Football slaves on million dollar salaries call the tune

Forget facts! Forget Shakespeare! Jake Evans, ABC News, August 16:

Announcing the Future of Education strategy, acting school improvement director Kris Willis said it was “time for change” … “Facts and figures once held as paramount in classrooms, and knowing facts and figures, is no longer relevant in today’s society,” he said … Principal Craig Edwards said rather than teaching Shakespeare, the class teaches skills that they will use long after their school days. “Currently in class we’re talking about, ‘What is creativity?’ Last semester we talked about, ‘What is a good communicator?’ ” Mr Edwards said.

It’s an olive branch! Harry Yorke, The Telegraph, August 16:

Jeremy Corbyn’s biggest union backer … (claims) the party’s anti-Semitism … has been “wildly exaggerated”. Unite boss Len McCluskey … blamed Jewish leaders for their “utter refusal” to accept an olive branch from Mr Corbyn.

It’s an olive branch? Katie French, Daily Mail, August 15:

Labour has insisted Jeremy Corbyn was just “standing up for democracy’’ by making the salute of … the Muslim Brotherhood … The latest row comes after … Mr Corbyn … was photographed at a wreath-laying ceremony in Tunis … where members of Black September — the terror group behind the Munich Olympics massacre of 11 Israeli athletes — are buried. He admitted on Monday that he was “present’’ … but he didn’t believe he was “actually involved in it’’.

More olive branches? Isobel Thompson, Vanity Fair, August 15:

In 2016, Naz Shah … (of) Corbyn’s shadow cabinet, shared Facebook posts suggesting Israelis be deported to the US … Corbyn champion Ken Livingstone … (defended Shah claiming) Hitler was “supporting Zionism before he went mad and ended up killing 6 million Jews” … one of Corbyn’s Facebook posts … expressed support for the artist of an anti-Semitic mural … (Corbyn) said he “did not look … closely at the image” … (last month) Labour … (rejected) the definition of anti-Semitism … issued by the International Holocaust Remembrance (Alliance) … Days later, (in) a recording … of the meeting … a member … (said) “I am not going to be lectured to by Trump fanatics making up duff information without any evidence at all … we should ask the 70 rabbis, ‘Where is your evidence of severe and widespread anti-Semitism in this party?’’’

Slaves! Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, The Hollywood Reporter, August 14:

To the slave owners, singing slaves would drown out their own cruelty … But … they had to sing their oppressor’s feel-good songs … Currently, the song being demanded is the national anthem during football games. But during a warm-up game on August 10 … several Eagles players knelt during the anthem or raised their fists … lyrics like “land of the free” don’t accurately represent the daily reality for people of colour … white Americans … (don’t) listen to their song, especially when it isn’t a grinning, grateful or pandering patriotic song.

Slave salaries? Aric Jenkins, time.com, January 29:

The average salary of an NFL player is $2.1 million …

Gilt framed guilt! Letter to The New York Times, August 16:

I’m riddled with shame. White shame. …. there is no “me” outside of my white/upper middle class/cisgender identity … my existence hurts people … I research proper etiquette, read writers of colour, vote in a way that will not harm (people of colour) … donated to Black Lives Matter … What if I’m doing … insensitive things without realising it? I don’t talk about my feelings because … (POC) are dying due to systemic racism and making this conversation about me would be again centring whiteness. Yet bottling it up . (I) feel an existential anger … I have a hard time channelling … How can I be more than my heritage? Whitey … A version of this article appears in print. … Order reprints.