Working Towards Ending Racism

RAISE A FIST , TAKE A KNEE : Race and the Illusion of Progress in Modern Sports – by: John Feinstein -   is a Must Read – for anyone interested in men and sports.   It is also an excellent read for others! If anyone has any doubts – about this book – watch a video about it – one – interview by Judy Woodruff from the PBS News Hour (9:11) – one example -https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gT-Ldoag-YU . Quote: Jones ended up making two Olympic teams – the 2008 team and the 2012 team that went to London.   He had become the first African American to hold a world record in 2007 (note: men’s swimming) … (p.302) The night after George Floyd’s murder, Jones took his dog out for an evening walk.   He was staying at his brother’s house in Charlotte, North Carolina, because he and his wife were building their own house nearby. “I’d gone about a block when a police car went past me,” he said.   “All of a sudden, the car screeched to a stop.   The cop made a U-turn and came back to where I

SAY Their NAMES: How Black Lives Came to Matter in America – by: Curtis Bunn, Michael H Cottman, Patrice Gaines, Nick Charles, and Keith Harriston provides an excellent summary of Black perspectives on the systemic nature of racism and the evolution of Black resistance to it. Quotes follow: “I don’t know.   I mean, I thought I understood where Black Lives Matter was coming from.   I thought I understood that there were biases in America,” she said.   “But that…the way George Floyd died, as if his life didn’t matter…and worse, the officer seemed to know nothing would happen to him.   It broke my heart.” (p.33) (regarding the 1793 yellow fever epidemic) Benjamin Rush, a Philadelphia civic leader who signed the Declaration of Independence, called on Black people to assist white people to assist and treat sick white people, claiming, without any evidence, that Black people were immune to the deadly illness.   Rush was also a doctor, which lead credibility to his inaccurate positions