Search results for: “node/olympics”
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#WhitePrivilegeMuch: College Rapist Gets Light Sentence Because Prison Would Be Bad for Him
There is nothing scarier than a white man losing his power. Good thing Brock Turner won’t have to face the full weight of what that really means. If you haven’t already heard, Turner is the young white ex-Stanford University swimmer whose dreams are more precious than the woman he raped. On Jan. 17, 2015, Turner…
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That Time Muhammad Ali Beat Superman
The best thing about going to my barbershop as a little kid in the mid-1970s was the Muhammad Ali pinball machine. Black power had faded, to be replaced by Afro Sheen. This was the period when Stevie Wonder, Aretha Franklin, Marvin Gaye, Isaac Hayes, and Earth, Wind & Fire were pushing the boundaries of spirit,…
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Muhammad Ali, From Fiery Young Man to Serene Survivor, Dead at 74
One of boxing’s most legendary fighters, Muhammad Ali, died Friday, June 3, in Arizona after being hospitalized for respiratory problems. He was 74. Ali had long been in decline as a result of the Parkinson’s symptoms he developed soon after his boxing career ended. As celebrated as he was for his performance inside the ring—amassing 56…
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How Rio’s Olympics Destroyed a Favela, but Not the Spirit of a Candomblé Priestess
Two years ago, a simple Candomblé religious rite revealed to Heloisa Helena Costa Berto her future in Rio de Janeiro. When the mãe de santo (mother of the spirit) threw her cowrie shells onto a table, Berto saw a vision of her house through the formation of the shells. It didn’t look good. “I saw that…
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Ken Burns Wipes Away the Myths to Reveal the Real Jackie Robinson in His New Documentary
It’s never too late to make amends, even 69 years after the fact. The Philadelphia City Council proved as much on March 31, when it unanimously passed a resolution honoring Jackie Robinson and officially apologizing for the treatment he endured while visiting in 1947, the year he broke Major League Baseball’s color line. “Unfortunately in…
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President Obama Picks Merrick Garland as Supreme Court Nominee
President Barack Obama has picked federal appeals court Judge Merrick Garland to fill late Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia’s seat, NPR reports. Garland, 63, who is currently the chief judge of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit, was chosen over two other federal court judges. Speaking from the Rose Garden at the…
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Gabby Douglas and Simone Biles Are ‘Sisters’ in Competition
Four years ago a petite, timid Gabby Douglas made her national media debut in front of hundreds of reporters at the Olympic Media Summit. At the time, she was unknown to everyone except gymnastics insiders, but that changed when, two months later, she captured the all-around gold medal at the 2012 London Olympic Games. “Before,…
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Gabby Douglas’ Oxygen TV Series Premieres in May
Gabby Douglas and her family will have their lives on display this May when their new Oxygen docuseries, Douglas Family Gold, premieres. “This time, as Gabby trains tirelessly in Ohio with her grandmother by her side, the rest of the family keeps busy juggling Gabby’s business and their own lives back in California,” an Oxygen press…
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Gymnast Gabby Douglas Clinches Gold at the American Cup
Gabby Douglas, the reigning Olympic all-around gold medalist, looks poised to make it to the top of the podium come the 2016 Summer Olympics in Brazil. On Saturday the 20-year-old known as “the Flying Squirrel” won the American Cup at the Prudential Center in Newark, N.J., her first gold since winning the Olympic all-around in London…
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Cornelius Johnson and a Forgotten US Protest Against Hitler at the 1936 Olympics
The recent biopic The Race reminds us of Jesse Owens’ amazing feat in winning a then-record four track gold medals at the 1936 Berlin Olympics. The movie accurately frames Owens’ (Stephan James) victories as a rebuke to the Nazi propaganda machine, which was trying to use the games to promote the myth of white supremacy. Claims of…