Racism Taints Fantastic Game 7 Between Washington Capitals and Boston Bruins

22.05.12

As rapid-fire as twitter itself, what started as a moment of a sports euphoria turned decidedly ugly. There were  the Washington Capitals beating the Boston Bruins 2-1 in Game 7  and moving on toward the National Hockey League's greatest prize, the Stanley Cup. Before my disbelieving eyes, the Caps Joel Ward scored the winning overtime goal against last year’s Stanley Cup hero, Tim Thomas. But Ward is a Black man, and before you could say “post-racial", self-identifying Bruin fans tweeted a cascade of ugly invective,  with the “N-word” being their epithet of choice.

For a small group of sad fools, the symbolism of the moment - Ward beats Thomas! - overtook them in the worst possible ways.

Tim Thomas is the player who created a spors media firestorm by  refusing to join his team and meet with President Obama  after the Bruins won the 2012 Stanley Cup. To be clear, I have zero problems with athletes refusing to be part of Presidential photo

Source: Opposing Views

A Slightly Different Take on Metta World Peace's Decision to Elbow James Harden

22.05.12

Metta World Peace, the winner of the NBA’s 2011 citizenship award and a player who has done more than any athlete alive to raise the curtain on the taboo sports subject of mental illness, is finding out today that the past is never really past. The player formerly known as Ron Artest delivered a dangerous, ugly, and altogether unnecessary elbow to the back of the head of Oklahoma City Thunder guard James Harden on Sunday. His elbow launched thousands of tweets and blog postings best described as two parts abject horror and one part snark. (After all, the guy changed his name to Metta World Peace – you don't have to be Oscar Wilde to have fun with that.) But neither abject outrage nor humor feels particularly appropriate for this story.

MWP is probably the most physically strong wing player in the league not named LeBron James. After dunking on two Thunder players, he felt contact on the inbound, and swung that elbow. If it was Thunder forward Kevin Durant bodying him up,

Source: Opposing Views

Hatred behind a marriage veil

22.05.12

The document is titled, “A National Strategy for Winning the Marriage Battle,” and its authors are very clear that the battle for marriage in the U.S. will be won or lost in the next two or three years.

The rest of the document reads like a plan for a ground war, with detailed strategic initiatives and moves laid out in detail.

But even though it was made public last week by the Human Rights Campaign, it’s not a road map for LGBT marriage rights.

It’s a confidential report generated by the National Organization for Marriage, a far right-wing hate group intent on denying basic human rights to LGBT citizens.

Now, lest you think I am being a bit overblown calling NOM a hate group, let me quote a couple of tactics suggested in the “strategy”:

“The strategic goal of this project is to drive a wedge between gays and blacks — two key Democratic constituencies. Find, equip, energize and connect African American spokespeople for marriage; develop a media campaign around their objections to gay marriage as a civil right; provoke the gay marriage base into responding by denouncing these spokesmen and women as bigots.”

Source: Dallas Voice