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Sports

Kobe Bryant’s Wife Wears “Do I Look Illegal” Shirt to Game 1 Against Phoenix Suns

by Jorge Rivas on May 18 2010, 3:35PM

Last night at Game 1 of the NBA western conference finals in Los Angeles, the Lakers dominated Los Phoenix Suns. But on the sidelines, Kobe Bryant’s wife Vanessa Bryant — born Vanessa Cornejo Ubrieta, and whose father is Mexican…

Topics: Sports

Senate’s Sole Latino Joins Call for Arizona Baseball Boycott

by Jorge Rivas on May 11 2010, 11:50AM

Last Thursday the National Council of La Raza (NCLR), the largest Latino civil rights organization in the United States, announced plans to boycott the state of Arizona. The campaign calls groups (including churches and corporations) and “ordinary citizens” across the…

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NCAA’s Mandatory Sickle Cell Testing Could Impact Black Athletes

by Julianne Hing on April 13 2010, 9:09AM

Last year, ColorLines reported on a proposed new rule from the NCAA that would require sickle cell testing for all Division I athletes. The NY Times reports that NCAA member conferences are set to vote sometime this week in…

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Caster Semenya Allowed to Compete As A Woman

by Jamilah King on April 8 2010, 5:41PM

After months of speculation and gender testing, South African runner Caster Semenya is finally being allowed to compete again: “Semenya’s lawyers told the eNews channel Wednesday that her medical team looked at test results following the 2009 world championships…

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NCAA Champs: Duke Succeeds in Basketball and Graduation Rates

NCAA Champs: Duke Succeeds in Basketball and Graduation Rates

by Hatty Lee on April 6 2010, 2:09PM

Last night, Duke University took the NCAA championship title. Honestly, I was rooting for the underdog Butler. But it was a good game. Props to the two teams’ basketball skills, but also to the fact that the graduation rates for…

Topics: Schools & Youth, Sports

NCAA Champions But College Dropouts? 80 Percent of Black B-Ball Athletes Won't Graduate

NCAA Champions But College Dropouts? 80 Percent of Black B-Ball Athletes Won’t Graduate

by Hatty Lee on March 16 2010, 4:02PM

With March Madness starting this week, The Institute for Diversity and Ethics in Sport, at the University of Central Florida released “Keeping Score When It Counts: Graduation Rates for 2010 NCAA Men’s Divsion I Basketball Tournament Teams.” This study compares…

Topics: Schools & Youth, Sports

The Next Tour de France Winner Might Be Black

by Jorge Rivas on February 12 2010, 2:52PM

Last year, after 106 years of the Tour de France, we finally got to see a Black cyclist ride 2,200 miles through France. Rahsaan Bahati from South LA is one of the cycling’s brightest and fastest stars, who many…

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On the Eve of the Winter Olympics, Everything in Canada Ain’t Pretty

by Jamilah King on February 9 2010, 3:11PM

Looks like athletes and fans won’t be the only ones converging on this year’s Winter Olympic games, which kick off this Friday in Vancouver. A sizable contingent of native protesters will also be on hand to speak out against…

Topics: Environment, Sports

What Super Bowl XLIV Says About Race

by Jamilah King on February 5 2010, 10:00AM

I have a confession to make: I’m not a big Colts fan. In fact, I’m a pretty big hater. And I can’t stand Peyton Manning. But when it comes to this year’s Super Bowl, I’m excited for all the wrong…

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Russian Figures Skaters Attempt to Skate to Olympics Gold With “Aboriginal” Routine

by Julianne Hing on February 4 2010, 9:27AM

Congratulations are in order for Russian figure skaters and favored Winter Olympics gold medalists Oksana Domnina and Maxim Shabalin, who managed to make me let out an audible gasp when I saw this photo of them this morning. It takes…

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A Whites-Only Pro Basketball League Set to Start June 2010

by Julianne Hing on January 20 2010, 2:47PM

Here are the essentials: It will be called the All-American Basketball Alliance, the AABA. Its kickoff will be in June. It hopes to launch in twelve cities in the South. Only white players—that is, “natural born United States citizens with…

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Jay-Z, The Black Branch Rickey, Brings The Nets, And Gentrification

by Guest Columnist on December 3 2009, 3:31PM

By Jamilah King On my way to work this morning I was listening to Jay-Z’s Brooklyn Go Hard (such a better precursor to that annoying ass NY anthem that’s colonizing the radio right now). In it, I noticed a…

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The Washington Redskins Keep Losing Because I Cursed Them

by Alec Dubro on November 5 2009, 12:57PM

By Alec Dubro Ever since I moved to DC in 1993, I’ve hated my home town NFL team. For 18 years I lived in the Bay Area and got to root for the Raiders and the 49ers when both were…

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No Room for Racism in the NFL

by Terry Keleher on October 15 2009, 10:15AM

Score one for the Black NFL players and their supporters. Their objections to Rush Limbaugh’s bid to own the St. Louis Rams were heard and felt. Reuters is reporting that Limbaugh has been dropped from a group trying to…

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Forget Joe Wilson; I Stand With Serena Williams

by Channing Kennedy on September 16 2009, 9:39AM

Serena Williams has been fined for an outburst during a U.S. Open semi-finals match, but the press is still churning about it, or, more specifically, about whether she’s apologized enough. If only she’d yelled at the President, instead of…

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Real Talk: What if Caster Semenya was White?

by Jorge Rivas on September 11 2009, 1:29PM

The results of the gender tests run on South African runner Caster Semenya are in, but the International Association of Athletics Federation (IAAF) refused today to confirm or deny reports that Semenya has the biological make-up of an intersex…

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Sexposed: Olympic Double Standards for Black Women

by Megan Izen on August 21 2009, 11:27AM

Sex and gender have been making headlines. Last month on a flight to California, I saw a segment of Larry King Live discussing trans issues with Alexis Arquette, sister to the well-known Patricia and David, and Isis, former contestant…

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Skating, No Longer a “White Sport” ?

by Jorge Rivas on August 4 2009, 11:15AM

Remember stand-up comedian Paul Rodriguez? Well, he has a son, Paul Rodriguez Jr. and he’s a pro skater. Which is so interesting to me because when I was growing up, skating was seen as a white thing. In East…

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Obama and Willie Mays: The Men of Summer

by Gina Acebo on July 15 2009, 12:22PM

President Barack Obama talks with baseball great Willie Mays aboard Air Force One en route to the MLB All-Star Game in St. Louis, July 14, 2009. (Official White House Photo by Pete Souza) Myself, I’m an Oakland A’s fan,…

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Girls of Color Need Sports

by Guest Columnist on June 19 2009, 10:29AM

By Nina Jacinto This post originally appeared on WireTap. Last week the New York Times reported on how young girls of color in metropolitan public schools don’t have the same access to participating in sports as young boys. This is…

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