tag:theconversation.com,2011:/uk/topics/muhammad-ali-28100/articlesMuhammad Ali – The Conversation2023-05-25T12:27:22Ztag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2060732023-05-25T12:27:22Z2023-05-25T12:27:22ZNFL icon and social activist Jim Brown leaves a complicated legacy<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/528099/original/file-20230524-30-gv5a9o.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=628%2C218%2C2206%2C2223&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Jim Brown takes a break during a 1963 Cleveland Browns football game.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/jim-brown-close-up-on-bench-news-photo/515449734?adppopup=true">Bettmann/Getty Images</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Throughout his <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/sport/2023/may/20/jim-brown-remembrance-complex-legacy">celebrated life</a>, Jim Brown was both praised for <a href="https://apnews.com/article/jim-brown-activist-actor-nfl-ali-jabbar-e1f179ce07d940d418062ffc01daac97">his community activism</a> and vilified for his <a href="https://www.cleveland.com/news/2023/05/jim-browns-legacy-clouded-by-allegations-of-domestic-violence.html">abuse of women</a>. </p>
<p>But no one questions his incredible ability on the professional football field or his subsequent career in Hollywood during the racially tumultuous 1960s as one of the movie industry’s few Black male stars. </p>
<p>Considered by some sports analysts as the <a href="https://bleacherreport.com/articles/157718-the-undisputed-greatest-jim-brown">best football player</a> in the history of the game, Brown became a <a href="https://www.profootballhof.com/players/jim-brown/">Hall of Fame</a> running back for the Cleveland Browns and used his celebrity status to <a href="https://www.pbs.org/newshour/show/a-look-at-jim-browns-life-and-legacy-as-a-football-great-and-activist">fight for equal rights</a> at a time when America’s racial divide was erupting throughout the Deep South.</p>
<p>From his <a href="https://www.nfl.com/videos/a-football-life-how-jim-brown-dealt-with-racial-discrimination-63446">fight against racial discrimination</a> in the 1950s to his <a href="https://www.nydailynews.com/sports/football/nfl-legend-jim-brown-teaches-25-year-old-program-amer-i-can-foundation-article-1.972923">development of programs</a> to end gang violence in the 1980s, Brown set an early standard for being more than just a gifted athlete.</p>
<p>As <a href="https://lgst.wharton.upenn.edu/profile/shrop/">a scholar of African American Studies</a>, it’s my belief that <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2023/05/19/sports/football/jim-brown-dead.html">Brown’s death on May 19, 2023,</a> at the age of 87 renews questions about the role that modern-day athletes could and should have on ongoing political and social debates. </p>
<h2>Brown’s first public act of activism</h2>
<p>Unlike later Black superstars such as <a href="https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2016/10/what-o-j-simpson-means-to-me/497570/">O.J. Simpson</a>, <a href="https://www.espn.com/nba/story/_/id/29130478/michael-jordan-stands-firm-republicans-buy-sneakers-too-quote-says-was-made-jest">Michael Jordan</a> and <a href="https://apnews.com/article/458b7710858579281e0f1b73be0da618">Tiger Woods</a>, Brown was unafraid of potential financial losses and stood up for himself and, by extension, every Black man. </p>
<p>That boldness became clear when Brown <a href="https://www.daytondailynews.com/sports/brown-never-lamented-decision-to-retire-from-football-at-young-age/7EYPBMCBXNDYJLAJUSRHSDEYGA/">walked away from football</a> in 1966 to pursue another career as an actor in Hollywood, a decision prompted in part by the actions of Browns owner Art Modell. </p>
<p>Incensed that <a href="https://theathletic.com/4538174/2023/05/22/jim-brown-retirement-browns-super-bowl/">Brown was in England</a> filming the movie “Dirty Dozen” instead of practicing with the team, <a href="https://andscape.com/features/jim-brown-retires-while-on-the-set-of-the-dirty-dozen/">Modell threatened</a> to issue Brown daily fines of $100 until he returned. </p>
<p>Brown’s response was unequivocal. </p>
<p>In a letter to Modell, Brown wrote: “You must realize that both of us are men and that my manhood is just as important to me as yours is to you.” </p>
<p>His retirement in July 1966 from football was shocking.</p>
<p>As a young man who wanted to play professional football myself, I couldn’t understand why Brown walked away from the sport, voluntarily, at the age of 30 years old and at the peak of his career. </p>
<p>Little did I know at the time that <a href="https://andscape.com/features/jim-brown-retires-while-on-the-set-of-the-dirty-dozen/">his sudden retirement</a> was a form of activism to be himself.</p>
<p>Brown said as much in his letter to Modell. </p>
<p>“This decision is final,” <a href="https://www.profootballrumors.com/2018/07/jim-brown-retires-browns-nfl">Brown wrote</a>, “and is made only because of the future that I desire for myself, my family and, if not to sound corny, my race.” </p>
<p>I learned about Brown’s activism after I began to study sports as <a href="https://www.kennethshropshire.com/">a scholar</a> and came to realize how unique Brown was at the time and in comparison to other modern-day superstars who rarely jeopardize their livelihoods to protest racial inequality. </p>
<h2>The Cleveland Summit</h2>
<p>In June 1967, a year after his retirement, Brown organized what has come to be known as <a href="https://andscape.com/features/the-cleveland-summit-muhammad-ali/">the Cleveland Summit</a>, and it centered around Muhammad Ali and his refusal on religious grounds to join the U.S. military and fight in the Vietnam War.</p>
<p>For his refusal, Ali <a href="https://www.pbs.org/video/muhammad-ali-refuses-vietnam-war-draft-gqtvtv/">was stripped of his boxing titles</a> and faced a fine of $10,000 and a five-year prison sentence. But he still rejected the <a href="https://warfarehistorynetwork.com/muhammad-alis-draft-controversy/">government’s offer</a> to restrict his military activity to only boosting the morale of U.S. troops by boxing in sparring matches on military bases and not serve combat duty.</p>
<p>To show Ali support and convince him to accept the government’s offer, Brown gathered a meeting of the greatest Black athletes of the day and several politicians, including <a href="https://menofchange.si.edu/exhibit/men-of-change/ali/">Bill Russell</a>, Lew Alcindor – later known as <a href="https://www.news-journalonline.com/story/sports/2016/06/09/alis-passing-takes-jim-brown-abdul-jabbar-down-memory-lane/27955651007/">Kareem Abdul-Jabbar</a> – <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/dc-sports-bog/wp/2016/06/07/a-redskins-hall-of-famer-once-tried-to-convince-muhammad-ali-to-serve-in-the-military/">Bobby Mitchell</a>, <a href="https://www.packersnews.com/story/sports/nfl/packers/dougherty/2017/02/17/dougherty-willie-davis-stood-up-ali/97995320/">Willie Davis</a> and then-<a href="https://teachingcleveland.org/category/carl-stokes-civil-rights-1960s/clevelands-muhammad-ali-summit-45-years-later/">Cleveland Mayor Carl Stokes</a>. </p>
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<img alt="A group of professional Black athletes and politicians are gathered together during a meeting." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/527373/original/file-20230521-125283-55l4xo.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/527373/original/file-20230521-125283-55l4xo.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=404&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/527373/original/file-20230521-125283-55l4xo.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=404&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/527373/original/file-20230521-125283-55l4xo.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=404&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/527373/original/file-20230521-125283-55l4xo.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=507&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/527373/original/file-20230521-125283-55l4xo.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=507&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/527373/original/file-20230521-125283-55l4xo.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=507&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<span class="caption">Jim Brown, seated, second from right, helped organize other professional athletes and politicians in 1967 to talk about Muhammad Ali’s refusal to fight in the Vietnam War.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/nations-top-negro-athletes-gathered-for-a-meeting-at-the-news-photo/517262256?adppopup=true">Bettmann/GettyImages</a></span>
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<p>“I felt with Ali taking the position he was taking, and with him losing the crown, and with the government coming at him with everything they had, that we as a body of prominent athletes could get the truth and stand behind Ali and give him the necessary support,” Brown told the <a href="https://www.cleveland.com/sports/2012/06/gathering_of_stars.html">(Cleveland) Plain Dealer in 2012</a>.</p>
<p>In my view, not before, and certainly not since then, has there ever been a more significant gathering of athletes. Though the group <a href="https://www.csmonitor.com/Commentary/2022/0429/My-conscience-won-t-let-me-What-Muhammad-Ali-teaches-us-today">failed to convince Ali</a> to go against his religious beliefs, the meeting sent a powerful message that Black men were united and unafraid to support a Black man deemed an outcast by the U.S. government. Ali was later sent to prison.</p>
<p>“Everybody had taken a great risk at losing everything by meeting with him,” Brown <a href="https://www.news-journalonline.com/story/sports/2016/06/09/alis-passing-takes-jim-brown-abdul-jabbar-down-memory-lane/27955651007/">told The Associated Press in 2016</a>. “But what was so real was that we met for about five hours and Ali was asked every question that you could ask a person.”</p>
<p>Based on Ali’s genuine sincerity about his religious beliefs, Brown said the men became “a group of one” and decided “to back him all the way.”</p>
<h2>A flawed presence</h2>
<p>As a sports and entertainment attorney in Los Angeles, I often saw Brown at galas, some held at his home. Several years ago, I spent a day with him at <a href="https://amer-i-cancommunity.partners/about-amer-i-can/">Amer-I-can</a>, the organization that he founded in the 1980s that is focused on gang members and formerly incarcerated men and women. </p>
<p>In both of those settings, Brown had universal respect, and to say he had presence does not do him justice.</p>
<p>Part of that respect was due to Brown’s public admission that he had flaws. </p>
<p>In his <a href="https://www.kensingtonbooks.com/9780806539270/out-of-bounds/">1989 book</a> “Out of Bounds,” he wrote regarding one domestic abuse case he was involved in: “The toughest thing I did to her was slap her. I have also slapped other women. … I don’t think any man should slap a woman.”</p>
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<img alt="A black man with a grey beard wears a blue jacket as he stands in front of photographers." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/527370/original/file-20230521-127159-zcvt5x.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/527370/original/file-20230521-127159-zcvt5x.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/527370/original/file-20230521-127159-zcvt5x.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/527370/original/file-20230521-127159-zcvt5x.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/527370/original/file-20230521-127159-zcvt5x.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/527370/original/file-20230521-127159-zcvt5x.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/527370/original/file-20230521-127159-zcvt5x.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<span class="caption">Jim Brown attends a gala in Manhattan Beach, Calif., on July 13, 2017.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/cleveland-browns-full-back-nfl-champion-and-actor-jim-brown-news-photo/814424334?adppopup=true">Greg Doherty/Getty Images</a></span>
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<p>Clearly, some of Brown’s flaws were inexcusable. But for me, Brown offered a rare glimpse of a proud Black man who was willing to give up everything in order to stay true to his own principles. </p>
<p>The last time I saw Brown was during the 2023 Super Bowl festivities in Phoenix. Despite his frailty, crowded rooms still parted to make space for him.</p>
<p>No one invaded Jim Brown’s space without permission.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/206073/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Kenneth L. Shropshire does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>The death of NFL great and Hollywood star Jim Brown renews questions about the role of modern-day athletes in political and social issues.Kenneth L. Shropshire, Professor Emeritus of Legal Studies and Business Ethics; Faculty Director, Wharton Coalition for Equity & Opportunity, University of PennsylvaniaLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2055842023-05-18T08:13:22Z2023-05-18T08:13:22ZThe Plot to Save South Africa: masterful account of an assassination that nearly derailed efforts to end apartheid<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/526549/original/file-20230516-24-mt7dsp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Chris Hani (R) after being elected secretary general of the South African Communist Party in December 1991. To his left is the former secretary general Jo Slovo.
</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Walter Dhladhla/AFP via Getty Images</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>I was about to set off to the airport on the morning of 10 April 1993 to cover the great American boxer Muhammad Ali’s arrival in Johannesburg when the news came through: <a href="https://www.sahistory.org.za/people/chris-hani">Chris Hani</a> had been <a href="https://www.timeslive.co.za/sunday-times/news/2016-03-10-remember-how-the-sunday-times-covered-chris-hanis-assassination/">murdered</a>. </p>
<p>Of all the African National Congress (ANC) leaders I’d met during a decade of underground membership during the 1980s, the one who impressed me the most was Hani.</p>
<p>From 1987 to 1992 Hani was chief of staff of the movement’s military wing, <a href="https://www.sahistory.org.za/article/umkhonto-wesizwe-mk">Umkhonto we Sizwe</a>, and leader of the South African Communist Party <a href="https://www.sahistory.org.za/people/chris-hani">from 1991 to 1993</a>. Intelligent, brave, warm and witty, he exuded the kind of energetic charm that made him a hugely compelling revolutionary. I spent time with him in 1987 and 1989 and felt then, and later, that he would have made a far better successor to Mandela than the anointed dauphin, <a href="https://www.britannica.com/biography/Thabo-Mbeki">Thabo Mbeki</a>.</p>
<p>The news of his assassination outside his home in Dawn Park, Boksburg, came as a shock. I found it difficult to focus on the appearance of Ali, who’d been a kind of hero of mine for more than 20 years.</p>
<p>In his <a href="https://www.jonathanball.co.za/component/virtuemart/the-plot-to-save-south-africa">recently released book</a>, The Plot to Save South Africa, journalist and author Justice Malala does a masterful job of telling the tale of Hani’s murder and the precarious spell that followed before his funeral. He describes the nine days that followed, days that contained the potential to scupper fragile negotiations to end apartheid and prompt prolonged chaos or worse. </p>
<p>The subtitle of this book – “The week Mandela averted civil war and forged a new nation” – is appropriately chosen.</p>
<p>The book is a gripping read for anyone interested in late 20th century history, and in the end of apartheid more specifically. Malala has done a fine job in making this not just an impressively researched record, but also a compelling, fast-moving tale.</p>
<h2>Narrative balance</h2>
<p>Malala, who was a young reporter at The Star at the time of the killing, is a talented story-teller, adept at weaving the required facts into a page-turning narrative. Each anecdotal vignette comes with the kind of vivid descriptive detail that is only possible with exhaustive research. He interviewed scores of the key players from all sides in this drama. He also had access to a wealth of archival material, allowing him to delve into the minds of the protagonists and to recount their movements, what they were wearing and the words they shared with each other. </p>
<p>He draws on his experience, discipline and flair as a writer to maintain the momentum all the way through to the funeral at the end. </p>
<p>The key player in this enthralling story is <a href="https://www.nobelprize.org/prizes/peace/1993/mandela/biographical/">Nelson Mandela</a> who had been released after 27 years in prison in February 1990. He adored Hani, treating the 50-year-old as his son. He was overwhelmed with sadness. But he retained the clarity of purpose to hold back ANC supporters from wrecking the <a href="https://www.sahistory.org.za/article/convention-democratic-south-africa-codesa">negotiations to end apartheid</a> that had started soon after Mandela’s release, and had resumed shortly before Hani’s murder, after a spell of suspension.</p>
<p>The assassins wanted the talks derailed. They hoped Hani’s death would ignite a civil war that would unleash the apartheid security forces against the ANC and the <a href="https://omalley.nelsonmandela.org/index.php/site/q/03lv03445/04lv03446/05lv03480.htm">Mass Democratic Movement</a>, an alliance of anti-apartheid groups, as never before.</p>
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<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/526799/original/file-20230517-23-usl6oi.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/526799/original/file-20230517-23-usl6oi.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=912&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/526799/original/file-20230517-23-usl6oi.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=912&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/526799/original/file-20230517-23-usl6oi.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=912&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/526799/original/file-20230517-23-usl6oi.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1146&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/526799/original/file-20230517-23-usl6oi.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1146&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/526799/original/file-20230517-23-usl6oi.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1146&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<p>There was indeed an outpouring of rage, grief and violence following the murder. In the areas around Johannesburg and Pretoria alone 80 people were killed and hundreds injured in violence directly related to Hani’s assassination, with many more casualties in the rest of the country.</p>
<p>Most of the injuries and fatalities were due to the actions of the apartheid security forces and right-wing vigilantes. </p>
<p>But the outcome of the assassination was the opposite to the killers’ intentions. The incendiary climate following the murder focused minds on both sides. Mandela, his lead negotiator <a href="https://www.thepresidency.gov.za/national-orders/recipient/cyril-ramaphosa-1952">Cyril Ramaphosa</a>, and other ANC leaders successfully used the moment to press for an election date and a <a href="https://omalley.nelsonmandela.org/index.php/site/q/03lv02424/04lv02730/05lv03162.htm">Transitional Executive Council</a> to run the country until the first democratic election. This was hugely significant. It meant that the then ruling <a href="https://www.britannica.com/topic/National-Party-political-party-South-Africa">National Party</a>, the party of apartheid, could no longer call the shots before the election. </p>
<p>Without the urgency injected into the negotiations process by the assassination, it is possible that it would have dragged on, and many more would have died.</p>
<p>The outcome was the opposite to the killers’ intentions. Immediately afterwards, power leaked away from the state president, FW de Klerk, the National Party and the security establishment, and flowed to Mandela, the ANC and the Mass Democratic Movement.</p>
<p>In his accounts of these killings Malala retains narrative balance, giving space to all of the players. For example, he devotes several pages to the murder by ANC activists of the liberal anti-apartheid teacher and activist Ally Weakley, who was tragically mistaken for a right-wing vigilante.</p>
<h2>A far-right plot</h2>
<p>The book starts with Mandela receiving news of the murder and quickly segues to the movements of the two men who would be convicted, the Polish immigrant <a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/world-africa-63887332">Janusz Walus</a>, who pulled the trigger, and his mentor, the Conservative Party MP <a href="https://omalley.nelsonmandela.org/index.php/site/q/03lv02167/04lv02264/05lv02267/06lv02268/07lv02273.htm">Clive Derby-Lewis</a>, and also those who assisted them, including Derby-Lewis’s wife, Gaye, and the journalist <a href="https://www.splcenter.org/fighting-hate/intelligence-report/2007/white-supremacist-arthur-kemp-steps-leader-neo-nazi-group-national-alliance">Arthur Kemp</a>, who supplied Hani’s address (and subsequently emerged as a leading player in the international extreme-right). </p>
<p>Later, Malala raises the possibility that others within the apartheid security forces were aiding them. For example, the regular police investigating the murder were instructed by the Security Police not to probe into Walus’ links to his employer, the arms trader Peter Jackson. Jackson owned the car the killer used on the day, and Malala notes that the killer’s diary disappeared from the police docket, later reemerging with several pages missing.</p>
<p>He also points to the <a href="https://www.justice.gov.za/trc/">Truth and Reconciliation Commission</a> finding that Walus operated as a source for the National Intelligence Service (the apartheid state’s version of the CIA). The commission probed human rights abuses by the apartheid state and those who fought against it.</p>
<p>To maintain the hour-by-hour tension, Malala avoids reaching ahead, instead portraying the players in this drama as they were then. Perhaps inevitably, some of those who star in his account fared less well in the decades that followed – in particular the ANC spokesperson <a href="https://www.sahistory.org.za/people/carl-niehaus">Carl Niehaus</a>, who confessed to fraud and was eventually expelled from the ANC. </p>
<p>More generally, many of the devoted ANC leaders who played a central part in the build-up to Hani’s funeral went on to become multi-millionaires, more interested in self-enrichment than the common weal. </p>
<p>Appropriately, Malala resists the temptation to speculate about what would have happened if Hani had lived. Instead he closes with Mandela and De Klerk winning the Nobel Peace Prize and the launch of the <a href="https://omalley.nelsonmandela.org/index.php/site/q/03lv02424/04lv02730/05lv03162.htm">Transitional Executive Council</a> which ushered in the largely peaceful elections on April 27 1994.</p>
<p>This book serves as a reminder of how close South Africa came to civil war in the countdown to democracy. Nearly three decades on, it is also a timely reminder of the selflessness and dedication of many of the main players of the time, qualities that seem in short supply today.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/205584/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Gavin Evans does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>The book is a gripping read for anyone interested in late 20th century history, and in the end of apartheid.Gavin Evans, Lecturer, Culture and Media department, Birkbeck, University of LondonLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1413442020-06-30T12:29:30Z2020-06-30T12:29:30ZMuslim Americans assert solidarity with Black Lives Matter, finding unity within a diverse faith group<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/344401/original/file-20200628-104489-19o8q8n.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=8%2C0%2C5455%2C3637&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Muslims demonstrate against police brutality and racial injustice in Brooklyn.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/muslims-demonstrate-against-police-brutality-and-racial-news-photo/1219835765?adppopup=true">John Lamparski/NurPhoto via Getty Images</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>The killing of George Floyd took place at the doorstep of Muslim America.</p>
<p>He was killed <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2020/06/15/us/cup-foods-minneapolis-george-floyd.html">in front of Cup Foods</a>, a store owned by an Arab American Muslim, whose teenage employee – also a Muslim – had earlier reported to police that Floyd tried to use a counterfeit $20 bill to buy cigarettes.</p>
<p>Muslim American businesses are common in lower-income areas, such as the part of Minneapolis where Floyd died after a police officer knelt on his neck. And as the writer Moustafa Bayoumi has noted, this <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2020/06/17/opinion/george-floyd-arab-muslims-racism.html">puts stores in a precarious position</a> – catering for the community while also duty-bound to report crime to the police, sometimes under the threat of being closed down if they don’t comply.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/344593/original/file-20200629-155353-u7ixsn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/344593/original/file-20200629-155353-u7ixsn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/344593/original/file-20200629-155353-u7ixsn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/344593/original/file-20200629-155353-u7ixsn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/344593/original/file-20200629-155353-u7ixsn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/344593/original/file-20200629-155353-u7ixsn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/344593/original/file-20200629-155353-u7ixsn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<span class="caption">People kneel and pray outside Cup Foods in Minneapolis.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/people-kneel-and-pray-outside-the-cup-foods-market-in-front-news-photo/1221540533?adppopup=true">Kerem Yucel/AFP via Getty Images</a></span>
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<p>As a Muslim <a href="https://faculty.lmu.edu/amirhussain/">scholar of Islam</a> who has <a href="https://www.baylorpress.com/9781481306232/muslims-and-the-making-of-america/">written about the role of Muslims</a> in the making of the United States, I recognize that the circumstances of Floyd’s death hint at the proximity and complex relationship that different sections of America’s Muslim community have with law enforcement and with the Black Lives Matter movement.</p>
<h2>‘Too often silent’</h2>
<p>Since Floyd’s killing, Muslim Americans have mostly shown solidarity with the Black Lives Matter movement.</p>
<p>Mahmoud Abumayyaleh, the owner of Cup Foods, has said that the store will <a href="https://thegrio.com/2020/06/01/george-floyd-cup-foods-owner/">no longer call the police on customers</a>. Nationally, there have been numerous statements from groups such as the <a href="https://www.mpac.org/blog/statements-press/we-condemn-the-murder-of-george-floyd.php">Muslim Public Affairs Council</a>, the <a href="https://www.cair.com/press_releases/cair-minnesota-calls-for-arrest-of-all-officers-involved-in-george-floyd-killing-asks-that-no-bail-be-granted/">Council on American Islamic Relations</a> and the <a href="http://web-extract.constantcontact.com/v1/social_annotation_v2?permalink_uri=https%3A%2F%2Fmyemail.constantcontact.com%2FAMI-s-Statement-on-the-Horrific-Death-of-George-Floyd.html%3Fsoid%3D1123950114769%26aid%3DeolfzX4rb3A&image_url=https%3A%2F%2Fimgssl.constantcontact.com%2Fui%2Fsmm%2Fspui%2Fpost-images%2FEmail-3-lrg-fb.jpg&fbclid=IwAR2qVuAcFZfYY_H9Uplp_NTMdHb7okZxyVv_0BXeH1_VVySxSi_GwM0fDs8">American Muslim Institution</a>. </p>
<p>A <a href="https://muslimadvocates.org/joint-statement-against-anti-black-police-violence/">joint announcement</a> by over 35 national Muslim civil rights and faith groups and more than 60 regional groups noted that Black people were “often marginalized” within the broader Muslim community. It continued: “And when they fall victim to police violence, non-Black Muslims are too often silent, which leads to complicity.”</p>
<p>[<em>Get the best of The Conversation, every weekend.</em> <a href="https://theconversation.com/us/newsletters/weekly-highlights-61?utm_source=TCUS&utm_medium=inline-link&utm_campaign=newsletter-text&utm_content=weeklybest">Sign up for our weekly newsletter</a>.]</p>
<p>There have been Muslims in America for almost 500 years. <a href="https://www.pvamu.edu/tiphc/research-projects/the-diaspora-coming-to-texas/esteban/">Estevanico the Moor</a> was brought as a slave to what is now Florida in 1528 and is memorialized on the <a href="https://lrl.texas.gov/whatsNew/client/index.cfm/2017/2/14/New-Texas-African-American-Monument">Texas African American history monument</a> as the first African to enter Texas. At least 10% of the <a href="https://theconversation.com/muslims-arrived-in-america-400-years-ago-as-part-of-the-slave-trade-and-today-are-vastly-diverse-113168">slaves brought from West Africa were Muslim</a>, and the National Museum of African American History and Culture <a href="https://nmaahc.si.edu/explore/stories/collection/african-muslims-early-america">tells some of their stories</a> as part of its collection. </p>
<p>But, many African Americans came to Islam later through the Nation of Islam, which wove a Black nationalist element into their faith.</p>
<h2>Speaking up</h2>
<p>Black Muslims played a crucial role in the U.S. civil rights movement. Even today, quotes and images of civil rights activist Malcolm X, who converted to Sunni Islam in 1964 after leaving the Nation of Islam, remain <a href="https://www.minnpost.com/community-sketchbook/2016/05/what-today-s-civil-rights-activists-owe-malcolm-x/">potent in the current protests</a>. </p>
<p>Meanwhile Muhammad Ali, who at one time was perhaps the most recognizable Muslim in the world, gained fame <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2016/06/04/politics/muhammad-ali-political-moments/index.html">as much for his political stances</a> as his boxing prowess. Ali led the way for other Muslim American athletes who have pushed for social change, including NBA great <a href="http://america.aljazeera.com/opinions/2015/3/why-i-converted-to-islam.html">Kareem Abdul-Jabbar</a>, who was involved in discussions by the Olympic Project for Human Rights for Black athletes to boycott the 1968 games. </p>
<p>And 20 years before Colin Kaepernick, NBA player Mahmoud Abdul-Rauf <a href="https://www.huffpost.com/entry/protest-mahmoud-abdul-rauf-nba-flag_n_5eda77a0c5b619004bd7876d">refused to stand for the national anthem</a> while playing for the Denver Nuggets because of his “Muslim conscience.” Polling shows many of these protests were <a href="https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/first-read/nbc-wsj-poll-majority-say-kneeling-during-anthem-not-appropriate-n904891">greeted with disdain</a> by the majority of white America.</p>
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<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/344595/original/file-20200629-155299-mxfpqg.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/344595/original/file-20200629-155299-mxfpqg.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=433&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/344595/original/file-20200629-155299-mxfpqg.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=433&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/344595/original/file-20200629-155299-mxfpqg.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=433&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/344595/original/file-20200629-155299-mxfpqg.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=544&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/344595/original/file-20200629-155299-mxfpqg.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=544&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/344595/original/file-20200629-155299-mxfpqg.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=544&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<span class="caption">Mahmoud Abdul-Rauf bows his head in prayer during the singing of the national anthem.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/denver-nuggets-guard-mahmoud-abdul-rauf-bows-his-head-in-news-photo/51975529?adppopup=true">Eric Chu/AFP via Getty Images</a></span>
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<p>Today, <a href="https://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2019/01/17/black-muslims-account-for-a-fifth-of-all-u-s-muslims-and-about-half-are-converts-to-islam/">at least 20% of Muslims in the U.S.</a> are Black Americans. But starting from the 1965 Immigration and Nationality Act, there has been a growth in immigrant Muslims coming to America.</p>
<p>While increasing overall numbers of Muslims in U.S., immigration has <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2007/03/11/nyregion/11muslim.html">created a dividing line</a> in the American Muslim community – between Muslims with an American heritage that stretched back generations and newer arrivals. Immigrant Muslims were often assumed by American Muslims to know more about Islam as they came from Muslim majority countries, and so they were given more authority in Muslim organizations and as Islamic leaders. </p>
<p>They also <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2007/03/11/nyregion/11muslim.html">built mosques that served their own ethnic communities</a>, with immigrant Muslim communities often worshiping separately from Black American Muslims.</p>
<p>There is also a split in the economic status of American Muslims. According to the <a href="https://www.pewforum.org/2017/07/26/demographic-portrait-of-muslim-americans/">Pew Forum</a>, 24% of American Muslims have an annual income above US$100,000, while 40% have an income below $30,000. Many of those who are wealthy – like billionaire Shahid Khan, an immigrant from Pakistan who now owns the NFL’s Jacksonville Jaguars – are from immigrant Muslim communities. </p>
<h2>Police and protests</h2>
<p>The intersection of race, class and national identity means that views vary on issues such as police, protests and discrimination. A <a href="https://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2019/01/17/black-muslims-account-for-a-fifth-of-all-u-s-muslims-and-about-half-are-converts-to-islam/">2019 survey found</a> that 92% of Black Muslims believe there is a lot of discrimination against Black people, compared with 66% of non-Black Muslims.</p>
<p>Nonimmigrant Muslims are more likely to have lived out the history of the United States, including the unjust legacy of slavery. As Americans, they were also taught early on and often that the right to protest is protected under the Constitution. </p>
<p>Immigrant Muslims may have a very different experience with protest if they come from a country where dissent can lead <a href="https://theconversation.com/blasphemy-law-is-repealed-in-ireland-enforced-in-pakistan-and-a-problem-in-many-christian-and-muslim-countries-106487">to imprisonment or death</a>. They may also be more wary of being seen as “anti-American.” Immigrant Muslims expressed <a href="https://www.pewforum.org/2017/07/26/identity-assimilation-and-community/">more pride in being American</a> than U.S.-born Black Muslims, in a 2017 Pew poll.</p>
<p>Both communities, however, share a complicated history of U.S. law enforcement. For Black Americans, <a href="https://theconversation.com/the-racist-roots-of-american-policing-from-slave-patrols-to-traffic-stops-112816">police violence dates back to slavery</a>. Since the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, police in cities like <a href="https://muslimadvocates.org/2018/07/newly-released-documents-reveal-that-lapd-misrepresented-the-origins-intent-and-lifespan-of-muslim-mapping-program/">Los Angeles</a> and New York have tried to infiltrate and <a href="https://www.aclu.org/other/factsheet-nypd-muslim-surveillance-program">surveil American Muslims</a>. </p>
<p>In vowing to stop calling the police on its customers, the Muslim-owned Cup Foods in Minneapolis is standing in solidarity with the largely Black community it serves. In a similar fashion, the soul-searching that has followed Floyd’s killing provides an opportunity for Muslim Americans of all backgrounds to unite and side with the oppressed, many of whom share their faith.</p>
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<p><a href="https://www.ats.edu/">Loyola Marymount University is a member of the Association of Theological Schools</a></p>
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</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/141344/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Amir Hussain does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Race, class and national identity mean that views within the American Muslim community vary when it comes to such hot-button issues as policing, protests and discrimination.Amir Hussain, Professor of Theological Studies, Loyola Marymount UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1112252019-02-06T09:44:56Z2019-02-06T09:44:56ZBBC Icons: Alan Turing was a worthy winner – but where were the women?<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/257448/original/file-20190206-174851-ppm020.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Let us now praise famous men.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">BBC/72 Films</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Who was the greatest icon of the 20th century? The <a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/articles/TftBcdwzpP4y7qlzXmXRTy/about-the-show">BBC2 Icons</a> show reminded us of people who had struggled against adversity to fight for a better, fairer, more inclusive world. But whatever you thought of the <a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/articles/3Tk2LpLg755Js0LQF7t3TQ2/the-finalists">line up</a> for the grand final on February 5, one thing was striking – there were no women on the list. Not one. The most iconic leader, activist, artist or writer, explorer, entertainer, scientist and sports star were all deemed to be men.</p>
<p>So what happened to the women? How could it be that not one woman ended up in the final? Usually in these situations we would blame the programme makers. However, to do so in this case would be rather unfair. I speak with some experience here, as I sat on the shortlisting panel in two of the categories (leaders and activists). </p>
<p>The production company was aware of diversity and was careful to include balance both in the longlists that we were given to consider, and the composition of the panels that considered them.</p>
<p>This is further evidenced in the shortlists that emerged from those panels, and upon which the public voted to produce the final (all-male) line up. There were outstanding women on every single one of those shortlists. Women who achieved great things, changed the world, reached the very zenith of their careers. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/257451/original/file-20190206-174870-zg3ogq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/257451/original/file-20190206-174870-zg3ogq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=464&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/257451/original/file-20190206-174870-zg3ogq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=464&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/257451/original/file-20190206-174870-zg3ogq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=464&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/257451/original/file-20190206-174870-zg3ogq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=583&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/257451/original/file-20190206-174870-zg3ogq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=583&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/257451/original/file-20190206-174870-zg3ogq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=583&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<span class="caption">What would Emmeline Pankhurst have said?</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">BBC/72 Films/Alamy</span></span>
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<p>Women such as Marie Curie or Helen Keller, without whom the world would be a much poorer place. Women such as Billie Jean King or Tanni Grey-Thompson who dominated their field. Brilliant women such as Agatha Christie, Beatrix Potter, Enid Blyton, Ella Fitzgerald, Tina Turner, Rosa Parks, and many many more who didn’t even make it to the shortlists.</p>
<h2>Social prejudice</h2>
<p>So why, in the face of so many iconic women, did the final feature only men?</p>
<p>To answer this, we have to move beyond the shortlists and think more broadly about our collective attitudes. As a society, we do not always reward merit when we see it, sometimes blinded by our own prejudice. </p>
<p>The declaration of Alan Turing as the overall winner came as recognition both of his outstanding achievement and of the failure of society to acknowledge his contribution in his own lifetime, due to attitudes at that time towards autism and homosexuality. While many of us are now able to see past such prejudice, other forms of bias endure.</p>
<p>For example, while we rightly celebrate Nelson Mandela and Martin Luther King Jr for standing up to racial discrimination, we have seen recent evidence from other televised contests such as <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2016/dec/16/black-strictly-come-dancing">Strictly Come Dancing</a> and <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/tv-and-radio/2019/jan/30/the-disturbing-racial-bias-of-the-greatest-dancer">The Greatest Dancer</a> that racial bias still influences public voting. But for the Icons show, the voting public comprised at least as many women as men. So why were men preferred systematically over women?</p>
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<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/2c9sCWlQbk4?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
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<p>There is some truth to the claim made by presenter Clare Balding that women were not given as much opportunity as men to flourish in the 20th century. For example, on the leaders panel, we shortlisted more men than women for the simple reason that there were few female world leaders. But many of the women who did make it onto the various shortlists did so in spite of the restrictions placed upon them and the barriers that they encountered, and their stories of triumph over adversity were at least as inspiring as those of the men who were chosen over them.</p>
<h2>Everyday sexism</h2>
<p>So we need to dig deeper and consider how we, as a society, still treat people differently depending on whether they are male or female. Both historically and today, we are more likely to praise, celebrate and remember men’s achievements. In contrast, many of the achievements of women – even when, as was the case for many of the women who did not make the Icons final, those achievements were spectacular – are more likely to be downplayed, overlooked, and ultimately forgotten. In a show that asks the public to vote based on our collective awareness and memory of achievement, it is perhaps not so surprising after all that we more easily accord iconic status to men than to women.</p>
<p>And this inequality really matters. It matters symbolically – every girl and young woman who watched that final will be left with the false impression that all of the most important figures of recent history were men. This might curtail their own ambition and sense of self-worth.</p>
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<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/257452/original/file-20190206-174887-44ulh8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/257452/original/file-20190206-174887-44ulh8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=829&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/257452/original/file-20190206-174887-44ulh8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=829&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/257452/original/file-20190206-174887-44ulh8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=829&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/257452/original/file-20190206-174887-44ulh8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1042&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/257452/original/file-20190206-174887-44ulh8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1042&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/257452/original/file-20190206-174887-44ulh8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1042&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<span class="caption">Alan Turing: also a victim of prejudice.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">BBC/72 Films/Elliott & Fry/NPG</span></span>
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<p>But it also matters substantively. There is repeated evidence that people rate men more highly than women on things like <a href="https://link.springer.com/article/10.1023/A:1018839203698">job applications</a>, <a href="https://news.yale.edu/2012/09/24/scientists-not-immune-gender-bias-yale-study-shows">salary evaluations</a> and <a href="https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1111/j.1559-1816.2011.00781.x">political candidate evaluations</a>. This is the case even when fictional examples are used where the candidates are identical in everything except assigned gender. In other words, where all other things really are equal, we are still more likely to think that men are worth employing, promoting, even electing, rather than women.</p>
<p>It doesn’t end there. The <a href="https://everydaysexism.com/">#EverydaySexism</a> project documents thousands of testimonies of women being patronised, insulted, harassed and even assaulted in routine, everyday contexts. From the summit of achievement to daily lived experience, women are accorded less worth and status than men. The incidences of everyday sexism are so common as to be perceived as banal – and yet they are very real in the way that they undermine women, silence them or render them invisible.</p>
<p>What can we learn from all this? First, that it is not women’s lack of achievement, but our collective inability to give adequate recognition to that achievement, that is at fault. Second, that we are not yet as meritocratic a society as we might imagine ourselves to be. Third, that we need to do all that we can to acknowledge the true contribution of women, past, present and future, because one of the most important lessons of a historical show is to ensure that the errors of the past are not repeated.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/111225/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Rainbow Murray was an advisor to the BBC series, The Icons.</span></em></p>Several outstanding women were nominated, but Rainbow Murray, an adviser to the series, says the public vote showed how we’re still more inclined to recognise male achievement.Rainbow Murray, Professor of Politics, Queen Mary University of LondonLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1105412019-01-25T16:22:32Z2019-01-25T16:22:32ZHugh McIlvanney: sportswriter who went beyond the game to seek a higher truth of the human condition<p>Among all the <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/sport/2019/jan/25/hugh-mcilvanney-veteran-sports-reporter-dies-aged-84?CMP=share_btn_tw">tributes</a> to the <a href="https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/hugh-mcilvanney-2wlkc9h6t">celebrated</a> sports journalist <a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/scotland/47002301">Hugh McIlvanney</a>, who has died aged 84, you will find one recurring theme: that in his work, the Scots-born reporter, writer and broadcaster transcended his genre. Greater by far than his renowned and extensive contact book, his insights based on a decades-long love of sport or his ability to get close to the sporting greats, was his ability – when writing about one sport or another – to impart some greater truth about the human condition.</p>
<p>In 1991, McIlvanney attempted to reflect on the role of the sports journalist in the documentary Sportswriter as part of the BBC’s Arena series. His opening narrative revealed some inner conflicts he himself felt on the role of the “fan with a typewriter”, a moniker often thrown at a very insular job. He said:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>After more than 30 years of writing on sport it is still possible to be assailed by doubts about whether it really is a proper job for a grown person. But I console myself with the thought that it is easier to find a kind of truth in sport than it is, for example, in the activities covered by political or economic journalists. Sports truth may be simplistic but it’s not negligible.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>In spite of the self-mocking concern about his chosen profession, McIlvanney’s point about “sports truth” is suggestive of the value of investigating sport. Not least to find some deeper meanings about people and society. Whether or not we believe there is a “truth” to be found, there is at the very least a sense that meaning and value can be found in sport which are unique to the human experience.</p>
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<p>In all his writings on sport McIlvanney kept this sense of deeper “sports truth” at the heart of his reporting and commentary pieces. This was none more the case than in his writing on boxing, for which he carried a particular fascination throughout his career which included the rise of its most preeminent pugilist Muhammad Ali. “It gave me the time and freedom to seek him out in private settings and eavesdrop on his life”, <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/theobserver/2016/dec/04/hugh-mcilvanney-my-observer-sports-reporter">he once wrote</a>, “rather than having to settle for the public turn – that performance was wonderfully entertaining, but there was richer ore to be mined.”</p>
<p>That deeper knowledge and understanding and having the time to explore the richness of sporting personalities and their human foibles is the luxury contemporary sport journalists do not have. Access to sport stars is now heavily guarded, and unlike Ali, their suspicion of the media and the closeted world they live in often makes for sterile and replicated copy from journalists feeding off titbits.</p>
<h2>Literary style</h2>
<p>McIlvanney’s writing also stood out among his contemporaries because of his prose: inflected with literary references, rich in metaphor and simile, often self-reflective of the meaning that sport gave to him and the wider world. Take for example <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/sport/2016/mar/05/hugh-mcilvanney-muhammad-ali-rumble-in-the-jungle">this excerpt</a> from The Observer in 1974 following the famous “Rumble in the Jungle” where McIlvanney evokes Ali’s satisfaction of a job well done:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>Lying back on the thick cushions of an armchair in his villa, with the windows curtained against an angry sun that was threatening to evaporate the Zaire River as it slid like a grassy ocean past his front door, he talked with the quiet contentment of a man whose thoughts were acting on him as comfortingly as the hands of a good masseur.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>This is no ordinary sports writing. McIlvanney was no ordinary sports writer. His work was more akin to a mid-20th century tradition of literary commentators and critics than jobbing sports reporters. His contemporaries in sports writing were American – <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2003/09/26/obituaries/george-plimpton-urbane-and-witty-writer-dies-at-76.html">George Plimpton</a>, <a href="https://www.theatlantic.com/entertainment/archive/2013/12/norman-mailer-sportswriter/282115/">Norman Mailer</a>, <a href="https://www.denverpost.com/2009/03/05/a-j-liebling-a-master-at-long-form-journalism/">AJ Leibling</a> – with only a few in British sports journalism that came close, <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/media/2007/mar/05/pressandpublishing3">Ian Wooldridge</a> perhaps. Sure, he had to travel and drink like the rest of the press pack that followed the teams and major events across the country and the globe. But he fashioned a position for himself in sport journalism, first at The Observer and then at the Sunday Times, that transcended mere reportage to more deep thinking on sport and sporting heroes.</p>
<p>He socialised with writers and critics beyond sport (his younger <a href="https://www.scotsman.com/news/opinion/why-william-mcilvanney-should-be-world-famous-pete-martin-1-4839247">brother William</a> was one of Scotland’s <a href="https://theconversation.com/goodbye-william-mcilvanney-socialist-and-literary-genius-52325">most celebrated novelists</a>) which brought him in to wider literary circles and friendships. This arguably inspired his approach and thought processes in writing about sport. Perhaps because of it, he is the only sport journalist to be voted <a href="https://www.pressgazette.co.uk/hugh-mcilvenney-retires-call-him-great-writer-describing-muhammad-ali-useful-heavyweight/">British Journalist of the Year</a>.</p>
<p>There is much more that could be said about his writing, but for me some of his best work came in the medium of television, delivering his erudite words in a deep yet becalming Ayrshire voice.</p>
<figure>
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<p><a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/scotland/33205762">His treatise</a> on the influence of the west of Scotland coal-mining area on three legendary Scottish football managers Matt Busby, Jock Stein and Bill Shankly remains one of the greatest sport documentary series ever produced in the UK.</p>
<p>In his passing, one can only hope the BBC revive his documentaries from their vaults and allow us all to get lost in McIlvanney’s thoughts and interpretations which told us so much about the meaning of sport.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/110541/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Richard Haynes received funding from the AHRC, British Academy, the Scottish Government, and the Carnegie Trust. </span></em></p>No ordinary sports writer: Hugh McIlvanney was one of the greats of 20th century journalism.Richard Haynes, Professor of Media Sport, University of StirlingLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/848102017-09-29T18:58:53Z2017-09-29T18:58:53ZThe difference between black football fans and white football fans<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/188080/original/file-20170928-1449-1qygp07.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">New Orleans Saints fans cheer from the stands during a game against the Denver Broncos in 2016.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="http://www.apimages.com/metadata/Index/Broncos-Saints-Football/6587d340e6dd439a8a8f5bcf1f3483cb/155/0">Jeff Haynes/AP Photo</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>A significant portion of the NFL’s fan base <a href="https://www.cbssports.com/nfl/news/poll-majority-of-americans-disagree-with-colin-kaepernicks-protest/">has reacted negatively</a> to the national anthem protests of the past year. The responses tend to follow a pattern:</p>
<p><em>The stadium is no place for political protest. The game is a color-blind meritocracy. To protest football is to protest America.</em></p>
<p>But according to <a href="http://plaza.ufl.edu/tsorek/articles/Americanfootball.pdf">a study we published last year</a>, white football fans and black football fans hold very different views about the relationship between football and national pride. And it might explain why there have been such divergent, emotional responses to the protests.</p>
<h2>Black Americans love football, but…</h2>
<p>Social scientists who study sports have <a href="https://books.google.com/books?id=9icbi39vm8AC&dq=george+sage+sport&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwiqwKin1MjWAhXFPiYKHb5jAGkQ6AEINDAC">long argued</a> that sports are a powerful political stage. Popular wisdom, on the other hand, <a href="https://www.theodysseyonline.com/sports-politics-should-never-mix">tends to maintain</a> that sports are inherently apolitical, and should remain that way. </p>
<p>It’s true that until recently, visible black protests in American sports were rare. Yes, Muhammad Ali <a href="http://www.edgeofsports.com/product/Whats-My-Name-Fool/">was outspoken about politics</a> and became a symbol of black protest in the 1960s. And there’s <a href="https://books.google.com/books?id=zpYxyEMDJjsC&printsec=frontcover&dq=dave+zirin+john+carls&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwivm5_JzMrWAhVF-lQKHQeLBjEQ6AEIJjAA#v=onepage&q&f=false">the famous instance</a> of Tommie Smith and John Carlos raising their fists in the 1968 Olympic Games. But generally, athletes have not waded into politics, no doubt in part because of the influence of corporate interests and sponsors. (Michael Jordan, when asked why he wouldn’t endorse a black Democratic candidate for Senate in 1990, <a href="https://books.google.com/books/about/Second_Coming.html?id=BA5mPwAACAAJ">famously said</a>, “Republicans buy shoes too.”) </p>
<p>So for many white fans, the racial issues addressed by the protests upend what they see as the innocent, colorless patriotism of football. </p>
<p>But for black fans, feelings of alienation toward the imposed patriotism in NFL games have been stewing for a while. And it may be that black athletes finally decided to respond to the attitudes of their black fans.</p>
<p>In our study, we aggregated 75 opinion polls between 1981 and 2014, and compared the relationship between national pride and football fandom among white and black Americans. </p>
<p>We found that since the early 1980s, national pride has been in decline among American men and women of all races. But among black men, this decline has been especially sharp. At the same time, it’s also been accompanied by a marked increase in their interest in the NFL. </p>
<p>We suspect that this inverse relationship isn’t coincidental. </p>
<h2>Which Americans do patriotic displays speak to?</h2>
<p>For decades, the league and broadcasting networks <a href="http://journals.sagepub.com/doi/pdf/10.1177/0193723508319715">have conflated football with patriotism</a>. Massive American flags get spread across the field before the game, celebrities sing highly produced renditions of the national anthem, military jets streak across the skies and teams routinely honor veterans and active service members. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/188079/original/file-20170928-22252-1v3sknm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/188079/original/file-20170928-22252-1v3sknm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/188079/original/file-20170928-22252-1v3sknm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=415&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/188079/original/file-20170928-22252-1v3sknm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=415&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/188079/original/file-20170928-22252-1v3sknm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=415&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/188079/original/file-20170928-22252-1v3sknm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=522&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/188079/original/file-20170928-22252-1v3sknm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=522&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/188079/original/file-20170928-22252-1v3sknm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=522&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Fighter jets do a flyover and military personnel hold a giant American flag before an NFL game between the Philadelphia Eagles and the Baltimore Ravens.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="http://www.apimages.com/metadata/Index/Ravens-Eagles-Football/105f92a2cbc04ff4bc685419399f0b51/7/0">Mel Evans/AP Photo</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Networks air segments about the players’ lives and team histories that emphasize racial integration and national unity. They also promote the narrative that hard work and following the rules lead to success on the field – the crux of the American Dream. </p>
<p>Many football fans might embrace these displays, which reinforce their beliefs and reflect their view of the country as a <a href="https://www.mediaite.com/online/poll-majority-of-whites-see-america-as-colorblind-nearly-80-of-african-americans-do-not/">colorblind</a> <a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/howard-steven-friedman/americas-incomplete-thoug_b_1696282.html">meritocracy</a>.</p>
<p>Indeed, our study did show that enthusiasm for football and national pride are interrelated. </p>
<p>But the nature of this relationship depends on your race. </p>
<p>Only among white Americans did we find a positive association between football fandom and national pride: Football fans were much more likely to express high levels of national pride than white Americans who weren’t football fans. Among African-Americans, on the other hand, there was a negative association. This suggests that when black fans watch their favorite team play, it’s a very different type of experience. </p>
<p>And this was happening long before Colin Kaepernick decided to take a knee. </p>
<h2>Black identity and American identity</h2>
<p>W.E.B Du Bois once observed that for black Americans, <a href="https://books.google.com/books/about/The_Souls_of_Black_Folk.html?id=lTXYAAAAMAAJ&printsec=frontcover&source=kp_read_button#v=onepage&q&f=false">a fundamental tension exists</a> between their American identities and their black identities. We now know <a href="https://books.google.com/books?id=A2SXphY-DvIC&printsec=frontcover&source=gbs_ge_summary_r&cad=0#v=onepage&q&f=false">from other studies</a> that African-Americans tend to see themselves as less “typically American” than other races. Meanwhile, among white Americans there’s a common tendency <a href="https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Thierry_Devos/publication/7994359_America_White/links/0912f4fa17cfc9118e000000/America-White.pdf(3):447.">to link American national identity with whiteness</a>.</p>
<p>It could be that the symbols of American national pride – so visible during football games – give white fans the chance to unite their national pride with their fandom. To them, the fact that African-Americans make up between <a href="http://www.celticcreek.org/images/nflreport.pdf">65 and 69 percent</a> of all NFL players is simply part of the country’s ethos of “inclusion.” </p>
<p>But for black fans, the overrepresentation of African-American athletes might mean something else. Football broadcasts can create highly visible opportunities to express black prowess, pride and resistance. At the same time, watching wildly successful black players on the football field might sharpen the contrast of <a href="https://books.google.com/books?id=QQglDwAAQBAJ&lpg=PP1&dq=racial%20discrimination%20in%20America&pg=PP1#v=onepage&q&f=false">racial injustice off the field</a>. </p>
<p>Meanwhile, <a href="http://www.jstor.org/stable/2749514?seq=1#p5age_scan_tab_contents">studies have shown</a> that the more black Americans emphasize their blackness, the less likely they are to have patriotic feelings.</p>
<p>Together, this could create a situation where black fans are prone to reject the popular national narrative that links football to a wider, ethnically blind meritocratic order. To many of them, football isn’t connected to any sort of national identity in a positive way, so it’s easier for black fans to press successful black athletes to protest the status quo and use their platforms to address issues of discrimination and inequality. </p>
<p>In other words, even before black athletes started taking an explicit stand, their presence and success on the field created the conditions to question the dominant ideology of a meritocratic, colorblind society. National debates about inequality, police brutality and incarceration clearly resonate with many players, and they’ve been pushed to respond. </p>
<p>Looking at it this way, these protests were only a matter a time.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/84810/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>The authors do not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and have disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>A recent study might explain why there’s been such divergent, emotional responses to the NFL protests.Tamir Sorek, Professor of Sociology, University of FloridaRobert G. White, Assistant Professor of Sociology, University of FloridaLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/703972017-01-16T19:06:11Z2017-01-16T19:06:11ZSit on hands or take a stand: why athletes have always been political players<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/152585/original/image-20170112-18325-plpjgm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">NFL star Colin Kaepernick has declined to stand for the US national anthem.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Robert Hanashiro/Reuters</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>It is sometimes said that sport ought to be separate from politics, or that politics should be removed from sport. These sentiments are well meaning – if idealistic. </p>
<p>Sport is variously part of government policy, international relations, commercial interests, integrity issues, gender dynamics, and so on. Sport has never been, and never will be, a cocoon within which wider societal issues are unrelated. </p>
<p>All that said, there is <a href="https://www.worldcat.org/title/routledge-handbook-of-sport-and-politics/oclc/960040406&referer=brief_results">robust debate</a> about the nature and extent of political influence in sport, and the contributions of sport to social and political issues.</p>
<h2>Athlete voices</h2>
<p>The role of athletes is intriguing: as representatives of a sport or even a nation, they have substantial public profiles.</p>
<p>Athletes are well-known for on-field exploits, though much less so in terms of their off-field persona, about which the public rarely hears – unless media draws attention to an <a href="https://theconversation.com/athletes-of-influence-the-role-model-refrain-in-sport-52569">indiscretion</a>.</p>
<p>The off-field contributions of many athletes, such as by contributing to charities or virtuous social causes, are rarely the subject of media discussion. There is, nonetheless, much more public interest should an athlete present a dissenting perspective in respect of a sociopolitical issue via sport. </p>
<p>Negative refrains typically include: athletes should “stick to sport”; that they are “using sport” to advance a political agenda; and (like other celebrities) they are not credible advocates because they live in an elitist “bubble”.</p>
<h2>Perspectives past and present</h2>
<p>Timing and context are crucial. In 1968, the <a href="http://time.com/3880999/black-power-salute-tommie-smith-and-john-carlos-at-the-1968-olympics/">Black Power salute</a> at the Mexico City Olympics was widely <a href="http://bleacherreport.com/articles/40675-iconic-olympic-moments-the-black-power-salute">reviled</a> in the US. During the 21st century that protest has, for the most part, <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2010/08/29/us/29bcintel.html">been acclaimed as courageous</a>. </p>
<p>In 1964, Cassius Clay converted to Islam and changed his name to Muhammad Ali. In 1966, when drafted to serve in Vietnam, Ali was a conscientious objector – speaking openly against the war. Taken together, these decisions <a href="http://www.theatlantic.com/news/archive/2016/06/muhammad-ali-vietnam/485717/">made Ali</a>:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>… a national pariah — perhaps the most hated man in the country. </p>
</blockquote>
<p>Today, by contrast, Ali is very fondly remembered and widely admired for sticking to his <a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.ca/elan-divon/muhammad-ali-death_b_10319050.html">principles</a> and demonstrating <a href="http://www.forbes.com/sites/kevincashman/2016/06/06/the-four-greatest-leadership-lessons-from-the-greatest-muhammad-ali/#512323433943">leadership</a> for minority causes.</p>
<figure class="align-right zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/152586/original/image-20170112-18349-wcg4gn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/152586/original/image-20170112-18349-wcg4gn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/152586/original/image-20170112-18349-wcg4gn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=609&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/152586/original/image-20170112-18349-wcg4gn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=609&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/152586/original/image-20170112-18349-wcg4gn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=609&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/152586/original/image-20170112-18349-wcg4gn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=766&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/152586/original/image-20170112-18349-wcg4gn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=766&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/152586/original/image-20170112-18349-wcg4gn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=766&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Muhammad Ali is today fondly remembered and widely admired for sticking to his principles.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">AAP</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>In Australia, sport has also been a forum for robust debate about sociopolitical issues. In 1994, Cathy Freeman – both Australian and Aboriginal – carried the <a href="http://www.australiangeographic.com.au/blogs/on-this-day/2016/07/on-this-day-aboriginal-flag-first-flown">flags of those groups</a> during a <a href="https://www.sen.com.au/news/2016/10/09/gainsford-taylor-on-flag-criticism-it-was-ridiculous/">victory lap at the Commonwealth Games</a>. To some non-Indigenous critics, this suggested that Freeman was less than patriotic – to them there was only one flag, not two.</p>
<p>Fast forward to the Sydney 2000 Olympics: Freeman was anointed to <a href="http://australianpolitics.com/2000/09/15/cathy-freeman-lights-olympic-flame.html">light the cauldron</a> at an opening ceremony, where the symbolism of <a href="http://library.la84.org/OlympicInformationCenter/OlympicReview/2000/OREXXVI35/OREXXVI35e.pdf">reconciliation for all Australians</a> was manifest. </p>
<p>Freeman handled the pressure of the spotlight, going on to win gold in the 400m track event. She again carried the <a href="http://en.espn.co.uk/olympic-sports/sport/story/152105.html">two ensigns entwined during a victory lap</a>, despite the Aboriginal flag not being recognised by either the Australian or International Olympic committees. This time the officials looked the other way and there was no public hullabaloo.</p>
<h2>Geopolitics</h2>
<p>The Beijing 2008 Olympics played out amid a backdrop of international debate about the sovereign status of Tibet, which China was now claiming as its own territory. </p>
<p>In the lead-up to the Olympics, several athletes took a vocal public position against the colonisation of Tibet. Among them was Australian cyclist Cadel Evans. His personal website sold “Free Tibet” t-shirts, and he promoted the cause during the famous Tour de France. </p>
<p>At Beijing, Evans complied with the International Olympic Committee expectation that athletes <a href="http://www.cyclingweekly.co.uk/news/latest-news/evans-arrives-in-beijing-but-gets-warning-over-tibet-protests-93792">do not engage in political matters</a>, but once his commitment was over Evans flew to Switzerland to meet with the <a href="http://www.phayul.com/news/article.aspx?id=22476">exiled Tibetan Olympic team</a>. </p>
<p>The annexation of Tibet by China is now complete. Its spiritual leader, the Dalai Lama, remains in exile, and is derided as a <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2011/oct/19/dalai-lama-prayers-tibetans-terrorism">“terrorist”</a>. From a sport perspective, <a href="https://www.freetibet.org/news-media/na/olympic-story">athletes from Tibet</a> no longer represent that country. Tibetans are now Chinese.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/152587/original/image-20170112-3967-5m0stp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/152587/original/image-20170112-3967-5m0stp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=392&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/152587/original/image-20170112-3967-5m0stp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=392&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/152587/original/image-20170112-3967-5m0stp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=392&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/152587/original/image-20170112-3967-5m0stp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=493&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/152587/original/image-20170112-3967-5m0stp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=493&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/152587/original/image-20170112-3967-5m0stp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=493&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Australian cyclist Cadel Evans took a vocal public position against the colonisation of Tibet.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Tracey Nearmy/AAP</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Change agents</h2>
<p>How sports respond to an athlete’s sociopolitical sensibility is key. </p>
<p>In 2012, when amateur AFL player <a href="http://www.abc.net.au/news/2016-07-21/pride-game-can-be-life-changing-event-for-many-in-afl-community/7647390">Jason Ball</a> became the first footballer to come out as gay, he was roundly supported by teammates – and, after a concerted effort, won the support of leading professional players in a campaign to welcome LGBTI athletes to sport. </p>
<p>The AFL endorses an annual <a href="http://www.smh.com.au/afl/sydney-swans/afl-takes-huge-step-in-first-pride-game-between-sydney-and-st-kilda-20160812-gqrb9s.html">“Pride Game”</a> between Sydney and St Kilda, replete with goal umpires <a href="http://www.abc.net.au/news/2016-08-09/afl-launches-first-pride-game-between-sydney-swans-and-st-kilda/7703642">waving rainbow flags</a>. </p>
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<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/152588/original/image-20170112-18318-h2ec25.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/152588/original/image-20170112-18318-h2ec25.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/152588/original/image-20170112-18318-h2ec25.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=900&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/152588/original/image-20170112-18318-h2ec25.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=900&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/152588/original/image-20170112-18318-h2ec25.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=900&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/152588/original/image-20170112-18318-h2ec25.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1131&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/152588/original/image-20170112-18318-h2ec25.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1131&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/152588/original/image-20170112-18318-h2ec25.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1131&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Australian rugby union player David Pocock.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Dan Himbrechts/AAP</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Ball was given vocal support by Australian rugby player David Pocock, who said he and his female partner <a href="http://www.canberratimes.com.au/act-news/pocock-palandri-to-seal-the-deal-when-same-sex-marriage-allowed-around-australia-20131025-2w5rw.html">would not marry</a> until their gay friends could do so. He was alluding to same-sex marriage not being legal in Australia. </p>
<p>One year later the marriage legislation had not changed, but the ARU was persuaded – in part because of Pocock’s advocacy – to produce an <a href="http://www.foxsports.com.au/rugby/wallabies-star-david-pocock-lauds-arus-inclusion-policy-which-will-aim-to-stamp-out-homophobia/news-story/27e8d7dcb575f8ee05743873bddc330b">“inclusion” policy for rugby</a> that focused on education against homophobia.</p>
<h2>Athlete protest: risk-reward</h2>
<p>How, why and when athletes take a stand on sociopolitical issues is a question of timing, context, purpose and strategy. </p>
<p>Sometimes, as with NFL star Colin Kaepernick, who has declined to stand for the national anthem because of what he sees as systemic racism in American society, there is substantial <a href="https://www.theatlantic.com/news/archive/2016/08/colin-kaepernick-protest-nfl/498065/">public backlash</a> – even if his 49ers teammates are <a href="https://www.thenation.com/article/colin-kaepernicks-teammates-give-him-an-award-for-courage/">not affronted</a> by his actions. </p>
<p>When NFL ratings fell this season, some suggested that Kaepernick’s politicising of the game had <a href="http://www.sportsonearth.com/article/209760366/colin-kaepernick-reason-nfl-ratings-down">prompted disaffection</a>. Only time will tell whether a kneeling protest will eventually be viewed more sympathetically: <a href="http://www.espn.com.au/olympics/story/_/id/17664885/olympic-sprinters-tommie-smith-john-carlos-support-colin-kaepernick-anthem-protests">John Carlos and Tommie Smith</a>, the villains-turned-heroes of the Black Power salute, hope so.</p>
<hr>
<p><em>This is the first piece in a short series of articles on equality in, and access to, sport. Catch up on the others <a href="https://theconversation.com/topics/sport-access-and-equality-34779">here</a>.</em></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/70397/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Daryl Adair does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>When athletes take a stand on sociopolitical issues, they have a public profile by which to showcase their views. But they face criticism that it is not their ‘place’ to comment on sensitive matters.Daryl Adair, Associate Professor of Sport Management, University of Technology SydneyLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/608152016-06-20T13:17:42Z2016-06-20T13:17:42ZSmoking may protect against Parkinson’s disease – but it’s more likely to kill you<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/126516/original/image-20160614-22395-1piolp9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Smoking therapy – not recommended.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="http://www.shutterstock.com/cat.mhtml?lang=en&language=en&ref_site=photo&search_source=search_form&version=llv1&anyorall=all&safesearch=1&use_local_boost=1&autocomplete_id=ipfa6b16xyle410vz0j&searchterm=smoking%20cigarette&show_color_wheel=1&orient=&commercial_ok=&media_type=images&search_cat=&searchtermx=&photographer_name=&people_gender=&people_age=&people_ethnicity=&people_number=&color=&page=1&inline=426850741">Notto Yeez/Shutterstock.com</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>There is a little art gallery in my high street which is run by a lovely lady who unfortunately suffers from Parkinson’s disease. Deep inside her brain, nerve cells are dying. This results in a steep decline in the neurotransmitter dopamine. As a smoker you may be familiar with dopamine as its release by nicotine causes a strong feeling of reward. Other drugs such as methamphetamine, made famous as crystal meth in the TV series <a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0903747/">Breaking Bad</a>, also trigger an increase in this neurotransmitter.</p>
<p>My art friend, and an estimated <a href="http://www.parkinsons.org.uk/content/facts-journalists">127,000</a> other people in the UK, have low levels of dopamine which cause the well known debilitating movement defects of Parkinson’s, such as muscle twitching and slowness of movement (<a href="http://www.parkinsons.org.uk/content/what-parkinsons">bradykinesia</a>). The late Muhammad Ali – himself a Parkinson’s sufferer – helped to raise awareness for these life-changing conditions.</p>
<p>Strikingly, <a href="http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/15331239">half of all smokers</a> are protected from Parkinson’s disease after taking into account their reduced life expectancy. The <a href="http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/9921857">protection increases</a> with the number of cigarette packs consumed per year. Studies with <a href="http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/11865136">identical twins</a> have borne out this “dose-response” relationship and suggested that the protective effect has nothing to do with differences in genes or environment.</p>
<p>A similar protective effect does not extend to crystal meth, as this drug kills the dopamine producing neurons thereby <a href="http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/23600399">promoting Parkinson’s disease</a>.</p>
<h2>A daily puff?</h2>
<p>Nicotine has been shown to relieve the symptoms of Parkinson’s disease, to reduce the significant side effects of its treatment and to protect dopamine neurons from dying. Since nicotine stimulates the release of dopamine, it can partly compensate for the low levels of the neurotransmitter in the substantia nigra of the brains of people with Parkinson’s – a part of the brain responsible for movement and reward. Nicotine also decreases the involuntary muscle movements known as dyskinesia which are caused by the treatment of the disorder with the <a href="http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/26093062">dopamine precursor L-dopa</a>. (As an artist, my friend finds dyskinesia particularly frustrating.) </p>
<p>Also, nicotine protects damaged neurons from death by increasing the amounts of survival proteins and by blocking inflammation of the affected brain area. Based on this evidence, Ali may have benefited from a daily cigarette – although it would not have provided a cure.</p>
<p>In more than 95% of Parkinson’s patients, large amounts of inactive alpha-synuclein protein accumulate inside the <a href="http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/26250687">dying brain cells</a>. These deposits are known as Lewy bodies. Alpha-synuclein exists in two forms: an active form, which is involved in the release of dopamine, and an inactive form that can form Lewy bodies. Nicotine may prevent cell death by increasing the amount of active alpha-synuclein as it encourages neurons to release dopamine. This would block the formation of Lewy bodies thereby keeping nerve cells alive. </p>
<h2>Should you buy nicotine patches?</h2>
<p>Small scale clinical trials testing <a href="http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/14687854">nicotine patches</a> have failed, so far, to provide conclusive evidence of improvements in cognitive and motor function. Unlike smoking, a patch results in the constant release of nicotine that could deactivate nicotine receptors in the brain. It is well known that the continuous presence of an activator such as nicotine switches off its receptor which in turn causes changes in <a href="http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/26806304">other receptors in the same cell</a>.</p>
<p>Cigarette smoke also contains thousands of chemicals and it could well be that nicotine needs some of them to do its protective work. One of them, a naptho-quinone, protects against neuronal cell death and may help nicotine to <a href="http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/?term=castagnoli+k+2004">prevent Parkinson’s disease</a>. </p>
<p>While your brain may stay active, the rest of your body is unlikely to approve of a smoking therapy against Parkinson’s disease as cigarette smoke harms most organs, causing about <a href="http://ash.org.uk/files/documents/ASH_107.pdf">96,000 premature deaths</a> a year in the UK. </p>
<p>My artist friend incorporated the disease in her art which may be a very good way to deal with the situation until we reach a better understanding of the therapeutic benefits of cigarette smoke and, in particular, nicotine.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/60815/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Thomas Caspari does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Smoking causes 96,000 premature deaths a year in the UK. The fact that it protects against Parkinson’s disease is not a reason to take up the habit.Thomas Caspari, Reader in Cancer Biology, Bangor UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/605992016-06-06T20:43:30Z2016-06-06T20:43:30ZWhat are septic shock and sepsis? The facts behind these deadly conditions<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/125404/original/image-20160606-13080-sco7ag.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="http://www.shutterstock.com/pic-342951869/stock-photo-blurred-icu-room-in-a-hospital-with-medical-equipments-and-patient.html?src=6UQOHJ_TE-dGjOB7rNrZZQ-1-1">ICU image via www.shutterstock.com.</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Most Americans have never heard of it, but according to recent federal data, <a href="http://www.sepsis.org">sepsis</a> is the <a href="http://www.hcup-us.ahrq.gov/reports/statbriefs/sb204-Most-Expensive-Hospital-Conditions.pdf">most expensive</a> cause of hospitalization in the U.S., and is now the <a href="http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/26968023">most common cause of ICU admission</a> among older Americans.</p>
<p><a href="http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/26903338">Sepsis</a> is a complication of infection that leads to organ failure. <a href="https://www.hcup-us.ahrq.gov/reports/statbriefs/sb204-most-expensive-hospital-conditions.pdf">More than one million patients</a> are hospitalized for sepsis each year. This is more than the number of <a href="http://www.hcup-us.ahrq.gov/reports/statbriefs/sb160.jsp">hospitalizations for heart attack and stroke combined</a>. People with chronic medical conditions, such as neurological disease, cancer, chronic lung disease and kidney disease, are at particular risk for developing sepsis.</p>
<p>And it is deadly. Between <a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.1097/CCM.0b013e31827c09f8">one in eight and one in four patients</a> with sepsis will die during hospitalization – as most notably <a href="http://www.nbcnews.com/news/sports/cause-muhammad-ali-s-death-septic-shock-targets-sick-elderly-n585926">Muhammad Ali did</a> in June 2016. In fact sepsis contributes to <a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.1001/jama.2014.5804">one-third to one-half</a> of all in-hospital deaths. Despite these grave consequences, <a href="https://www.sepsis.org/news/new-survey-shows-americans-never-heard-sepsis-despite-sepsis-costly-hospital-condition-u-s/">fewer than half</a> of Americans know what the word sepsis means.</p>
<h2>What is sepsis and why is it so dangerous?</h2>
<p>Sepsis a severe health problem sparked by your body’s reaction to infection. When you get an infection, your body fights back, releasing chemicals into the bloodstream to kill the harmful bacteria or viruses. When this process works the way it is supposed to, your body takes care of the infection and you get better. With sepsis, the chemicals from your body’s own defenses trigger inflammatory responses, which can impair blood flow to organs, like the brain, heart or kidneys. This in turn can lead to organ failure and tissue damage.</p>
<p>At its most severe, the body’s response to infection can cause dangerously low blood pressure. This is called septic shock.</p>
<p>Sepsis can result from any type of infection. Most commonly, it starts as a pneumonia, urinary tract infection or intra-abdominal infection such as appendicitis. It is sometimes referred to as “<a href="https://www.sepsis.org/sepsisand/blood-poisoning/">blood poisoning</a>,” but this is an outdated term. Blood poisoning is an infection present in the blood, while sepsis refers to the body’s response to any infection, wherever it is.</p>
<p>Once a person is diagnosed with sepsis, she will be treated with antibiotics, IV fluids and support for failing organs, such as dialysis or mechanical ventilation. This usually means a person needs to be hospitalized, often in an ICU. Sometimes the source of the infection must be removed, as with appendicitis or an infected medical device.</p>
<p>It can be difficult to distinguish sepsis from other diseases that can make one very sick, and there is no lab test that can confirm sepsis. Many conditions can mimic sepsis, including severe allergic reactions, bleeding, heart attacks, blood clots and medication overdoses. Sepsis requires particular prompt treatments, so getting the diagnosis right matters.</p>
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<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/125406/original/image-20160606-13045-1ks5v62.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/125406/original/image-20160606-13045-1ks5v62.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/125406/original/image-20160606-13045-1ks5v62.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/125406/original/image-20160606-13045-1ks5v62.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/125406/original/image-20160606-13045-1ks5v62.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/125406/original/image-20160606-13045-1ks5v62.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/125406/original/image-20160606-13045-1ks5v62.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<span class="caption">Back so soon?</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="http://www.shutterstock.com/pic-160642211/stock-photo-blurred-motion-of-nurses-walking-in-hospital-corridor.html?src=zyD5Pyq9yKfg3Hm9BxKbUA-1-47">Hospital hallway image via www.shutterstock.com.</a></span>
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</figure>
<h2>The revolving door of sepsis care</h2>
<p>As recently as a decade ago, doctors believed that sepsis patients were <a href="http://www.frontline.in/static/html/fl2120/stories/20041008001708600.htm">out of the woods</a> if they could just survive to hospital discharge. But that isn’t the case – <a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.1001/jama.2015.1410">40 percent of sepsis patients go back</a> into the hospital within just three months of heading home, creating a “revolving door” that gets costlier and riskier each time, as patients get weaker and weaker with each hospital stay. Sepsis survivors also have an <a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.1136/bmj.i2375">increased risk of dying</a> for months to years after the acute infection is cured.</p>
<p>If sepsis wasn’t bad enough, it can lead to another health problem: <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rwch2_9mSQA%22%22">Post-Intensive Care Syndrome (PICS)</a>, <a href="https://my.vanderbilt.edu/getthenac/2013/11/wall-street-journal-covers-vumcs-post-icu-delirium-research/">a chronic health condition that arises from critical illness</a>. Common symptoms include <a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.1001/jama.2010.1553">weakness, forgetfulness</a>, <a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.1097/CCM.0000000000000882">anxiety</a> and <a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/S2213-2600(14)70051-7">depression</a>. </p>
<p>Post-Intensive Care Syndrome and frequent hospital readmissions mean that we have dramatically underestimated how much sepsis care costs. On top of the <a href="https://www.cms.gov/Newsroom/MediaReleaseDatabase/Fact-sheets/2015-Fact-sheets-items/2015-06-01.html">US$5.5 billion</a> we now spend on initial hospitalization for sepsis, we must add untold billions in rehospitalizations, nursing home and professional in-home care, and unpaid care provided by devoted spouses and families at home.</p>
<p>Unfortunately, progress in improving sepsis care has lagged behind improvements in cancer and heart care, as attention has shifted to the treatment of <a href="http://www.who.int/chp/about/en/">chronic diseases</a>. However, sepsis remains a common cause of death in patients with chronic diseases. One way to help reduce the death toll of these chronic diseases may be to improve our treatment of sepsis.</p>
<h2>Rethinking sepsis identification</h2>
<p>Raising public awareness increases the likelihood that patients will get to the hospital quickly when they are developing sepsis. This in turn allows prompt treatment, which lowers the risk of long-term problems.</p>
<p>Beyond increasing public awareness, doctors and policymakers are also working to improve the care of sepsis patients in the hospital.</p>
<p>For instance, a new <a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.1001/jama.2016.0287">sepsis definition</a> was released by several physician groups in February 2016. The goal of this new definition is to better distinguish people with a healthy response to infection from those who are being harmed by their body’s response to infection. </p>
<p>As part of the sepsis redefinition process, the physician groups also developed a new prediction tool called <a href="http://www.qsofa.org/">qSOFA</a>. This instrument identifies patients with infection who are at high risk of death or prolonged intensive care. The tools uses just three factors: thinking much less clearly than usual, quick breathing and low blood pressure. Patients with infection and two or more of these factors are at high risk of sepsis. In contrast to prior methods of screening patients at high risk of sepsis, the new qSOFA tool was developed through examining millions of patient records.</p>
<h2>Life after sepsis</h2>
<p>Even with great inpatient care, some survivors will still have problems after sepsis, such as memory loss and weakness.</p>
<p>Doctors are wrestling with how to best care for the growing number of sepsis survivors in the short and long term. This is <a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.7326/0003-4819-153-3-201008030-00013">no easy task</a>, but there are several exciting developments in this area.</p>
<p>The Society of Critical Care Medicine’s <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rwch2_9mSQA">THRIVE</a> initiative is now building a network of support groups for patients and families after critical illness. THRIVE will forge new ways for survivors to work with each other, like how cancer patients provide each other advice and support.</p>
<p>As medical care is increasingly complex, many doctors contribute to a patient’s care for just a week or two. Electronic health records let doctors see how the sepsis hospitalization fits into the broader picture – which in turn helps doctors counsel patients and family members on what to expect going forward.</p>
<p>The high number of repeat hospitalizations after sepsis suggests another <a href="http://www.uofmhealth.org/news/archive/201503/stopping-revolving-door-study-finds-sepsis-survivors-return">opportunity for improving care</a>. We could analyze data about patients with sepsis to target the right interventions to each individual patient.</p>
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<span class="caption">Better care.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="http://www.shutterstock.com/pic-336642854.html?src=download_history">Intensive care image via www.shutterstock.com.</a></span>
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<h2>Better care through better policy</h2>
<p>In 2012, New York state passed <a href="http://www.governor.ny.gov/news/governor-cuomo-announces-new-york-state-lead-nation-fighting-sepsis-1-killer-hospitals-and-make">regulations</a> to require every hospital to have a formal plan for identifying sepsis and providing prompt treatment. It is too early to tell if this is a strong enough intervention to make things better. However, it serves as a clarion call for hospitals to <a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.1001/jama.2014.11350">end the neglect of sepsis</a>.</p>
<p>The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) are also working to improve sepsis care. Starting in 2017, CMS will <a href="https://www.cms.gov/newsroom/mediareleasedatabase/fact-sheets/2014-fact-sheets-items/2014-08-04-2.html">adjust hospital payments</a> by quality of sepsis treatment. Hospitals with good report cards will be paid more, while hospitals with poor marks will be paid less.</p>
<p>To judge the quality of sepsis care, CMS will require hospitals to <a href="http://www.medicare.gov/hospitalcompare/search.html?aspxautodetectcookiesupport=1">publicly report</a> compliance with National Quality Forum’s “<a href="https://www.cms.gov/newsroom/mediareleasedatabase/fact-sheets/2014-fact-sheets-items/2014-08-042.html">Sepsis Management Bundle</a>.” This includes a handful of proven practices such as heavy-duty antibiotics and intravenous fluids.</p>
<p>While policy fixes are notorious for producing <a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.1377/hlthaff.2014.0778">unintended consequences</a>, the reporting mandate is certainly a step in the right direction. It would be even better if the mandate focused on helping hospitals work collaboratively to improve their detection and treatment of sepsis.</p>
<p>Right now, sepsis care varies greatly from hospital to hospital, and patient to patient. But as data, dollars and awareness converge, we may be at a tipping point that will help patients get the best care, while making the best use of our health care dollars.</p>
<p><em>This is an updated version of an article originally published on July 1, 2015. You can read the original version <a href="https://theconversation.com/sepsis-the-largely-unknown-condition-that-puts-one-million-people-in-the-hospital-each-year-43327">here</a>.</em></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/60599/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Hallie Prescott receives funding from National Institutes of Health and the American Thoracic Society Foundation.</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Theodore Iwashyna receives funding from the US NIH and Veterans Affairs Health Services Research & Development. The views expressed here are not necessarily those of the US Government or the Department of Veterans Affairs. </span></em></p>Boxer Muhammad Ali died of septic shock, after being admitted to the hospital for a respiratory problem. Despite the fact more than a million people are hospitalized with sepsis each year, fewer than half of Americans know what the word sepsis means.Hallie Prescott, Assistant Professor in Internal Medicine, University of MichiganTheodore Iwashyna, Associate Professor, University of MichiganLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/594132016-06-06T15:03:27Z2016-06-06T15:03:27ZMuhammad Ali: mourning another great in the age of social media<p>In their 1998 song Destiny Calling, British indie band James combined a satirical glance at the contemporary nature of media celebrity with a sense of the more mundane and ordinary: the grim inevitability of getting old.</p>
<p>Tim Booth and the rest of the band are happily still with us, but our relationship with the stars from screen, stage and sporting field has been marked by mourning in 2016. </p>
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<p>Muhammad Ali is the latest public figure whose death has jolted us this year; the peerless boxer inspiring an outpouring of adulation and sadness. It has been a very rapid reminder of the similar response to the deaths of David Bowie and Prince. One Facebook message published in London free newspaper Metro neatly captured the experiences of a generation: </p>
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<p>I feel my childhood is dying all around me – and it’s only April.</p>
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<p>Celebrity might seem like a thoroughly modern and mass-mediated phenomenon, the desire for fame and recognition <a href="https://uk.sagepub.com/en-gb/eur/celebrity-cultures/book238044">can be traced back</a> through history. But the media landscape we live with today is a fascinating and distinctive opportunity to examine the heightened visibility and increasingly intimate relationship between the public and celebrities like Ali, Bowie and Prince.</p>
<h2>In memoriam</h2>
<p>At the 88th Academy Awards in February 2016, musician Dave Grohl took to the stage to perform Paul McCartney’s Blackbird in memory of the notable deaths of the previous year. </p>
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<p>For 2015, <a href="http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/gallery/hollywoods-notable-deaths-2015-764503/">The Hollywood Reporter</a> noted in remembrance 152 names, including a range of different roles and contributions from film critics and music composers, to script supervisors and unit production managers. These <a href="http://www.viewjournal.eu/index.php/view/article/view/JETHC047">“hidden roles” in media industries</a>, which also include <a href="http://tvn.sagepub.com/content/16/3/240.abstract">videogames testers</a>, is vital for recognising the collaborative nature of creative production. Of course though, it is the big names and well-known faces that fill the headlines and are the focus for acts of mass mourning in public places and across social media.</p>
<h2>In media</h2>
<p>Then there is news coverage. Under the title of “Culture stars who died in …”, the Daily Telegraph has published a photo essay for the last three years. There were <a href="http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/culturepicturegalleries/10547314/Culture-stars-who-died-in-2014.html">106 entries in 2014</a>, <a href="http://www.telegraph.co.uk/music/news/culture-stars-who-died-in-2015/">124 entries in 2015</a>, and, at the mid point for 2016, <a href="http://www.telegraph.co.uk/music/news/culture-stars-who-died-in-20162/">86 entries already</a>. Rather than single out any particular individuals from these burgeoning lists, there is a more overarching set of questions we might consider concerning how we know celebrities, how these deaths can make us feel, and how these feelings are expressed and shared.</p>
<p>The significant public mourning of Princess Diana in 1997 attracted discussion from a number of perspectives. Of particular note was <a href="http://press.uchicago.edu/ucp/books/book/distributed/D/bo5533413.html">James Thomas’ book Diana’s Mourning</a>, in which he addressed the extensive news media coverage alongside accounts of “ordinary” people collected as part of the <a href="http://www.massobs.org.uk/">Mass Observation project</a>. Thomas’ research revealed greater ambiguity in public responses than the dominant news representation of a nation in mourning seemed to allow for. </p>
<p>This ambiguity was also apparent in research I undertook with Rebecca Feasey of Bath Spa University which explored the death of reality TV celebrity Jade Goody in 2009. Similarly, <a href="http://jou.sagepub.com/content/15/2/237.abstract">our research</a> involved 32 focus groups with over 100 members of the public and revealed a range of public responses to Goody’s mediated illness and dying. For some Goody was “ordinary” and “one of us” and helped to provide much need attention on cervical cancer. For others, the trappings of celebrity meant that her illness somehow seemed staged and lacked authenticity.</p>
<h2>New mourning</h2>
<p>The ambiguity of our responses perhaps comes from the impression from media coverage that we must have a response at all. Social media makes it so very easy to display that response, however fleeting it might have been. News that Ali had died prompted responses from millions. US president Barack Obama led the social media grieving; presidential hopeful Donald Trump tried to join in, <a href="http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/us-elections/donald-trump-muhammad-ali-dead-death-tribute-political-backlash-a7065946.html">not without controversy</a>.</p>
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<p>As we have seen this year, we are not short of prompts. The celebrity firmament continues to expand as pioneers of an era of immense cultural output and sporting achievement reach their late middle age and beyond. In the midst of it all, it is no surprise that we are using social media to create new forms of mourning.</p>
<p>In discussing death and Facebook, <a href="http://www.palgrave.com/br/book/978113739190">Margaret Gibson</a> suggested that messages of remembrance and grief posted to the social media platform were “non-hierarchical”. Family and friends and other members of Facebook (members of the public more generally) are on a level playing field. Their expressions of grief circulate online alongside those from family and friends. Obama’s tweet about Ali is just as big as yours, even if his gets more retweets. One element of this is access. The mourning of celebrity is not limited to particular groups or particular places. As such, an abundance of voices mix together in memory. </p>
<p>Such expressions of remembrance and mourning are also specific to emerging media forms. People might circulate animated GIFs or playlists, as they <a href="https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLkDtdY2V7RZB2NcIFiZZ36jcMYi2r5nfR">have done for Bowie</a> and for <a href="https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL8cFaF2b783Ls-_n2LcW25VzdHXJphxSx">Prince</a>. They might create <a href="https://twitter.com/search?q=%23RIPMuhammadAli&src=typd">hashtags on Twitter</a> and Instagram. These are user-generated acts of mourning that extend public memory beyond dominant news coverage and create opportunities for everyday and expansive celebrity mourning. One key question is whether this has now become endless. Will there be room to memorialise everyone, even with our new forms? </p>
<p>Forms of remembrance and mourning differ and extend across different countries, cultures and time. Social media can be added to this repertoire of ways to share memories and connect experiences. Beyond the obituaries published in newspapers, the showreels that appear at award ceremonies, or the “and finally” announcements at the end of television news, digital media presents ways in which an abundance of voices can be heard. There are then questions of <a href="https://www.routledge.com/Infoglut-How-Too-Much-Information-Is-Changing-the-Way-We-Think-and-Know/Andrejevic/p/book/9780415659086">“information overload”</a> – who gets heard, when and how? Perhaps with mourning though, this matters less than the opportunity for personal, ordinary and everyday remembering.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/59413/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Daniel Ashton does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>The boxer’s death follows hard on the heels of David Bowie and Prince. The world is losing global icons and learning how to grieve using new and democratic tools.Daniel Ashton, Lecturer in Global Media Management, University of SouthamptonLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/605132016-06-05T04:22:53Z2016-06-05T04:22:53ZMuhammad Ali rewrote the rule book for athletes as celebrities and activists<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/125186/original/image-20160604-11620-2flloi.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Muhammad Ali is still front of mind in any discussion of the most important sportsman ever.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Reuters</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>The descriptor “icon” is vastly overused in these celebrity-fixated times, but it could have been invented for Muhammad Ali, who <a href="http://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-16011175">has died</a> aged 74. Thirty-five years after he threw his last punch in the ring, Ali is still front of mind in any discussion of the most-important sportsman ever.</p>
<p>He does not occupy this status because he is widely regarded as the best boxer there has ever been, who narcissistically <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J9CeC3yrcG4">called himself</a> “The Greatest”, and then forced a reluctant boxing world to agree. Ali was much bigger than boxing. He came, from the late 1960s onwards, to symbolise resistance to racism, militarism and inequality.</p>
<p>He embodied the intimate relationship between sport and politics that so troubles those, like nationalistic politicians, who deny its existence while ruthlessly exploiting it.</p>
<p>So how did Ali so consistently receive the kind of acclaim heaped on him by human rights activist and sports scholar Richard E. Lapchick, who <a href="https://www.bookdepository.com/Sport-Society-Richard-Edward-Lapchick/978080303">describes Ali</a> as “not a one-in-a million figure, but a once-in-a-lifetime person”?</p>
<p>Ali was a <a href="https://theconversation.com/what-made-muhammad-ali-the-greatest-in-the-ring-60521">superlative boxer</a>, but it was his great physical beauty and quick wit that made a major impression on those who knew little of boxing or were repelled by its brutality. Under his birth name, Cassius Clay, he forced himself into public consciousness by theatrically talking up his “prettiness”, athletic brilliance and verbal facility.</p>
<p>From early in his career he self-consciously played the role of anti-hero with a racial twist. Knowing the white-dominated boxing establishment and fan base were always searching, especially in the prestigious heavyweight division, for a <a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0065797/">“great white hope”</a> to put African-American champions in their place, Ali goaded them to find him another fighter to beat.</p>
<p>Decades before sportspeople used social media to communicate directly with the world and polish their image, Ali bent the media of the day to his will through outrageous publicity stunts, quirky poems and memorable catchphrases. Another white-dominated institution, the mainstream media, had to deal with an unprecedented, freewheeling assault on its familiar control routines by a black athlete who refused to be deferent and grateful. </p>
<p>This boxing-related pantomime was entertaining. But it was when the brand new world heavyweight champion rejected his “slave name” in 1964, became Muhammad Ali and declared his allegiance to the black separatist <a href="http://www.noi.org/">Nation of Islam</a> that he became a major political presence in popular culture.</p>
<p>His subsequent refusal – on religious and ethical grounds – to be conscripted to the US armed forces and to fight in the Vietnam War turned him into both a figure of hate and a symbol of hope in a bitterly divided America. The world beyond boxing and America now had even more reason to pay close attention to Muhammad Ali.</p>
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<p>Once more, Ali was ahead of the game. Anticipating the deep political divisions over the two Gulf Wars and their disastrous outcomes, here was a vibrant celebrity around whom dissenters could rally. </p>
<p><a href="http://www.theguardian.com/theguardian/2013/apr/29/muhammad-ali-refuses-to-fight-in-vietnam-war-1967">Banned from boxing</a> for three years because of his political stance, Ali acquired the status of a martyr to his convictions. He stood conspicuous among fellow sport stars who kept their heads down on matters of politics – whatever their private views.</p>
<p>In retrospect, it is remarkable that he was not assassinated like the Kennedys, Martin Luther King Jr, and Malcolm X.</p>
<p>When he returned to the ring, Ali became the focus of spectacular media-sport events like <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Rumble_in_the_Jungle">“The Rumble in the Jungle”</a> and <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thrilla_in_Manila">“The Thrilla in Manila”</a>. These boxing matches helped write the rule book of 21st-century “sportainment”.</p>
<p>Ali’s boxing career petered out, yet he remained an instantly recognisable global celebrity. But by 1984 the savage toll that boxing took on his body, especially his brain, became evident. It is <a href="http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2016/06/04/muhammad-ali-parkinsons/85399772/">believed to</a> have exacerbated the Parkinson’s disease that progressively debilitated him.</p>
<p>Some of the most touching and heart-breaking moments in sport came when his shaking body performed ceremonial duties at the 1996 Atlanta and 2012 London Olympics. When Ali spoke in public, his rapid-fire repartee was reduced to a low, slow whisper.</p>
<p>Despite his failing health, Ali relentlessly pursued his <a href="https://www.looktothestars.org/celebrity/muhammad-ali">humanistic activities</a>. He supported charities and foundations such as Athletes for Hope, UNICEF, and his own Muhammad Ali Center. </p>
<p>Ali was no saint. His <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/sport/2011/nov/08/muhammad-ali-joe-frazier">cruel mocking</a> of rival Joe Frazier, which he later regretted, saw him treat a fellow African American as a “dumb”, “ugly”, racially complicit Uncle Tom in a manner that resonated with some of the worst racist stereotypes. His <a href="http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2016/06/04/muhammad-alis-tangled-love-life-leaves-troubled-legacy">complicated history</a> of intimate relationships with women and his many offspring is of soap-opera proportions.</p>
<p>But, in touching and enhancing the lives of so many people across the globe, here was a man much more sinned against than sinning. </p>
<p>Ali’s passing <a href="http://journalistsresource.org/studies/society/public-health/sports-related-concussions-head-injuries-what-does-research-say">comes at a time</a> of increasing concern about sport-induced traumatic brain injury. The near-fatal outcome of a recent bout in the UK between Nick Blackwell and Chris Eubank Jr has once again put boxing in an <a href="http://news.sky.com/story/1700776/blackwell-calls-eubank-coma-reaction-inhuman">unfavourable spotlight</a>. </p>
<p>Ali paid a ferocious price for his fame. Most leading medical associations would <a href="https://theconversation.com/why-boxing-and-cage-fighting-should-be-banned-but-wont-be-38901">ban the sport</a> that brought him to prominence.</p>
<p>Yet, paradoxically, it is boxing that we have to thank for somehow – out of the violence and pain of its self-proclaimed <a href="http://boxing.isport.com/boxing-guides/why-boxing-is-called-the-sweet-science">“sweet science”</a> – delivering to the world Muhammad Ali, <a href="http://www.sportingnews.com/other-sports/news/muhammad-ali-appreciation-peoples-champ-shook-up-the-world-vietnam-human-rights-international-icon/9f78d7uahl4o1num874r4jbjg">The People’s Champion</a>.</p>
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<p><em><strong>Further reading:</strong></em></p>
<p><em><a href="https://theconversation.com/what-made-muhammad-ali-the-greatest-in-the-ring-60521">What made Muhammad Ali ‘The Greatest’ in the ring?</a></em></p>
<p><em><a href="https://theconversation.com/final-bell-sounds-for-muhammad-ali-the-greatest-32913">Final bell sounds for Muhammad Ali: The Greatest</a></em></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/60513/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>David Rowe does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Muhammad Ali was much bigger than boxing. He came, from the late 1960s onwards, to symbolise resistance to racism, militarism and inequality.David Rowe, Professor of Cultural Research, Institute for Culture and Society, Western Sydney UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/605212016-06-05T00:39:10Z2016-06-05T00:39:10ZWhat made Muhammad Ali ‘The Greatest’ in the ring?<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/125195/original/image-20160604-11624-ueoy8v.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Various boxing authorities have ranked Muhammad Ali as the best heavyweight boxer in history.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Reuters</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Many factors came together to create recognition of Muhammad Ali, who <a href="http://www.abc.net.au/news/2016-06-04/muhammad-ali-boxing-great-dies-aged-74/7477564">has died</a> aged 74, as “the greatest” boxer in history. </p>
<p>There is no doubt Ali’s determination to <a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com.au/entry/muhammad-ali-on-not-all-white-people_us_563a5e9ee4b0307f2cabb2e6?section=australia">overcome racial inequality</a>, his <a href="http://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/muhammad-ali-refuses-army-induction">refusal to fight</a> in the Vietnam War, his emergence as a <a href="http://www.independent.co.uk/news/people/muhammad-ali-death-cassius-clay-why-did-he-change-his-name-nation-of-islam-a7065256.html">representative of Islam</a> and his highly engaging media persona coalesced to make him by far the most widely known boxer of all time. He came to be popularly regarded as a champion of the oppressed and a seeker of justice for the persecuted. This resonated globally.</p>
<p>Central to the celebrity Ali achieved, though, was his exceptional ability as a boxer.</p>
<h2>A unique style</h2>
<p>Various boxing authorities have <a href="http://www.boxinginsider.com/columns/ten-great-heavyweights-time/">ranked Ali</a> as the best heavyweight boxer in history. He and the legendary Sugar Ray Robinson <a href="http://espn.go.com/sports/boxing/greatest/featureVideo?page=greatest110">have been bracketed</a> as the top two across all weight divisions. </p>
<p>Ali <a href="http://heavy.com/sports/2016/06/muhammad-ali-1960-olympics-gold-medal-dead-cassius-clay-rip/">won a gold medal</a> (as a light heavyweight) at the 1960 Rome Olympics as the culmination of an amateur boxing career in which he won 100 of 105 bouts. </p>
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<p>As a professional, Ali won the world heavyweight championship on three separate occasions over 14 years. He was victorious in <a href="http://boxrec.com/boxer/180">56 of 61 professional bouts</a>, with three of the losses coming late in his career when his athleticism had faded. Sports Illustrated <a href="http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/the-greatest-athletes-of-the-century-announced-at-sports-illustrateds-20th-century-sports-awards-77409892.html">named him</a> as its Sportsman of the 20th Century.</p>
<p>What made Ali such an outstanding exponent of his sport? </p>
<p>It certainly wasn’t sheer strength and power. He was never considered to be among boxing’s hardest punchers and more than one-third of his professional contests lasted their full scheduled duration. Nor was he remarkable in terms of height or weight.</p>
<p>Rather, Ali’s speed, agility, footwork and general athleticism were among the attributes that most distinguished him from other competitors. It was said he was a heavyweight who <a href="http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport2/hi/boxing/4542157.stm">moved like a lightweight</a>.</p>
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<p>In the early years of his career, Ali also displayed outstanding aerobic endurance: he was able to relentlessly maintain his dancing, up-on-the-toes style.</p>
<p>There is no doubt Ali was uniquely skilled. But he employed techniques that, while clearly effective, were far from classical. In stark contrast to contemporary views of best practice, he often held his hands by his sides at waist level, and he sometimes <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ezXbEL4hB7A">avoided the punches</a> of opponents by pulling his head backwards away from them. </p>
<p>Many boxing experts regarded these as <a href="http://www.wsj.com/articles/ali-the-fighter-speed-stamina-and-psychological-warfare-1465061753">high-risk behaviours</a> made viable only by Ali’s astonishing speed, but the unorthodoxy served to confuse his adversaries and lure them into errors. He was seldom the aggressor, preferring a method that capitalised on the aggression of others.</p>
<p>Ali very aptly <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bNpFiZDqcog">characterised his own style</a> as “float like a butterfly, sting like a bee”. His distinctive, unconventional boxing style was in keeping with the fierce individualism and rejection of norms that pervaded other aspects of his life and created almost universal interest in him.</p>
<h2>Mental strength</h2>
<p>Ali also demonstrated major psychological strengths. He was renowned for his self-belief, which frequently extended beyond vociferous pre-contest expressions of confidence to actually nominating the very round in which he would win.</p>
<p>He was predisposed to <a href="http://abcnews.go.com/Entertainment/wireStory/greatest-poet-muhammad-alis-verse-39605001">composing rap-style poems</a> designed to extol his talents and unsettle opponents, and was well-known for his intimidatory stares and for subjecting opponents to verbal taunts during bouts.</p>
<p>Over time, Ali’s perennial competitive success seemed increasingly to justify the self-belief and enabled him to inculcate an impression that he was almost superhuman. That was an impression that a public seeking new heroes in turbulent social and political times was very willing to accept. In addition, it appears to have been embraced by Ali himself.</p>
<p>The self-belief and illusion of superhuman qualities were arguably instrumental in enabling Ali to get through a number of torturous contests. These included the “Thrilla in Manila”, where he and Joe Frazier inflicted shocking damage on each other in what he <a href="http://www.independent.co.uk/sport/general/boxing-ali-v-frazier-it-was-like-death-closest-thing-to-dyin-that-i-know-of-316051.html">later described</a> as a near-death experience, and the “Rumble in the Jungle”. </p>
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<figcaption><span class="caption">Ali fights Joe Frazier in the ‘Thrilla in Manila’.</span></figcaption>
</figure>
<p>In the Rumble in the Jungle, Ali absorbed some massively forceful punches from George Foreman as part of a contrived <a href="http://en.espn.co.uk/onthisday/sport/story/319.html">“rope-a-dope” strategy</a>. This eventually brought him an unlikely victory that proved to be the crowning glory of his incredible boxing journey.</p>
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<figcaption><span class="caption">Ali fights George Foreman in the ‘Rumble in the Jungle’.</span></figcaption>
</figure>
<p>In the phase of his boxing career commencing after his 3½-year <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/theguardian/2013/apr/29/muhammad-ali-refuses-to-fight-in-vietnam-war-1967">suspension from the sport</a> due to his refusal to enter the US Armed Forces, Ali became famous for an extraordinary ability to “take a punch”. This – along with the courage and commitment to purpose that it implies – has been viewed as another reason for his boxing greatness. </p>
<p>The taking of punches, though, very likely had a significant downside in causing neurological injury and <a href="http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2016/06/04/muhammad-ali-parkinsons/85399772/">contributing to the Parkinson’s disease</a> that affected his life from the mid-1980s onwards and was soon greatly debilitating.</p>
<p>Ali not only competed during the <a href="http://mobi.supersport.com/boxing/blogs/ron-jackson-ii/Five_years_5_fights_and_3_giants">“golden years of heavyweight boxing”</a> but was the fundamental reason for them. He brought completely new dimensions to the sport and gave it a sort of aestheticism and a broader relevance that was without precedent. </p>
<p>Despite the health problems that he suffered in retirement, he reportedly continued to enjoy being Muhammad Ali. That enjoyment was well-earnt. He inspired and empowered multitudes of people around the world and engendered cultural change. </p>
<p>Ali’s passing has evoked widespread sadness, particularly among the many admirers who somehow identified so strongly with him that they felt a quite intensively personal sharing of his triumphs and defeats, both in the ring and outside it. He leaves an enduring and highly influential legacy, that in the final analysis has been made possible by the qualities that made him genuinely “the greatest” as a boxer.</p>
<hr>
<p><em><strong>Further reading:</strong></em> </p>
<p><em><a href="https://theconversation.com/muhammad-ali-rewrote-the-rule-book-for-athletes-as-celebrities-and-activists-60513">Muhammad Ali rewrote the rule book for athletes as celebrities and activists</a></em></p>
<p><em><a href="https://theconversation.com/final-bell-sounds-for-muhammad-ali-the-greatest-32913">Final bell sounds for Muhammad Ali: The Greatest</a></em></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/60521/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Allan Hahn does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Central to the celebrity Muhammad Ali achieved was his exceptional ability as a boxer.Allan Hahn, Adjunct Professor, University of CanberraLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/329132016-06-04T07:38:29Z2016-06-04T07:38:29ZFinal bell sounds for Muhammad Ali: The Greatest<p>On October 2, 1980, Muhammad Ali, then aged 38, and Larry Holmes, the heavyweight champion of the world, entered a temporary arena built at Caesar’s Palace, Las Vegas. A gate of nearly 25,000 had paid $5,766,125, a record in its day. “It wasn’t a fight; it was an execution,” wrote Ali’s biographer <a href="http://www.amazon.co.uk/Muhammad-Ali-His-Life-Times/dp/1907554807">Thomas Hauser</a>. After ten sickeningly one-sided rounds, Ali’s trainer Angelo Dundee signalled Ali’s retirement. Ali’s aide and confidante Bundini Brown pleaded: “One more round.” But, Dundee snapped back: “Fuck you! No! … The ballgame’s over.”</p>
<p>In a way, he was right: one game had indeed finished. Ali fought only once more. His health had been deteriorating for several years before the ill-advised Holmes fight and the savaging he took repulsed even his sternest critics. Ali the “fearsome warrior,” as Hauser calls him, would disappear, replaced by a “benevolent monarch and ultimately to a benign venerated figure”.</p>
<p>And now that venerated figure has died, aged 74.</p>
<p>Muhammad Ali was also a symbol of black protest, a cipher for the anti-Vietnam movement, a martyr (or traitor, depending on one’s perspective), a self-regarding braggart, and many more things beside. While there have been several sports icons, none have approached Ali in terms of complexity, endowment and sheer potency. <a href="http://history.as.nyu.edu/object/jeffreysammons.html">Jeffrey Sammons</a> suggests: “Perhaps no single person embodied the ethic of protest and intersected with so many lives, ordinary and extraordinary.”</p>
<h2>Born into two nations</h2>
<p>Born in Louisville, Kentucky, in the segregated south, Cassius Clay, as he was christened, was made forcibly aware of America’s “two nations,” one black, one white. After winning a gold medal at the 1960 Rome Olympics, he returned home to be refused service at a restaurant. This kind of incident was to influence his later commitments.</p>
<p>Clay both infuriated and fascinated audiences with his outrageous claims to be the greatest boxer of all times, his belittling of opponents, his poetry and his habit of predicting (often accurately) the round in which his fights would end. “It’s hard to be modest when you’re as great as I am,” he remarked.</p>
<p>He beat Sonny Liston for the world heavyweight title in 1964 and easily dismissed him in the rematch. Between the two fights, he proclaimed his change of name to Muhammad Ali, reflecting his conversion to Islam. While he’d made public his membership of the Nation of Islam (NoI), sometimes known as the Black Muslims, prior to the first Liston fight, few understood the implications. The NoI was led by Elijah Muhammad and had among its most famous followers Malcolm X, who kept company with Ali and who was to be assassinated in 1965. </p>
<p>Among the NoI’s principles was a belief that whites were intent on keeping black people in a state of subjugation and that integration was not only impossible, but undesirable. Blacks and whites should live separately; preferably living in different states. The view was in stark distinction to North America’s melting pot ideal. </p>
<p>Ali’s commitment deepened and the media, which had earlier warmed to his extravagance, turned against him. A rift occurred between Ali and Joe Louis, the former heavyweight champion who was once described as “a credit to his race.” This presaged several other conflicts with other black boxers whom Ali believed had allowed themselves to become assimilated into white America and had failed to face themselves as true black people.</p>
<h2>Sting like a bee</h2>
<p>The events that followed Ali’s call-up by the military in February 1966 were dramatised by a background of growing resistance to the US involvement in the Vietnam War. Ali’s oft-quoted remark “I ain’t got no quarrel with them Vietcong” made headlines around the world. He insisted that his conscience not cowardice guided his decision not to serve in the military and, so, to many others, he became a mighty signifier of pacifism. To others he was just another draft dodger.</p>
<p>At the nadir of his popularity, he fought Ernie Terrell, who, like Patterson, persisted in calling him “Clay.” The fight in Houston had a grim subtext with Ali constantly taunting Terrell. “What’s my name, Uncle Tom?” Ali asked Terrell as he administered a callous beating. Ali prolonged the torment until the 14th round. Media reaction to the fight was wholly negative. Jimmy Cannon, a boxing writer of the day wrote: </p>
<blockquote>
<p>It was a bad fight, nasty with the evil of religious fanaticism. This wasn’t an athletic contest. It was a kind of lynching … [Ali] is a <a href="http://books.google.co.uk/books?id=T5ukXpx96oMC&pg=PA138&lpg=PA138&dq=Jimmy+Cannon+%22a+vicious+propagandist+for+a+spiteful+mob+that+works+the+religious+underworld%22&source=bl&ots=3PX1EanQr2&sig=-7RV01mlM0waBLFDHbumICsI5BY&hl=en&sa=X&ei=tcc7VKmdEI7narGNgrgI&ved=0CC0Q6AEwAw#v=onepage&q=Jimmy%20Cannon%20%22a%20vicious%20propagandist%20for%20a%20spiteful%20mob%20that%20works%20the%20religious%20underworld%22&f=false">vicious propagandist</a> for a spiteful mob that works the religious underworld.</p>
</blockquote>
<h2>Wilderness years</h2>
<p>Ali’s refusal to serve in the armed forces resulted in a five-year legal struggle, during which time Ali was stripped of his title. During his exile, Ali had angered the NoI by announcing his wish to return to boxing if this was ever possible. Elijah, the supreme minister, denounced Ali for playing “the white man’s games of civilisation”. He meant sports.</p>
<p>Other evaluations of sport were gathering force. The black power inspired protests of John Carlos and Tommie Smith at the 1968 Olympics, combined with the anti-apartheid movement in South Africa had made clear that sport could be used to amplify the experiences of black people the world over. While Ali was a bête noir for many whites and indeed blacks, several civil rights leaders, sports performers and entertainers came out publicly in his defence. He was hailed as their champion.</p>
<p>Given the growing respect he was afforded, he was seen as an influential figure. Ali’s moves were monitored by government intelligence organizations; his conversations were wiretapped. But the mood of the times was changing: he was widely regarded as a martyr by the by-then formidable anti-war movement and practically anyone who felt affinity with civil rights.</p>
<p>His years of exile over, he returned to boxing. But prospect of a smooth transition back to the title was dashed March 1971 by Joe Frazier, who had taken the title in Ali’s absence and defended it with unexpected tenacity in a contest that started one of the most virulent rivalries in sport. Ali had called Frazier a “white man’s champion” and declared: “Any black man who’s for Joe Frazier is a traitor.” Ali lost once to Frazier and beat him twice over the following years, every fight being viciously fought.</p>
<p>Ali had to wait until 1974 before getting another chance at the world title. By this time, Ali, at 32, was not favoured; in fact, many feared for his well being against the hitherto unbeaten George Foreman. The fight in Zaire became immortalised as “<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ijOjRTqPICk">The Rumble in the Jungle</a>” and Ali emerged again as champion.</p>
<p>In June 1979, Ali announced his retirement from boxing. At 37, he appeared to have made a graceful exit when he moved to Los Angeles with his third wife Veronica whom he had married two years before. His first marriage lasted less than a year ending in 1966; Ali married again in 1967, again in 1977 and then in 1986 to his current wife Yolanda Williams.</p>
<p>Hauser estimates Ali’s career earnings to 1979 to be “tens of millions of dollars”. Yet, on his retirement, Ali was not wealthy.</p>
<p>Within 15 months of his retirement, Ali returned to the ring, his principal motivation being money. He also made several poor business investments and, while prolonging his sports career seemed suicidal, he managed one more fight, again ending in defeat. He was 39 and had fought 61 times.</p>
<p>In 1984, he disappointed his supporters when he nominally supported Ronald Reagan’s re-election bid. He also endorsed George Bush in 1988. The Republican Party’s policies, particularly in regard to affirmative action programs, were widely seen as detrimental to the interests of African Americans and Ali’s actions were, for many, tantamount to a betrayal.</p>
<p>Ali’s public appearances gave substance to stories of his ill health. By 1987, he was the subject of much medical interest. Slurred speech and uncoordinated bodily movements gave rise to several theories about his condition, which was ultimately revealed as Parkinson’s syndrome. His public appearances became rarer and he became Hauser’s “benign venerated figure.”</p>
<p>Over a period of five decades, Ali excited a variety of responses: admiration and respect, but also condemnation. At different points in his life, he drew the adulation of young people committed to peace, civil rights and black power; and the anger of those pursuing social integration.</p>
<p>Ali engaged with the central issues that preoccupied America: race and war. But it would be remiss to understand him as a symbol of social healing; much of his mission was to expose and, perhaps, to deepen divisions. He preached peace, yet aligned himself with a movement that sanctioned racial separation and the subordination of women. He accepted a role with the liberal Democratic administration of Jimmy Carter, yet later sided with reactionaries, Reagan and Bush. He advocated black pride, yet disparaged and dehumanised fellow blacks. He taught the importance of self-determination, yet allowed himself to be sucked into so many doubtful business deals that he was forced to prolong his career to the point where his dignity was effaced. Like any towering symbol, he had very human contradictions.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/32913/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Ellis Cashmore does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>He moved from fearsome warrior to benevolent monarch and then benign venerated figure. Now Ali has moved on again.Ellis Cashmore, Visiting Professor, Aston UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.