View image | gettyimages.com Michael Russell competing in the qualifying rounds of the Australian Open. Qualifying is a tournament-before-the-tournament, where players not highly ranked enough to get automatic berths compete for the last few spots in the main draw. Russell, a 36-year-old American starting his 18th year on the tour, is currently ranked 156th in […]
Sports
Posted inBooks, Arts and Culture
Seahawks’ Russell Wilson Controversy Shows Dangers of Racial Authenticity Tests
The ‘are you black enough?’ question is perilously close to the racist one-drop rule of yore—whether called by blacks or whites.
Posted inBooks, Arts and Culture
All of a Piece: Donald Sterling, Cliven Bundy and the Supreme Court of the United States
This past week has been hell for African Americans. So much for post-racialism.
Posted inMoney, Politics, and Power
Daily Meme: Post-Racial America From Hell
It’s been quite a week in post-racial America, beginning with a Supreme Court decision on Tuesday that upheld the results of a ballot measure that barred the use of race-based affirmative action in the admissions process used by the University of Michigan, and exploded this weekend with the utterances, attributed to NBA team-owner Donald Sterling […]
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Michael Sam, “Distraction”
Claims by anonymous officials that Sam will bring negative PR to the NFL are functionally and morally indistinguishable from simple bigotry.
Posted inMoney, Politics, and Power
Daily Meme: Countdown to Sochi
The winter Olympics start a week from today, and the projected temperature for first day of competition is a not-particularly-wintry 45 degrees. Nobody could have predicted this would happen when you hold the games in a beach resort town, huh? Russia was awarded the games in part due to the efforts of Gafur Rakhimov to […]
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A Farce in Cooperstown
Tearing to shreds the argument against putting Barry Bonds and Roger Clemens in the Baseball Hall of Fame—or letting Deadspin have their say in the matter.
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Game, Set, Match—Feminism
It’s been 40 years since tennis player Billie Jean King won the “Battle of the Sexes,” but she did a whole lot more for women’s athletics than just win a widely hyped match.
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Sticking It to Sochi: Russian LGBT Activists on What Works
Appeasement and rainbow pins won’t stop Putin’s witch hunt