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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's masculine ideal you play ball like god. 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 oh i'm listening

take off the skirt and put on some slacks toughen up oh 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 of my show of an 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 it's a slippery slope. it's a slippery slope i'm hoping it's a very slippery slope ok. by coming out let me join the likes of baseball player billy bean an n.f.l. often. to a low 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 a cheese announcements. where. you know you know i hate gay people so. i let it be known i don't like gay people i don't like gay people i don't you know

i am. i don't i don't i don't like it it shouldn't be. a boy 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. and straight whatever martina navratilova helped found it takes a team to fight homophobia in sports person so it's a pretty poor inner but i think once we go down by two i don't think we're going to hear from you is what i really think so whatever does one make sure that she makes the shot hey no no no stress or you. stress. scott fujita the free spirited defense of captain and starting linebacker for the twenty 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 my largest growth areas were the issue of your right and equality. for me. where i stand in my way i would never do so i think the more times you have to wear your names with oh i do it through. that you believe. 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 the 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 which johnson defeated this great white hope the former champion jim jeffries in front of a hostile all white 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 the right 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 when a good little bird is made in the world. we join 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 with. jackie robinson and surest way like jack johnson before him robinson demonstrated great courage in the

face of a still a different 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 lots of day 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 and that it came from what. 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 big hit 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 i know when and why in the united states can be mighty tough for people who are no different from the majority i'm not going to have an advance open to a very few negro americans but i do know that democracy works for the old are willing to fight for it in history's telling jackie robinson just smiled worked

hard never complained and eventually broke the color barrier so all i know i would do is they can bait and when i get up i say you'll go back to one soul and i can see your black face that backspace right over me so i often times you right in the cape where you. mr t. i've got to meet. 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. the ku klux klan the grand wizard dr greene called the atlanta ball club and said it 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. republican party as a protest against the new take it back game gaining today robinson has endorsed vice president humphrey and accompanied him today on a swing through harlem i think that the mood of the negro delegates was 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 batton 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. minorities in the depths of poverty and despair robinson started to speak out about how racism persisted despite his individual achievements always guys who are saying we got it made to rap. 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 opportunity they have an ad but because i've had these opportunities i mean i've forgotten he wanted to shift the terms of the discussion away from individual achievement 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'd grown up and learning about the triumph of black teams and organizations rather than the triumph of jackie robinson alone. le bron james is the kind of go lactic talent that holds the potential to redefine basketball. but he's also declared that he has aspirations beyond sports james has 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 two great goals but 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 starlight never my life still. i mean just. i mean this is. insoles phrase that world. is intrigued because. their interest in this world. to me to all this allows those of.

mohammad ali remains a global icon not 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. of the name given to me. by the one nine hundred sixty s. remember you had two grand movements the african american freedom struggle in the us how were moved. the two movements didn't always merge but they did in mohammad

ali. ali was still the consummate showman but now his hero was malcolm x. dating a gate. the power structure in one nine hundred sixty four ali joined the nation of islam a group feared and hated by white america and started speaking out against racism the rape our women deal the policeman pull black people up and hear them across the hear just the trial courts and know of none of the good life folks can be found to help. a couple of 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 one . here in turn to kill kill kill and continue killing innocent people it was an act of conscientious objection i would not only cost him his championship belts but

also get him sentenced to prison growing heavyweight champion country great a federal court reduced the me from building violating the u.s. elected laws refusing to be inducted here sometimes for five years in prison and find them both in dollars 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 fearlessness of someone who understood he was part of a larger struggle and all the fighting they just take part they make a million dollars the golden rules are only give them a white life well i made it america's great investigation hero and he may say no but when one man of the legit world the problem he can lose a few dollars a self telling the truth might lose his life but he's helping millions and i just love the freedom in the first people more money you could take you should be 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. him they were jobbed the green team. for greatest collection of mystical challenge ever assembled and they were out a vision to return to us friendship all trying to do is what's called the past in one thousand nine hundred thirty went to barcelona with us and with a vastly bossy as the medal ceremony approached jordan had a crisis of conscience. notice how jordan has an american flag over his shoulder well this apparently heartwarming display of atria tism what turned out to be something else entirely jordan was using the flag to hide the reebok logo on the team jersey.

shore worried. he was using an american flag to protect his brand a former subservience to corporate power that michael jordan modeled yet again when he refused to endorse harvey gantz 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 hunting a political in one thousand nine hundred he famously to 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 great on jordan on the other who ushering in a new age of corporate rule that loves to glorify the image of rebellion while 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 of haiti he wrote down a few words and asked me to read them that's something that really weighs on my mind a lot of the time because to me muhammad ali was a voice of resistance and i think we missed that voice very much. by the means of the show maybe. le bron 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 and turned american sports culture on its head in the late one nine hundred sixty. s. . i think you were stuck i mean i think pretty well so but last night because on the out front. it's just right now it's the. audacity. they want to golden 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 averaging in america they were beads to protest lynching and john carlos even under his jacket a violation of olympic 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 warning here the olympic games are one week ago today and yesterday the fact they were the most dramatic. and started with the news that. tommie smith and john carlos two hundred metres gold and bronze medal had been rendered by the united states and a committee and given forty eight hours to leave mexico. any demonstrations in.

the right place to do this. kind of world they did in. asia. we you. still all want to get out of the other planet in america and the nation might say you got it all you got the better do you got medal you got martyrdom as well on your side of. a group be taking the lead here it is good group if you think any. missed it. oh you. mean. you know we. really care. if you

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 kinship in 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 rip best let it 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.

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