Debunking the Myth that Sports and Politics Don’t Overlap

Debunking the Myth that Sports and Politics Don’t Overlap

Debunking the Myth that Sports and Politics Don’t Overlap

Sports has a rich tradition of resistance politics. 

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Sports has a rich tradition of resistance politics. Such sports luminaries as Muhammad Ali, Jackie Robinson, Billie Jean King and Pat Tillman all have their political side, and their actions have been integral to this country’s struggle for racial equality, gender equality and peace at home and abroad. Sports creates a safe language to discuss many otherwise difficult topics—topics that team owners hate because they break the apolitical rules of "jockocracy."

In this video, The Nation‘s Dave Zirin, guest editor of the recent Sports Issue, dissects the overlaps between sports and progressive culture, urging the next generation of both sports fans and progressives to heed these intersecting histories. 

Anna Lekas Miller

We cannot back down

We now confront a second Trump presidency.

There’s not a moment to lose. We must harness our fears, our grief, and yes, our anger, to resist the dangerous policies Donald Trump will unleash on our country. We rededicate ourselves to our role as journalists and writers of principle and conscience.

Today, we also steel ourselves for the fight ahead. It will demand a fearless spirit, an informed mind, wise analysis, and humane resistance. We face the enactment of Project 2025, a far-right supreme court, political authoritarianism, increasing inequality and record homelessness, a looming climate crisis, and conflicts abroad. The Nation will expose and propose, nurture investigative reporting, and stand together as a community to keep hope and possibility alive. The Nation’s work will continue—as it has in good and not-so-good times—to develop alternative ideas and visions, to deepen our mission of truth-telling and deep reporting, and to further solidarity in a nation divided.

Armed with a remarkable 160 years of bold, independent journalism, our mandate today remains the same as when abolitionists first founded The Nation—to uphold the principles of democracy and freedom, serve as a beacon through the darkest days of resistance, and to envision and struggle for a brighter future.

The day is dark, the forces arrayed are tenacious, but as the late Nation editorial board member Toni Morrison wrote “No! This is precisely the time when artists go to work. There is no time for despair, no place for self-pity, no need for silence, no room for fear. We speak, we write, we do language. That is how civilizations heal.”

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Onwards,

Katrina vanden Heuvel
Editorial Director and Publisher, The Nation

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