TAYLOR TAKES HIS LEAVE: As the self-described "sacrificial lamb" (or is it "whipping boy"?) departs his broken country and U.S. warships approach Liberia's coast, it's hard to know where to get started to help the populace, as Stefan Lovgren's National Geographic News article "As Aid Workers Return, Liberia Is Unsafe and in Ruins" makes clear.
LIGHTNING STRIKES TWICE: In today's Detroit News, Darci McConnell's "Archer leads U.S. bar association" profiles the city's former mayor who now heads the American Bar Association, and mentions something else in passing: the association's president-elect for next year, Robert Grey, is also African-American.
SUBPRIME RATING: Taking issue with a July speech by British Prime Minister Tony Blair before Congress, Gary Younge's latest column in the Guardian UK meditates on "The U.S., race and war."
POLLWORKER PALL?: Civil-rights officials in Louisville, Kentucky, have concerns about moves by the state's Republicans with regard to the recruiting of partisan pollwatchers in the city's predominantly African-American West End. WKYT-TV runs an Associated Press article "NAACP Concerned About GOP Poll Watchers"
SLICE OF LIFE: We're grateful to Jason Toney (of Negro Please and mister jt's time wastin') for passing along Keith M. Woods' cool, tasty "Talking Race Over a Slice of Watermelon" for Poynter Online. Honest, open talk of stereotypes can only help to stem their mindless perpetuation.
MISSING TEAMWORK: In Tom Haudricourt's Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel article "Baseball pitches to African Americans," former major-league baseball player Royce Clayton explains how the league was picked off base: "Basketball's been tied into rap music and clothing. It's a whole style of life, a way of dressing. Rap artists put basketball players in their songs. You have such a strong influence with African-American kids playing basketball instead of baseball, which was the opposite in the early '80s. It's not just African-American athletes, per se. The family fabric in America has diminished, and baseball's a family sport. It's something that requires parents or a mentor or somebody of that nature to take you to the ballpark, provide transportation. The kids can't do it on their own."
MAGNIFICENT SEVENS: Perhaps they can start playing rugby, as it looks like at least one Washington, D.C. school's youth are doing. Judith Evans' "Hyde Enters the Scrum" explains how Tal Bayer, the public charter school's math teacher who doubles as its athletic director, is introducing the sport to young black men. Quoth Bayer: "There is a certainly camaraderie about rugby. To this day, most of my best friends have come from playing the game. It has allowed me to make contacts that have proven valuable throughout my professional career, and I have traveled places that I would never have gone without having played the sport."
FORUM AT STANFORD: If you're anywhere near Palo Alto, California, in the next two weeks, you might want to consider attending "Diversity Dialogue: Issues in Athletics," a symposium featuring guest speakers like Super Bowl MVP and Grambling football coach Doug Williams and ESPN columnist and author Ralph Wiley.
posted in reviews on August 11, 2003 2:17 PM | t (0)
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