[ Kareem Abdul-Jabbars take on why right-wing media and
politicians hate the U.S. womens soccer team and are celebrating its
loss at the World Cup.]
[[link removed]]

WHY THERE’S JOY IN RIGHT-WING MEDIA MUDVILLE  
[[link removed]]


 

Kareem Abdul-Jabbar
August 18, 2023
Kareem Substack
[[link removed]]

*
[[link removed]]
*
[[link removed]]
*
*
[[link removed]]

_ Kareem Abdul-Jabbar's take on why right-wing media and politicians
hate the U.S. women's soccer team and are celebrating its loss at the
World Cup. _

U.S. Women's World Cup Team 2023,

 

The classic American poem “Casey at the Bat,” chronicling the
hometown disappointment when their team hero strikes out, failing to
win the big game, has been subverted by right-wing commentators and
politicians giddy at the U.S. women’s soccer team losing in the
World Cup round of 16. Shockingly, there finally is joy in
Mudville—not because the mighty Casey got a hit, but because he
struck out. The hometown fans wanted their team to lose. Crazy, I
know.

Let’s start with Trump, the man who knows something about losing,
having twice lost the popular vote for president, lost over a dozen
recent court cases (including one that declared him guilty of sexual
assault), and who has been indicted on 91 counts of various criminal
activity. His assessment
[[link removed]] in
a Truth Social post: “Many of our players were openly hostile to
America - No other country behaved in such a manner, or even close.
WOKE EQUALS FAILURE.” Then, directly attacking Megan Rapinoe, who
missed a critical penalty shot, added: “Nice shot Megan, the USA is
going to Hell!!!”

[BRIEF TAKE: AS FOR HIS COMMENT THAT “MANY OF OUR PLAYERS WERE
OPENLY HOSTILE TO AMERICA,” TRUMP RECENTLY SAID
[[link removed]] DURING
A CAMPAIGN RALLY, “I COULD HAVE BEEN RELAXING AT MAR-A-LAGO OR IN
THE SOUTH OF FRANCE ― WHICH I WOULD PREFER TO BEING IN THIS COUNTRY,
FRANKLY.” THAT SEEMS PRETTY OPENLY HOSTILE TO AMERICA.

TRUMP IMPLIES SOME MORAL SUPERIORITY IN NOT TAKING A STAND AGAINST
INJUSTICE. LET’S MAKE A BRIEF COMPARISON: WHEN SAUDI ARABIA TRIED TO
INJECT A “VISIT SAUDI” AD CAMPAIGN INTO THE WOMEN’S WORLD CUP,
IT WAS MET WITH MASSIVE BACKLASH
[[link removed]] FROM
HUMAN RIGHTS GROUPS, HOST NATIONS, PLAYERS, AND COACHES. THE SAUDI’S
HUMAN RIGHTS VIOLATIONS, MISTREATMENT OF WOMEN AND THE LGBTQ+
COMMUNITY, AND THE MURDER OF AN AMERICAN JOURNALIST ARE ALL WELL
DOCUMENTED. IN 2016, TRUMP ACTUALLY ACKNOWLEDGED THE SAUDI ROLE IN THE
9/11 ATTACKS. (IN 2021, THE FBI DECLASSIFIED A DOCUMENT 
[[link removed]]THAT
SHOWED THE CONTACTS THE HIJACKERS HAD WITH SAUDI ASSOCIATES IN THE
U.S.) HOWEVER, LAST YEAR TRUMP DEFENDED HOSTING A SAUDI-FUNDED
TOURNAMENT AT ONE OF HIS GOLF COURSES, AND THE CRITICISM FROM THE
FAMILIES OF THOSE WHO DIED IN THE 9/11 ATTACKS BY SAYING
[[link removed]],
“WELL, NOBODY’S GOTTEN TO THE BOTTOM
OF 9/11, UNFORTUNATELY, AND THEY SHOULD HAVE.” WHO’S
“THEY”? WEREN’T YOU PRESIDENT WITH THE RESOURCES TO FURTHER
INVESTIGATE? THE BOTTOM LINE FOR TRUMP IS ALWAYS HIS BOTTOM LINE. HOW
CAN HE PERSONALLY PROFIT? HIS CRITICISM OF THOSE WHO AREN’T AFRAID
TO STAND UP TO TYRANNY RINGS HOLLOW SINCE HE TOOK MONEY TO LOOK THE
OTHER WAY.]

Fox commentators were especially self-righteous, wagging their fingers
from their rocking chairs on the porch at the shameful shenanigans
kids get up to these days. Fox News host Jesse Watters 
[[link removed]]criticized
Rapinoe specifically: “Her abrasive and self-centered style was
divisive. The kneeling and no hand on the heart did not meet the high
expectations the American public has for our athletes to conduct
themselves. There is also a way to go about getting a pay raise.
Injecting sexism leaves a bad taste in people’s mouths.”

[BRIEF COMMENT: WATTERS IS SUPPOSEDLY A JOURNALIST, YET HE MISSED ALL
THE SEXISM AT FOX FROM ROGER AILES TO BILL O’REILLY TO TUCKER
CARLSON—ALL FIRED, AND ALL ARE COSTING FOX MILLIONS OF DOLLARS IN
SEXUAL HARASSMENT LAWSUITS. MAYBE WATTERS ALSO MISSED THE WOMEN’S
U.S. SOCCER TEAM’S GENDER DISCRIMINATION LAWSUIT
[[link removed]],
WHICH WAS SETTLED FOR $24 MILLION. SOMEHOW, HE ALSO MISSED THE STUDY
FINDING WIDESPREAD SEXUAL AND EMOTIONAL ABUSE IN WOMEN’S SOCCER
(“EMOTIONAL, SEXUAL ABUSE WERE 'SYSTEMIC' IN WOMEN'S SOCCER, NEW
REPORT FINDS
[[link removed]]”).
NOBODY IS “INJECTING SEXISM.” THEY ARE MERELY REVEALING ITS
EXISTENCE IN ORDER TO ELIMINATE IT. I ALSO WANT TO POINT OUT THAT MANY
NFL AND NBA PLAYERS TOOK A KNEE OR DIDN’T PUT THEIR HANDS OVER THEIR
HEARTS, YET THEIR FANS STILL SUPPORTED THOSE SPORTS WITH HUGE RATINGS.
I WOULD THINK THAT WHAT LEAVES A “BAD TASTE IN PEOPLE’S MOUTHS”
IS THE ACTUAL DOCUMENTED SEXISM IN WOMEN’S SOCCER—AND WOMEN’S
SPORTS IN GENERAL—NOT THEIR EFFORTS TO SEEK JUSTICE. ALSO, YOU’LL
NOTICE IN PHOTOS THAT ALMOST ALL THE TEAM PUTS THEIR HANDS OVER THEIR
HEARTS DURING THE NATIONAL ANTHEM, SO THE ANIMOSITY TOWARD THE ENTIRE
TEAM IS MOSTLY BASED ON HATRED OF MEGAN RAPINOE, THE MOST OUTSPOKEN
TEAM MEMBER.]

Fox’s Laura Ingraham
[[link removed]] hit
some of the same points as her colleague. “I know a lot of folks are
angry that anyone could be happy about this outcome, but let this be a
lesson for Rapinoe and a lot of her teammates: If you don’t support
America, or at least are not perceived as supporting America, don’t
expect for America to blindly support you, either.”

[BRIEF COMMENT: IF WE LOOK AT THE FACTS, AMERICANS ACTUALLY DID
SUPPORT THE TEAM. THEIR OPENING WIN AGAINST VIETNAM AVERAGED 5.26
MILLION VIEWERS
[[link removed]],
A 99% INCREASE FROM THEIR OPENING MATCH IN 2019. THEIR MATCH AGAINST
THE NETHERLANDS HAD 6.43 MILLION VIEWERS, A 21% INCREASE. THE US
WOMEN’S SOCCER TEAM SET A VIEWERSHIP RECORD
[[link removed]] ON
ENGLISH-LANGUAGE TELEVISION IN THE U.S. I KNOW INGRAHAM IS ONLY A
PRETEND JOURNALIST, BUT MAYBE DO A LITTLE RESEARCH BEFORE FORMING
OPINIONS. CONTRARY TO THESE COMMENTATORS, IT SEEMS LIKE MANY
CONSERVATIVES ACTUALLY DO KNOW HOW SPORTS WORK AND DON’T ROOT FOR
THEIR TEAMS TO LOSE. THEY MAY DISAGREE WITH THEIR POLITICS, BUT WHEN
THE WHISTLE BLOWS, THEY ARE SCREAMING FOR CASEY, WHETHER HE’S
WEARING A MAGA HAT OR AN LGBTQ+ PIN, TO HIT THAT BALL OUT OF THE
PARK.]

Megyn Kelly scolded
[[link removed]],
“They refused to honor anything we stand for, and therefore I am
thrilled they lost. Good! I’m glad you went down. You don’t
support America? I don’t support you!”

The main talking points of these conservative talking heads are:
“Woke equals failure” and that the soccer team, especially Megan
Rapinoe, didn’t “support America,” which is why they lost, or at
least why America should celebrate their loss. The implication is that
the values expressed by the team don’t reflect America’s values.

Everything in those talking points is factually wrong, historically
wrong, and logically wrong. For Megyn Kelly, it sadly reveals an
inability to learn from the past, in this case, her own past. In 2013,
she stated
[[link removed]],
“Jesus was a white man, too. It's like we have, he's a historical
figure that's a verifiable fact, as is Santa, I just want kids to know
that.” As many historians pointed out to her, Jesus was Jewish and
born in the Middle East, likely looking like a modern-day Palestinian.
Santa has been traced to a monk named St. Nicholas from where
modern-day Turkey is located.

In 2018, Kelly was fired from NBC after stating
[[link removed]] that
“Back when I was a kid, [putting on blackface during Halloween] was
OK, as long as you were dressing up as, like, a character.” She
didn’t have the self-awareness or social knowledge to realize that,
while such activity was accepted among whites, it wasn’t “okay”
because of the pain it caused Black children and adults to see their
culture reduced to simplistic and laughable stereotypes.

Ten years have passed for Kelly, but not ten years’ worth of growth,
insight, or adherence to facts. That’s not her brand. There’s no
money in maturation.

Here are some other sports “failures” who championed social
justice: Muhammad Ali, Jackie Robinson, LeBron James, Bill Russell,
Arthur Ashe, Billy Jean King, Serena and Venus Williams, Tommie Smith,
John Carlos, and many others. I’ve been promoting social justice for
almost 60 years, and I was pretty successful.

What these conservatives don’t understand is that when sports
figures use their celebrity to promote social justice, they are, in
fact supporting American values by holding us accountable when we fall
short. Our Constitution is a contract with the people, a promise to
deliver a certain type of government that supports certain values.
When someone doesn’t deliver on their contract, you don’t just
shrug and hope for better next time, you confront them and demand they
live up to their obligations.

The U.S.’s 13th Secretary of the Interior, Carl Schurz, said
[[link removed]], “My country, right or
wrong; if right, to be kept right; and if wrong, to be set right.”
That is what the best of our athletes are doing: helping set us right.

These commentators do not honestly care about the injustices, or they
wouldn’t spend so much time and energy denying they exist—and
punishing the people who try to correct them. I’m especially
disappointed in the women commentators who knowingly lumped all the
women on this team into one monolith—the way they do Blacks,
immigrants, LGBTQ+—as if they weren’t individuals. They also know
that the causes of inequality in pay and the sexual abuse are real,
yet they still don’t think the people affected should address it.
They want them to sit quietly, demurely, and smile.

Sports offers a platform. What should athletes do with it? Some choose
to use the platform to improve the lives of others, to bring about
equality, and to challenge America to keep its promises. Fox also
offers a platform, but these commentators choose to lie and misinform
in exchange for money. Which group is actually supporting American
values?

Team loyalty is an arbitrary thing, whether you’re rooting for your
hometown team or a team across the country that your parents loved.
But once you proclaim your allegiance to a team, especially one that
represents your country, you don’t turn on the entire team because
you don’t like their politics of compassion. Here’s the irony: the
team that beat the U.S. is from Sweden, a country conservatives
routinely bash for being too liberal or “socialist.” American
professor of journalism Christian Christensen at Stockholm University
Sweden stated [[link removed]] that
Sweden “has become the symbol of everything that many American
Republicans believe is wrong with Europe: feminism, environmentalism,
and openness to refugees.” Trump has for years berated Sweden’s
social programs.

So, if I’m following the logic conservatives have laid out, Sweden
beat the US because they were even more woke?

_Kareem Abdul-Jabbar [[link removed]] says, "My
years as a basketball player defined me, but my years as a writer
refined me. Sports gave me a public voice and I have been using it
since my years at UCLA to speak up and out about social injustice."_

_Sign up [[link removed]] for Kareem Abdul-Jabbar's
Substack column._

* sports
[[link removed]]
* women's sports
[[link removed]]
* soccer
[[link removed]]
* anti-wokeness
[[link removed]]

*
[[link removed]]
*
[[link removed]]
*
*
[[link removed]]

 

 

 

INTERPRET THE WORLD AND CHANGE IT

 

 

Submit via web
[[link removed]]

Submit via email
Frequently asked questions
[[link removed]]

Manage subscription
[[link removed]]

Visit xxxxxx.org
[[link removed]]

Twitter [[link removed]]

Facebook [[link removed]]

 




[link removed]

To unsubscribe, click the following link:
[link removed]