blackathlete - Sports News, Headlines & Highlights

Rand Paul’s thoughts on Black athletes reflects the GOP’s company lineIt’s not exactly a revelation to discover that white conservatives identify more with the PGA Tour than the NBA. It’s become part of their doctrine to attack the largely black National Basketball Association for just about anything. So we shouldn’t be shocked that one of their most prominent members...

The Senior Bowl ceased public weigh-ins that resemble slave auctions the same week Brian Flores filed his lawsuit against the NFLBack in the era of slavery — which wasn’t as long ago as racists, conservatives, and the GOP would like you to believe — Black bodies would be stripped naked, or close to it, and put on the auction block where they were sold to the highest white bidders. Their height, weight, skin color, sexual orga...

If Triston McKenzie Weren’t Black, He’d Be The Talk of BaseballWhat if I told you that over the weekend, Cleveland’s baseball team defeated the Detroit Tigers 6-1 off the strength of its rookie pitcher that only allowed two hits and struck out 10 batters in six innings of work....

Trump Lies About Bubba Wallace, NASCAR Has Yet to Denounce Tweet [UPDATED]

Trump loves to criticize Black athletes. Scratch that. He needs to criticize Black athletes....

Under Pressure

In the summer of 1968, Jack Olson wrote a series for Sports Illustrated about race (it was later turned into a book). Here is the first piece: "The Black Athlete: A Shameful Story." ...

Smart People Talk About <em>Sports Illustrated</em>'s 1968 Series About Black Athletes

On Monday, we excerpted from Jack Olsen's 1968 Sports Illustrated series, "The Black Athlete—A Shameful Story." Slate's Hang Up and Listen podcast discusses those stories with one of Olsen's subjects, Donald Smith (now Zaid Abdul-Aziz). Go listen....

When A Dance With A White Woman Divided An NFL Team

Occasionally, we'll select stories — old and new, sports and otherwise, relevant and merely sublime — that we urge you to read for one reason or another. Today: the St. Louis Cardinals of the mid-1960s and their "racial problem."...

The NASCAR Revolution Begins Today

We interrupt today's basketball coverage to tell you about Bill Lester, the first black man to qualify for a NASCAR race in 20 years. He'll be in the field for today's prestigious Golden Corral 500, which is underway as we speak....