel Beersheba, hundreds of Celtic fans defied Scottish law to show their solidarity with Palestine and protest the Israeli occupation.Mondoweiss reports:There could b…
Continue readingwmtc: solidarity from scotland to palestine via soccer
At a football (soccer) match between the Scottish Celtic team and an Israeli team, Hapoel Beersheba, hundreds of Celtic fans defied Scottish law to show their solidarity with Palestine and protest the Israeli occupation.
Mondoweiss reports:
There could be serious consequences for Celtic thanks to the protest, carried out in front of Israelis themselves. Fines and closures of their fans seating sections are possible, under UEFA rules. And a 2012 Scottish law against provocative political speech at sporting events makes the flag display an arrestable offense, although authorities reportedly did not take the offending fans into custody. There were dozens of them, photographs show.
Although the flag politics of the region are contrarian, the feelings of political solidarity are real.
“Since at least the late 80’s Palestine flags have been seen at Celtic Park and Celtic fans have shown their support for the Palestinians. Celtic fans have always had a radical history with support for Irish resistance to British rule and it is from there that support for Palestine stems. Also following support for Palestine among other football and sports fans and figures,” reads a Facebook page called Celtic Fans for Palestine, with about 3,300 members.
The Union of European Football Associations (UEFA) will weigh what could happen, but it might involve the closing of some of the stands in the stadium for a Champions league game, writes Neil Cameron in the Herald, a Scottish paper, in an opinion piece chiding protesters for risking the forfeiture of other fans tickets. European football carries out collective punishment against fans, apparently.
Watch this beautiful video from AJ+.
Continue readingwmtc: athletes in solidarity against unpunished police abuse crimes murder
Derrick Rose Reggie Bush Davin Joseph Eric Garner
Continue readingwmtc: read dave kopay’s open letter to michael sam
Did I celebrate Michael Sam’s coming out on Facebook and Twitter, and forget to mention it on wmtc?? Ack! Social media run amok! The news that a top NFL prospect has come out as gay in advance of the draft is electrifying. The support for Sam among NFL players is
Continue readingwmtc: an olympics for every protestor, and rainbow flags from canada… but not from rob ford
I started compiling my usual “why I can’t watch the Olympics” post, when I read Dave Zirin… and stopped writing. At every Olympics, you can cue the complaints, getting in the way when all we’re trying to do is enjoy a good luge. Yet it took a visionary like Vladimir
Continue readingwmtc: sports without war: canada out of aghanistan, and military out of our sports
I have written a bit about the use of professional sports as a vehicle for war propaganda and militarism, such as when the Harper Government used the Olympic torch relay to promote its war in Afghanistan. My partner Allan has covered this ground more consistently, since he writes a sports blog.
Continue readingwmtc: dimanno: let’s make sochi the gay games
When I read Stephen Fry’s open letter to the IOC, and the continued calls to boycott or move the Sochi Games because of the horrendous and institutionalized homophobic violence within Russia, I couldn’t help but think of the Beijing Games. I absolutely understand the uproar over Russia’s anti-gay laws, and
Continue readingwmtc: dave zirin writes to dan snyder: why the washington nfl team must change its name
Here is the definitive piece on why the NFL team in Washington DC must change its name, written by – who else – Dave Zirin: Enough: An Open Letter to Enough Dan Snyder, at Grantland. Please go and read it.
Continue readingwmtc: thank you, jason collins!
It has finally happened. A professional male athlete in one of the big US team sports has come out as gay. Someone had to be first, and that person is Jason Collins of the NBA. Thank you, Mr. Collins, for your courage and your honesty! From the Sports Illustrated cover
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