Bell urges the much-honored Phelps to step aside and let a U.S. fencer who symbolizes the nation’s diversity to have the honor of carrying the flag

W. Kamau Bell: A noble gesture for Michael Phelps? – CNN.com

I love the Olympics. I love how they (and the American Teams competing at them) are becoming more and more diverse. I love how it brings people from cultures all around the world together to meet on the same playing field. I love the mystique of the PAX Olympiad. I love watching young people do their absolute best for medals, glory, or simply the love of sport. I love all of it.

Except this narrative.

I think the story of the fencer in hijab is great and it highlights a road towards a more inclusive society and world.

However, the Olympics – at their best – are not about politics and they certainly aren’t about religion or race. They’re not about commenting on racial or socio-economic strife in one’s homeland either. The Olympics are about sport.

This is the Olympics! Not some partisan, let’s-divide-everybody -up-into-categories-instead-of-seeing-them-all-as-athletes bullshit!!!

Michael Phelps is the most decorated American athlete at these games. He should be the one leading the team in. Not a first timer who isn’t going to medal.

Fuck that noise, fuck taking the flag away from Phelps.

The captains were absent… So it was a golden opportunity for the most eloquent spokesperson in women’s tennis, Venus Williams, to take over the stage.

…Venus Williams then looked over at Madison Keys, whose father is African-American, and asked her: 

“Do you want to be included in this Madison, at all, or …? 

Then Venus looked at the questioner. In her sternest tone, she said, “I didn’t understand the question.”

“USA Tennis is here to hopefully medal, and who knows, maybe we could take more than one medal home. So I think that’s what we’re focused on right now. We can’t focus on anything, any movement – especially anything happening in the States,” she said. “Right now we’re focused on the world community, and how we can build that positivity. So if that includes building positivity in the States, we’re all for it.”

A question out of left field, as Venus Williams takes over as an eloquent spokesperson for the US tennis team | Eh Game – Yahoo Sports Canada

Grace.

Khalif criticized Clinton for supporting the 1994 crime bill that was signed into law by her husband. He also charged that the Democratic Party largely ignored the BLM movement as the party put together its convention platform.

Khalif said some of Clinton’s rhetoric on the campaign trail has been patronizing….

…Khalif said Republican nominee Donald Trump is a “racist bigot” who won’t win votes from his community. But he said Clinton still has a chance to keep young black voters from casting ballots elsewhere or sitting out the election.

He said Clinton should specifically make it clear that she will expect authorities to fire and prosecute police officers who are captured on video shooting unarmed men and women.

Black Lives Matter protesters want to send message to Clinton

(I’d add) or engaging in other unlawful and violent activities.

Hate Bill’s ’94 crime bill. I like the sum total of his body work but I do not approve of that bill. At all. She supported it too. Yes, I imagine political expediency was involved. I also like to think that their (and many, many others) mistakes in this huge, deep, important matter were at least in part innocent on their part.

Hear me out here. I’m letting not them off the hook. Far from it. I’m trying to understand how people I have so much respect for could be so soulless and dumb. This is what I’ve got so far:

Ignorance that was born of being in a bubble. Even when Hillary and Bill were mixing it up with folks of different backgrounds than themselves they were still in a bit of a bubble. They both came from humble backgrounds to be sure but they both seem to come from people with j-o-b-s. They also have the lucky accident of being white going for them in a-l-l sorts of situations. They achieved a middle class lifestyle while they were still young. …And -most importantly here- hung out with other people on similar paths, with similar career trajectories.

The Clintons weren’t exposed to things like the idea of DWB. I’m not saying they didn’t hang out with black people. I’m saying the black people -and probably all of the people that they hung out- with were successful, upwardly mobile types themselves. Types, who for various reason, might not have wanted to make a big deal of race-related things that happened to them. If a DWB story did come up it might have been something that seemed (in the context of circles who do not know, experience &/or discuss these things) like they were isolated incidents and not an entrenched, malignant problem.

I’m just speculating, I don’t know the specifics really but we can all agree it wasn’t something that came up a lot in progressive, left or Democratic Party politics until recently. Bill and Hillary were simply not acquainted with the instant turmoil and economic turmoil that an arrest or incarceration causes a family. The ensuing devastation to a community when many, many incidents are concentrated within a certain population wasn’t on their radar. It should have been but it wasn’t.

Like many who do not see the day-to-day effects of heavy, military-style policing on a given community, the Clintons might have found it hard to fathom that Officers of the Law were doing anything but ‘enforcing the peace.’ I imagine the thinking simply goes along the lines of, ‘the police are there to protect us, right? So the police are right.’

For someone who is not already exposed to these realities it must have been hard to believe that, for some Americans, the police aren’t always right and the U.S. justice system is very, very unjust.

With today’s cell phone video reporting and media attention on huge demonstrations in support of #BlackLivesMatter , it’s probably a concept someone like Bill or Hillary is much more familiar with now than they have been in the past.

Hillary’s a wonk. In the parlance of recent times, she’s a total geek for that shit. When she picks her determined course of action to address a problem, she back it up with a whole bunch of research and clearly spelled out programs. That’s who she is.

She also has spent a great deal of her life working in service to public sphere. She has championed a lot of programs that are all about helping raise people up. She is the person to champion the cause of making the justice system fair and just. We just need to make sure she is well-informed so that when she creates a plan it helps, rather than hurts.

Short version, hated Bill’s bill but I like his body of work so I choose to think he’d do it different if he knew then what he knows now. Same goes for his wife’s support of his crime bill.

So get out there and make sure Hillary knows what is happening with institutional injustice in the criminal/penal system kids!

Leslie Jones ain’t afraid of no trolls, she made clear in her first interview since being harassed on Twitter

Leslie Jones takes on the trolls in her first interview since being attacked on Twitter – CBS News

Yeah, girl!

Racial strife has exploded in America once again. Two Washington state women believe ‘White Nonsense Roundup’ could play a part in educating and healing.

If you are a Person of Color (POC), you have enough on your plate! It’s not your job to educate white people about privilege, racism, and what’s really going on in the world. If a white person is filling your social media with white nonsense – anything from overt racism to well-intentioned problematic statements – tag us and a white person will come roundup our own. We welcome your involvement, resource suggestions, and will take your feedback seriously. We are also happy to boost the signal of voices of color.

Women launch ‘White Nonsense Roundup’ to unburden people of color

Love this so much!