Racist abuse of AC Milan striker Mario Balotelli by AS Roma fans in yesterday’s Serie A match caused the official to briefly suspend play. After an PA announcement warning the offending supporters to cease and desist, the game was resumed. While these things are hardly uncommon in Italian football (or throughout the rest of Europe, […]
Tag Archives: racism
Boston Marathon bombing: can we at least speculate logically?
The speculation began before the smoke cleared: who was responsible for Monday’s terror attack at the Boston Marathon? What was their motive? Not only is it human to speculate, it’s just about impossible for us not to. We’re inherently theoretical animals, constantly seeking more informed and reliable ways of understanding and explaining (and predicting) how the […]
Boston Marathon bombing: tragedy, bigotry and hope
First and foremost, my thoughts are with Boston today. I hope your friends and family were as lucky as mine were to avoid any harm, and my prayers are with those who were not as lucky. Watching the news was horrific for anyone who turned on a television or browsed the Internet yesterday. But apart […]
Lone Star Funds president Ellis Short hires avowed fascist Paolo di Canio to manage his football team
UPDATE: It’s official. _____ English Premiership side Sunderland AFC is considering hiring Paolo Di Canio to be its new manager. Di Canio would replace Martin O’Neill, who was turfed after Saturday’s 1-0 loss to Manchester United. Providing negotiations proceed smoothly, club officials hope to announce his appointment on Monday morning. It remains unclear whether he […]
Translating Newt Gingrich’s CPAC comments into plain English
Newt Gingrich addressed the Conservative Political Action Conference today and, as is his habit, had some interesting things to say. This session doesn’t seem to have been as much fun as the 500 Racist Hillbilly Over the Top Rope Battle Royale we had yesterday, but credit the far right with understanding the value of offering up […]
TunesWeek: ’90s video goes political
Part 2 in a series. The Reagan/Thatcher years were marked by an utterly bizarre shiny/happy pastel sheen spread liberally across a decidedly apocalyptic doom. Listen to songs like “Everybody Wants to Rule the World” and “Forever Young” and “It’s a Mistake” (and watch the videos). The aesthetic seemed to be “we’re all going to die […]
Tuesday Morning RAW: What is WWE up to with this Zeb Colter/Tea Party angle?
This is hardly the first time pro wrestling has come at the audience with a blatantly racist angle, and WWE has, through the years, perfected the arts of cheap stereotyping and jingoism. So their latest gimmick – the anti-immigration “real American” Jack Swagger and his mentor, thinly veiled Tea Partier Zeb Colter – are hardly […]
Conservatives are a frustrated lot
We Democrats aren’t very good at this campaigning stuff. But we don’t need to be. Because we don’t have Fox on our side. The conservatives are a frustrated lot. They are frustrated that a Negro is president. They are frustrated that no matter what they write in their homeschool textbooks, it’s getting warmer and everybody […]
America gets divorced: crafting a separation agreement
Part two of a series. In part one, I offered an overview of why I think the time has come to partition America – shake hands, go our separate ways, and let two (at least) groups of people follow their own paths according to their very different values. Today I want to briefly tackle the […]
It's time for America to get a divorce
Part one of a series. This past week AlterNet published an interview with Chuck Thompson, author of Better Off Without ‘Em: A Northern Manifesto for Southern Secession. In brief, Thompson argues that the United States has become two very different countries (or perhaps that it was always two very different countries) and that perhaps the time has […]
Irony, thy name is Rio
You couldn’t possibly have seen this one coming. For years, Manchester United and English national team defender Rio Ferdinand has dedicated himself to ridding soccer of its ugly and pervasive racism. Recently, he has seen his brother, Queens Park Rangers defender Anton, embroiled in an ugly did-he-or-didn’t-he case involving Chelsea (and England) star John Terry. […]
John Terry vs. Paul Canoville: an eight year-old boy learns a lesson about racism in sports
by Bret Higgins I wrote a piece last week at the Rocky Mountain Blues blog on the John Terry case. The Chelsea FC captain had to answer to allegations of racial abuse of an opponent and I used crude humour to make light of a situation I thought was a waste of taxpayer’s money. If […]
John Terry racial abuse trial under way: what does Chelsea do if he's convicted?
The long-anticipated (or long-dreaded, depending on your perspective) racial abuse trial of Chelsea center back John Terry commenced in London this morning, and already my ambivalence is mounting. For those unfamiliar with the case, Terry stands accused of calling Queens Park Rangers defender Anton Ferdinand a … brace yourselves here, tender American reader … “fucking […]
The truth about Mayberry
There’s a famous scene in a season one episode of The Andy Griffith Show, “Ellie for Council.” A battle of the sexes erupts when the local pharmacist (and Andy Taylor’s first love interest on the program, Ellie Walker, played by the wonderful Elinor Donahue), a woman, runs for town council. Just at the moment when […]
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