This week in The Nation, Dave Zirin reports on some disturbing – and disgusting – behaviour from Israeli soccer fans. Not even in the earliest days of Jackie Robinson’s 1947 historic debut with the Brooklyn Dodgers did Brooklyn’s white fans walk out after number 42 stole a base or hit
Continue readingTag: activism in sports
wmtc: walmart workers, marvin miller, rob ford: important stuff that happened while i wasn’t blogging
As the title says, here are some things I thought about while I was taking a blogging break.● Marvin Miller died. Miller should be a hero of both the labour movement and baseball history. He should also be in the National Baseball Hall of Fame. Anyon…
Continue readingwmtc: sam gordon, girls playing football, and the last bit of segregation we still tolerate
In case you haven’t seen this yet, it’s 9-year-old football sensation Sam Gordon, the only girl on her Utah football team. Dave Zirin raises the question: why do we assume gender segregation in sports is necessary? The historical perspective, plus the …
Continue readingwmtc: olympics. not.
The 2012 London Olympics and Paralympics kick off today, with Opening Ceremonies that are supposed to be completely over-the-top. With a £27 million price tag ($42.5 million Canadian) for those three hours alone, they ought to be. We’re told that one billion people worldwide will watch the Opening Ceremonies. I
Continue readingwmtc: penn state sanctions: justice for – and by – survivors
I spent some time last night reading reaction to the sanctions against Penn State University set out by the NCAA. (I should qualify that: I was reading the reactions of intelligent, compassionate people. I don’t need to read anything written by people who care more about football than child sexual
Continue readingwmtc: marxism 2011 program notes: how can we stop the right?
These are my notes from the 2011 Marxism conference in Toronto. The series starts here. * * * * How can we stop the right?Christine Beckermann, member of ISMay 29, 2011 With the emergence of the Tea Party in the US, Rob Ford’s election in Toronto, and now the Harper
Continue readingwmtc: "the greatest problem is we are afraid to offend our oppressors": john carlos, tommie smith, and a lesson about resistance
This is one of the most iconic photos in sports history: the Olympics, 1968, Mexico City. As the Star Spangled Banner begins to play, gold-medal winner Tommie Smith and bronze-medal winner John Carlos, each wearing a single black glove, raise their fists in a black-power salute. Peter Norman, the silver
Continue readingwmtc: what we talk about when we talk about jeremy lin
Even if you live in a sports-free universe, the name Jeremy Lin may have seeped in through osmosis. The 24-year-old Harvard grad and point guard for the New York Knicks basketball team has inspired a wave of Lin-sanity and Lin-spiration around North America and much of the world. Lin is
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