Portside

A debate heats up among NBA players over whether to return to the court amid nationwide protests against racist violence. Many players feel the issues of racial justice and stopping police violence are pressing, now is not the time for pro basketball

This World Cup has demonstrated on the largest possible stage the competing forms of patriotism that exist in the United States. This is also a team that openly, unapologetically, and joyfully projected its LGBTQ inclusivity and identity.

There is a wall in baseball between sports and politics. One player just put a crack in it. Fall - Baseball - League Championships - World Series - what makes baseball different from other sports, like football, basketball and soccer?

His comments about NFL players reveal just how divisive and narcissistic the president really is.

People like Donald Trump are the reason locker rooms can become an incubator of rape culture-and a fortress against anyone who would challenge it from the outside.

The opposition to Colin Kaepernick's protest - from the police unions to Beltway pundits to an online army of bigots-wants to ensure that this protest against police violence stays as segregated as possible. If high-profile white NFL or Major League Baseball players start to kneel in solidarity with the idea that Black Lives Matter, then the law-and-order crowd loses racism as the most effective tool in their kit to keep this movement quarantined.

 Identifying the myriad problems is easy. More difficult—and more important—is to resist seeing them as “general chaos.” We need to avoid the facile explanation provided to me by Rio Mayor Eduardo Paes: “These things happen when you host an Olympics in the developing world.” Instead, we need to understand that Rio’s “state of public calamity” is an extreme version of what happens when the International Olympic Committee (IOC) comes a-calling.

Professional athletes have provided a flicker of hope during these agonizing days by speaking out against police violence. "Shut up and play" clearly doesn't fly when black bodies are falling at the hands of those whose job is to serve and protect. Now, after the filmed deaths of Alton Sterling and Philando Castile, athletes' statements - which have the potential to reach an audience far beyond the normal political blather - are starting up yet again.

Political courage might seem to be in short supply, but it was inside a young boxer from Louisville

The Melissa Harris-Perry Show wasn't diversity for diversity sake. This was a show that introduced us to community leaders, academics, small town politicians, and musicians that otherwise never would have seen the light of day. The most diverse, intellectually bracing show on network news was treated as expendable, and its host would not have it. She and her show will be sorely missed.