Column Archive

Remembering Gene Upshaw

The passing of Gene Upshaw should remind us that sports unions have had successes over the last 30 years where the rest of the labor movement has suffered.

Women's Gymnastics: The Big Mac of the Beijing Games

Women’s Gymnastics: The Big Mac of the Beijing Games. There is something utterly remarkable about the athleticism and intensity of women’s gymnastics. There is also something repellent and even nauseating. Welcome to women’s gymnastics: the big mac of the Beijing games.

Bush, basketball, and Bombast in Beijing

Here are the last three entries of the Nation Olympics blog.

China's Olympic Trials

The real scene at this year’s Olympics will be off the playing field, where advertisers and China’s government vie for the gold medal in hypocrisy and skullduggery.

Why He Fears the Fist: A Response to Jonah Goldberg

LA Times columnist Jonah Goldberg has called the black-gloved fisted salute of Tommie Smith and John Carlos, an expression of "violent xtremism" and that's just the beginning. It's remarkable how 40 years later, Smith and Carlos still have the capacity to upset all the rightpeople.

Kermit Washington's Remarkable Redemption

Former National Basketball Association player Kermit Washington has never asked for redemption. He’s lived it. And saving millions of lives in the process.

Spying on a Sportswriter

My work organizing against the death penalty earned me some unwelcome – and unconstitutional – attention from the authorities. This is an outrage that affects each and every one of us. They picked on the wrong sportswriter and on the wrong group of activists.

Baseball's All Star Blackout

The All-Star game is meant to show off and spotlight baseball in all its glory. Instead it shows a game delinked from black America. It's a reality that might be "the canary in the mineshaft."

Who is Mauricia Grant? NASCAR Knows

Mauricia Grant, the first black, female inspection official in the history of NASCAR, has leveled a $225 million lawsuit agains the king of Motorsports. Her charges reveal that NASCAR may talk a good game about tolerance and diversity, but the truth is something else entirely.

Grand Theft Hoops: The Stealing of the Sonics

This is an outrage. The Seattle SuperSonics are no more, caught between a vice of greed and cowardice. David Stern and Clay Bennett should be ashamed. Somewhere Xavier McDaniel is crying.