Sports At Politics

Today marks the 50th anniversary of the famous Black Power salute at the 1968 Summer Olympics. After Americans Tommie Smith and John Carlos won the gold and bronze medals, respectively, in the men's 200 meter dash track-and-field event, Smith and Carlos each raised a black-gloved fist while the U.S. national anthem played. The silver medalist, Australian Peter Norman, was a critic of Australia's former anti-immigrant White Australia policy, and, along with Smith and Carlos, wore an Olympic Project for Human Rights badge during the medal ceremony. In many ways, the Black Power salute of 1968 mirrors the recent and current actions of black athletes, and even some non-black athletes, in regards to President Donald Trump and racism against black Americans, such as kneeling during the playing of the U.S. national anthem before sporting events and refusing to accept invitations for traditional White House visits by champion sports teams. The athletes of today who are protesting are...

Think of this single blog post as a three-part blog post about recent developments at the intersection of sports and politics. First, golf legend Tiger Woods generated some controversy after he refused to either praise or condemn some of President Donald Trump's policies, but asked Americans to respect the office of the President of the United States : The full exchange, with a New York Times reporter, was barely a minute long. Asked about his relationship with Trump, Woods reflected on their history playing together (including most recently last Thanksgiving weekend): "We've played golf together. We've had dinner together. I've known him pre-presidency and obviously during his presidency.” Then Woods was asked about whether his relationship with Trump was an implicit endorsement of Trump’s policies toward immigrants and people of color? Treading cautiously, Woods said he felt compelled to respect the office. "He's the President of the United States....

The backlash that the National Football League (NFL) has received (examples here and here ) for adopting a "stand-or-stay" rule in regards to performances of the U.S. national anthem before NFL games might be just the beginning of the NFL's problems in the upcoming NFL season. Several NFL players, whose names have not been revealed, have reportedly told Shaun King of the New York Daily News that they are considering sitting out the season unless NFL team(s) sign Colin Kaepernick and Eric Reid, two NFL players who are not currently under a contract with any team due to the NFL team owners effectively blacklisting them from the league for protesting against racism in America. Furthermore, King has claimed that the goal of the unnamed players is to get as much as one-quarter of the league's players to sit out with them. BREAKING: Several star @NFL players have told me they are considering sitting out the season until the de facto ban of Eric Reid and Colin Kaepern...

Disgraced former NFL player O.J. Simpson, who was convicted of armed robbery and kidnapping by a Nevada court in 2008, publicly claimed that NFL player Colin Kaepernick "made a bad choice" by taking a knee during the national anthem to protest racial injustice in America while a player for the San Francisco 49ers: O.J. Simpson, whose murder trial tugged at racial tensions across America, says he believes football player Colin Kaepernick "made a bad choice" when he decided to keep kneeling during the national anthem to protest police brutality. "I think Colin made a mistake," Simpson told the Buffalo News this week in his first substantial interview in a decade. "I really appreciate what he was trying to say. I thought he made a bad choice in attacking the flag." That is a giant load of hypocrisy from O.J., and he knows it. Also, Colin Kaepernick didn't make a bad choice by taking a knee during the national anthem as a form of political p...