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live . the same. lives. bringing you the latest in science and technology the from the rush limbaugh of the future are covered knocking dirt and as it turns out this gendering of athletic achievement presents a problem not just for women who play sports but also for the men who don't measure up to the sports culture is masculine ideal you play ball like dogs. from childhood forward two great fears keep boys and men in line one is the nightmare of being called a girl. who. don't know what book oh listen and

take off the skirt and put on some slack stuff from the well known and the second great fear is homophobia even though we may think it's not a big deal in our society the reality is that a lot of homophobia that exists in sports is about a macho environment as we have offered american culture like sexism homophobia is everywhere in sports so you have someone like john smoltz future hall of fame pitcher who compared gay marriage to beastie ality by saying what's next marion animal or repeat offender jeremy shockey of the saints. who said that he wouldn't stand for having a gay guy on his team because they're going to be in the shower with us. as with sexism this kind of homophobia functions to maintain a certain ideal of normal manhood by dehumanizing other people and in the process it keeps gay athletes in the closet. john amaechi played for seven seasons in the

national basketball association then in two thousand and seven he became the first former n.b.a. player to come out of the closet but if we end up being open and accepting of homosexuals in sports will we not then begin to become open and accepting of homosexuals in other walks of life i mean to say it's a slippery slope. this is the person i'm hoping it's a very slippery slope ok yes. by coming out amaechi join the likes of baseball player billy bean and n.f.l. office of lineman esera to all but all these guys waited until retirement to come out of the closet i is that well let's consider how former n.b.a. all star tim hardaway responded to in each these announcements. where. you know you know i hate gay people so. if i let it be known i don't like i don't like it well

hey people i don't you know. i don't i don't i don't like it it shouldn't be ok and. i don't like the point again is that sports culture is shot through with political meaning and struggle and unless we're content to stay quiet in the face of bullying we should make it our goal to speak up and try to change things when sports culture reinforces backward political attitudes that hurt people for no good reason i think it's important for everybody to be treated with respect. been straight whatever martina navratilova helped found it takes a team to fight homophobia in sports person so it's a pretty poor winner but i think we're down by two i don't think we're going to hear whether she's through is what i really think so whatever just want to show that she makes the shot hey no no no strasser new. territory especially you scott fujita the free spirited defense of captain and starting linebacker for the two thousand and ten super bowl champion new orleans saints is not only the kind of guy

is more likely to razz an opposing player like peyton manning for the cookies he endorses than he is to call him a girl. he's also the kind of guy who has the guts to speak up for gay rights in a hostile environment where it's not an easy thing to do i interviewed scott on my radio show and asked him why a straight guy married to a woman like him was willing to lend his public support to the national equality march for lesbian gay bisexual and transgendered rights and here's what he had to say by a large appropriate word be if you have any quality. to put it there for me. to stand in my time you know i would never do it the more times you have your days with all i do it through. the fight for equality starts just like that and the history of sports is in many ways the history of this fight.

back in one thousand nine hundred ten an african american boxer named jack johnson sent white america into a panic at the time he accepted scientific truth in society was that african-americans lacked both the mental and even physical ability to succeed in sports but then johnson became the first african-american heavyweight champion and after that there was an outcry for a great white hope to defeat johnson and restore order to the universe but johnson defeated this great white hope the former champion jim jeffries in front of a hostile all like crowd of twenty two thousand people on july fourth independence day. african-americans took to the streets to celebrate his victory. drawing the wrath of an angry white mobs.

for many jack johnson was much more than just a boxer as a powerful symbol of black masculinity he represented a direct threat to white male power both inside and outside the ring and his example would inspire other black athletes to fight for equality in ways that would reverberate beyond sports. four decades later that fight would reach a culmination of sorts with jackie robinson jackie robinson but. you know i'm a good little girl you. know. we joined the brooklyn dodgers in one thousand and forty seven jackie robinson became the first african-american to play for a major league baseball team literally changing the face of mainstream american sports in baseball it's not sure what you are but when you play when you. jackie robinson surest way like jack johnson before him robinson demonstrated great courage in the face and still be from the legions of white people who believe black

athletes had no business playing alongside whites for a while over time we've rightly paid tribute to this amazing display of courage and perseverance and watson a we continue to remember and honor and celebrate the fact that jackie robinson was a pioneer in the fight to integrate major league baseball the harder edges of what he was all about were softened in the sentiment from the start he better. i can be the first negro to ever been organized baseball mom if i'm going to know if i can make a great point i'll be taking a break and it was a spin on history that was set in motion when robinson himself appeared in a nine hundred fifty bio pic about his achievements known and wide in the united states can be mighty tough for people who are no different from the majority i know because i'm an advanced open to very few negro americans but i do know that democracy works for the old we're willing to fight for it in history's telling

jackie robinson just smiles worked hard never complained and eventually broke the color barrier so well i know i would do a second basemen when i get up i say you'll be good grass i once told all i can see your black face back back face right over me so i often times you right in the cape where you do. mr t. i've got to think. the public like this version of jackie robinson it was unthreatening it neatly defined his achievements within the frame of american values and patriotism and it also conveniently concealed how despite his singular achievements the grossest forms of institutional racism segregation and inequality were still legal acceptable and practiced across a broad cross-section of the country k.k.k. of the ku klux klan a grand wizard dr greene called the atlanta ball club and said of jackie appears on

the field he'll be shot and killed a nightmarish reality that would eventually knock the seemingly conservative robinson off straight he's robinson who was an aide to governor rod of the republican party as a protest against the new. robinson has endorsed vice president humphrey and accompanied him today on a swing through harlem i think that the mood of the negro delegates is such that they could not would not will not so bored the nominee and just like that the innocent image of jackie robinson began to get a lot more complicated. in the one nine hundred sixty s. no longer content to let his bat and glove alone do the talking for him robinson lent his explicit support to the civil rights movement joining forces with the great civil rights leader martin luther king he said of robinson that he was

a sit in or before sit ins a freedom rider before freedom rides and a black man i pointed to look around and find. minorities on the deck of poverty and despair robinson started to speak out about how racism persisted despite his individual achievements always guys who are saying we got have made threats. just not. as an individual can make it but i think we've got to concern ourselves with the masses of the people not by what happened as an individual so i really tell these youngsters when i go out certainly i've had opportunities they haven't had but because i've had these opportunities i mean i've forgotten he wanted to shift the terms of the discussion away from individual it's even to structural barriers to individual achievement. what if instead of plucking out the most talented individuals from the negro leagues major league baseball and chosen to incorporate entire teams entire organizations bringing along all the african-american owners

and management as well how would history of been different if black athletes had more power and independence from the start rather than having to adapt themselves to the existing power structure and sports and in turn how might our view of ourselves as americans have been different if we grown up learning about the triumph of black teams and organizations rather than the triumph of jackie robinson alone. and. bron james is the kind of co-ax a talent that holds the potential to redefine basketball. but he's also declared that he has aspirations beyond sports games and said that he has two goals in his life one is to be quote a global icon like muhammad ali and the other is to be the richest athlete in the

history of the world while these may be too great goals they don't exactly go great together and that's because guys like muhammad ali didn't become global icons because they were rich but because they were willing to sacrifice everything including sponsorship deals to stand up for what they believed in all of the above all love. all along. always just start a low life and now my life is gone. i mean just. i mean this is. the insoles craze the world. has intrigued. interest in this world. just introduced me to all this allows those of.

mohammad ali remains a global icon now because of what he earned but for what he sacrificed he wanted more than just money more than fame more than boxing titles he wanted to change the world. when he was eighteen years old and won the olympic gold in rome young cashless marcellus clay jr said that his dream was to bring professional wrestling into boxing and he pointed to a flamboyant pro wrestler by the name of gorgeous george as his hero. by the mid one nine hundred sixty s. he changed his name to muhammad ali had become a far more dangerous man. being. name given to me. by the one nine hundred sixty s. remember you had two grand movements the african american freedom struggle in e.s.i. were moved. the two movements didn't always merge but they did and mohamed. ali

was still the consummate showman but now his hero was malcolm x. with a single gate. the power structure in one nine hundred sixty four join the nation of islam a group feared and hated by white america and started speaking out against racism the right by women daily policeman pull black people mobile and hear them across the hear and none just the trial courts and no one none of the good why folks can be filed to help. a couple years later he would become one of the earliest and most outspoken high profile americans to come out against the vietnam war bring everything on the line by resisting the draft in one nine hundred sixty six and a wrong. turn to kill kill kill and continue killing innocent people it was an act of conscientious objection that would not only cost him his championship belts but

also get him sentenced to prison because heavyweight champion countries great a federal court can use them is found guilty of violating the us don't like the service laws are refusing to be inducted here's condoms for five years in prison and crime ten pound note the fact is that muhammad ali was more than an athlete when he believed in something he believed in standing up for it outside of the ring and he did it with the fear of someone who understood he was part of a larger struggle and all the fighting they just don't take or they make a million dollars the golden rules are all to give them a nice home to give them a way of life well i made it america's great new restaurant kitchen hero and even say nothing but when one man of popularity it can let the world know the problem he can lose a few dollars a self telling the truth might lose its life but he's helping me i just love the freedom and the force of people more money you could take you should give right washington nixon here.

today the former chicago bulls superstar michael jordan runs a division of nike but during his playing days he too often acted as though nike ran. him they were dubbed the green cheese. for the greatest collection of first of all challenge over a shovel and they were auditioning to return to his friends you fall to with what's called a man in one thousand nine hundred two jordan went to barcelona with the u.s. and with the basketball team as the medal ceremony or coach jordan had a crisis of conscience. notice how jordan has an american flag over his shoulder well this apparently heartwarming display of patriotism or turn out to be something else entirely jordan was using the flag to hide the reebok logo on the team jersey .

shore they were worried. he was using an american flag to protect his brand a form of subservience to corporate power the michael jordan model the yet again when he refused to endorse harvey gantt an african-american democrat when he ran against republican senator jesse helms an outspoken opponent of civil rights and a former segregationist some social observers say it was michael jordan he set the example for star athletes on being a political in one thousand nine hundred eighty famously kind of back a democratic african-american senate candidate in his home state of north carolina by responding republicans by sneakers to the bottom line requires offending as few people as possible so if you want to make money you'd better keep your mouth shut as it is. in many ways these two great athletes represent the twin poles of the

story of politics in american sports ali on the one side showing how greatness in the ring doesn't require sacrificing greatness outside of it not of a great wrong jordan on the other who ushering in a new age of corporate rule that loves to glorify the image of rebellion all stripping it of its substance so it doesn't get in the way of its bottom line interests. and it says something i think very damning about this country that ali has been embraced now that he has lost the power of speech it is a privilege to stand next to the great apes after he saw the destruction in haiti he wrote down the two words and asked me to read them aloud that's something that really weighs on my mind a lot of the time because to me mohammed ali was a voice of resistance and i think we missed that voice very much. by the good it means i'll have to show maybe a. little now so i mean those terms never lebron james and others concerned about

their legacies would do well to remember the side of history ali was on they would do well to remember how today's play it safe commercial mindset conceals a longstanding counter-current that's been there throughout the history of sports embodied in athletes like tommy smith and john carlos soon turned american sports culture on its head in the late one nine hundred sixty s. this was the last eight years there's been the box i mean i think pretty well through the last month because of the outstanding hit that it's done right now is the. last thing. they want to gold in a bronze medal at the sixty eight olympics. they didn't pull a jordan and use their platform on the global stage to protect an endorsement deal no. these guys had

a point to make. as they walked to the platform they took off their shoes and carried them to protest poverty in america they were beads to protest lynching and john carlos even under his jacket a violation of a wimpy protocol to represent as he told me his working buddies black and white back home in new york city. and in perhaps the most famous gesture in olympic history they raised their fists during the national anthem to show solidarity with the civil rights movement. their symbolic gesture inspired millions around the world but their punishment was swift and severe on in here the olympic and one week ago today and yesterday the fact was the most dramatic so far and started with the news that. tommie smith and john carlos the olympic two hundred meters gold and bronze medal had been rendered by the united states and the committee and given forty eight hours ago. there were any

demonstrations in. the right place to do this. kind of world they did in. asia. we you. still all work to be out of people of the planet in america and the nation my favorite you go you. got medal you've got martyrdom as well on your side of that. and it kills. a group we take a look it is. literally. oh you. know we.

don't want to clam up. we want so much to see sports slowly as an arena of play not seriousness but here's the thing this conceiving not only the greatness and relevance of sports to society but also the courage of athletes. and we do an injustice to them and do what's best about sports when we sanitize the past and read best legs out of the political and cultural context it has always been a part of. keeping our mouths shut in the face of injustice may help us make fun of others and silence them and assure that we stay popular with the keepers of normality the real courage means standing up when it's not popular and real men and real women don't ask permission to raise their fists.

i am.

wealthy british style. markets why not. come to. find out what's really happening to the global economy with much stronger for a no holds barred look at the global financial headlines tune into all kinds of reports on our g culture is the same or different if you choose it is to find the

mark let's be arab world power of people's hopes in the deadly reactions of tyrants are tunisia and egypt leading the way or are living. in here broadcasting live from washington d.c. coming up today on the big picture.

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