News. Sports. Arts & Entertainment. Politics
By Frankie Wallace
Image Source: Pexels
In February, eight basketball players from the University of Mississippi knelt during the national anthem in order to protest two confederate sympathizer groups who had gathered on their college campus. The hate groups’ rallies were formed in support of a sculpture of a confederate soldier on the school’s campus. Regardless, the Ole Miss players’ silent protest stirred up some controversy around the sports media world.
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Chelsea FC have had a very troubled recent history when it comes to their supporters engaging in racist and anti-Semitic behavior. It’s been a re-occurring theme this season, but in this instance it is Chelsea who are the victims of racial abuse.
It was supporters of the opponent, in this case Dynamo Kiev, engaging in the deplorable behavior this time. The incident occurred Thursday night in the closing stages of Chelsea’s 5-0 Europa League win at the Olympic Stadium in Kiev, Ukraine.
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(UPDATE: local police say there is no threat at this time, go to this link for more)
There have been unconfirmed reports of an active shooter situation on the campus of the University of Michigan.
Although details are still coming in at this time, the University sent out the following alert message less than an hour ago, while the Michigan basketball team was finishing its Big Ten tournament semi-final game at the United Center in Chicago:
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It’s a big news day for Chelsea FC, with the club making a couple of major announcements within the past 24 hours. Yesterday, we learned the date and the official marketing title of the friendly that Chelsea will stage at the New England Revolution with the purposes of combating Anti-Semitism.
Today, we saw Chelsea formally announce their appeal of the transfer ban FIFA imposed on them late last month.
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Manchester United striker Romelu Lukaku has joined Manchester City winger Raheem Sterling in hitting out at certain aspects of media coverage in the British press. Both of the Manchester forwards find the English media to act racist at times, but Lukaku did not single out any outlet or reporter by name.
Which is in stark contrast to Sterling, who posted an example of the practices he found to be offensive on his social media page back in December.
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The 1994-95 Northwestern basketball team went 5-22, and yes, they were just as bad as their record indicates. That’s not why we’re talking about them today though, a quarter-century later. Two of their players ended up doing prison time for fraud after their point shaving activities were uncovered.
Yes, two members of that Northwestern Wildcats team were purposefully trying to lose by even more, in an effort to make money by helping NU lose by more points than the gambling spread in three Big Ten games that season. Let’s Get Weird, Sports episode 9 is a short podcast, we filled it out with an extra Northwestern story towards the end that you’ll want to hear.
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Monday saw the Chicago Cubs move from damage control mode to the damage repair phase of addressing the fallout caused by Joe Ricketts’ leaked emails. The billionaire TD Ameritrade founder, already previously notorious for holding some bigoted and racist world views, saw his e-mail messages that conveyed severe Islamophobia, consistent bigotry and belief in bizarre conspiracy theories leaked to the press last month.
Since the deplorable electronic missives surfaced, both Cubs Chairman Tom Ricketts and Cubs President Theo Epstein have spoken out and publicly condemned racism and Islamophobia. Ricketts the younger is also expected to address this issue with the team soon, as he annually gives a speech to the players before the first workout of spring training where the full roster is present.
Somewhere within the conflicted but always colorful world of Cubs Twitter, I saw a tweet somewhere that echoed my sentiments exactly. “Less Addison Russell talking to the media, more Addison Russell getting released by the Chicago Cubs.”
Unless something drastic happens and an unexpected bombshell drops that is just not going to happen. Despite the growing number of Cubs fans who want Russell jettisoned, the Cubs remain steadfast in their decision to give him another chance, and see if he can turn his life around after a divorce marred by accusations of domestic abuse.
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Newly minted Northern Illinois football coach Thomas Hammock spent the past five seasons as running backs coach of the Baltimore Ravens, and his first year on the job was tumultuous to say the least. During Hammock’s third month on the job, the video of Ray Rice beating his fiancee was released, and the team promptly terminated the contract of the franchise’s all-time second leading rusher.
On Friday, Hammock, a NIU alum, was introduced to the Chicago media as the next head football coach. During the media session, Hammock was asked about how he grew and developed as a person during his time in Baltimore.
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If we could find the tweet that we saw several years ago about Jenny McCarthy, we would certainly publish it here today. The Twitter posting perfectly summated everything that she’s about, and it said basically: “I wonder if Jenny McCarthy ponders her lasting legacy at all: ‘I was nude for awhile, then I convinced a bunch of parents to not to believe in science and then let their kids die from easy preventable diseases- nailed it!'”
Jenny McCarthy is a top trending term on Twitter just once a year, and it comes on New Year’s Eve when she co-hosts ABC’s Dick Clark’s Rocking Eve. It’s astounding that ABC keeps giving her this gig in an age when media figures and celebrities often lose their jobs over minor mistakes. Jenny McCarthy and her joke of a career is a “major mistake.”
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Napoli defender Kalidou Koulibaly was subjected to deplorable racial abuse by Inter Milan supporters on Boxing Day at the San Siro. The home fans directed repeated racist chants, including monkey noises, at Koulibaly despite multiple announcements made over the venue public address system asking the fans to cease and desist.
According to UEFA, three such warnings were made and went ignored, and thus Inter will now be sanctioned. The Serie A side must play its next two games in front of a completely empty stadium.
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After a week which saw not one, but two ugly incidents of Chelsea supporters engaging in bigoted acts, midfielder Cesc Fabregas admits that he would be happy if his club were “taught a lesson” about tolerance.
Last Saturday saw a Chelsea fan racially abusing Manchester City winger Raheem Sterling at Stamford Bridge in Premier League competition while Thursday night brought Blues supporters singing anti-Semitic chants at Vidi in Europa League action. UEFA is investigating the incident at Vidi, and it’s possible Chelsea could face sanctioning over it. [Read more…]
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