3 d. ago George Foreman showed every gesture is political – especially for Black athletes | Bryan Armen Graham

At the 1968 Olympics, Foreman’s flag-waving was seen as deference if not betrayal. But the reaction to it reveals the limited ways we allow Black athletes to express themselvesWhen a teenager from Texas named George Foreman waved a tiny American flag in the boxing ring after winning Olympic gold in 1968, he had little awareness of the political minefield beneath his size 15 feet. The moment, captured by television cameras for an audience of millions during one of the most volatile periods in American history, was instantly contrasted with another image from two days earlier at the same Mexico City Games: Tommie Smith and John Carlos, heads bowed and black-gloved fists raised in salute during the US national anthem, a silent act of protest that would become one of the defining visuals of the 20th century. Their message was unmistakable: a rebuke of the country that had sent them to compete while continuing to deny civil rights to people who looked like them. Their action was seen as ...

Politics

4 d. ago A sheriff's deputy won't face criminal charges for fatally shooting 2 Black teens

A sheriff’s deputy in New York will not face criminal charges for fatally shooting two Black teenagers fleeing in a car in 2023

Events

7 d. ago ‘He threw body piercing parties and lay on a bed of nails’: the wild life of body modification guru Fakir Musafar

A new documentary explores how the pioneer of the ‘modern primitive’ subculture used painful BDSM practices to access new spiritual planes – outraging conventional societyIn the opening moments of A Body to Live in, a documentary by American film-maker Angelo Madsen, we are confronted with two black-and-white photographs. Taken in 1944 by the teenage Roland Loomis, they show him stripped to his underwear, his waist heavily restricted by a leather belt, a rope wrapped several times around his neck.Loomis later renamed himself Fakir Musafar and became one of the founders of the modern primitive movement – a subculture that revolves around body modification practices including branding, suspension, contortion and binding. A Body to Live in, which premieres internationally at London’s BFI Flare film festival this week, dissects Musafar’s body of work, which explored the tension between masculinity and femininity, pain and pleasure, spirituality and S&M. Continue reading...

Politics

2 w. ago Prosecutor's office says case of a California judge charged in wife's death has ended in a mistrial

A prosecutor's office says the case of a Southern California judge charged with murder in his wife's fatal shooting has ended in a mistrial

Events

2 w. ago Young Scot who went blind as teen opens up on 'black dot' symptom

Neil Atkinson developed Stargardt’s disease and was registered blind at 17-years-old.

Politics

3 w. ago Missing English teen wearing 'black balaclava' may have travelled 400 miles to Glasgow

A missing English teen may have travelled to Glasgow wearing a 'black balaclava', as the search continues.

Events

3 w. ago No charges for deputy in fatal traffic stop shooting of Indiana man pardoned by Trump

A sheriff’s deputy in northwestern Indiana will not face charges in the fatal shooting during a traffic stop of a man who days earlier had been pardoned by President Donald Trump for a misdemeanor related to the 2021 U.S. Capitol riot

Events