I forget that not everyone knows just how corrupt (and frankly, doomed) Olympic Weightlifting is. We experience the sport in a cycle that repeats every few years: we idolize a number of incredibly strong weightlifters, fawn over their successes and world records, proclaim them the greatest of all time, find out they have tested positive for steroids (after years of negative drug tests!), and then move on to the next rising star – and we believe that this time, unlike every other time, the new fan favorite is completely steroid-free.

This may not be breaking-news or surprising to some, but I was shocked last year when I read that Serena Williams almost died after giving birth to her daughter because the nurse did not believe Serena’s claim that she was in pain. My first response to reading this news was “it’s because she’s Black.” Still, I hesitated to draw to this conclusion given that Serena Williams is wealthy, a boss, and the G.O.A.T (greatest of all time) to ever step on the tennis court.

When we consider the intersections of gender, race, capitalism, McDonaldization, and football, we arrive at the issues surrounding Antonio Brown. Moreover, it brings us to the core question then, of who is really at fault here, and what side do we take? Is AB another victim of the NFL’s exploitative and dehumanizing protocols, or is he a loose cannon who has finally been brought to justice with the current sexual abuse investigation? Is he both? And perhaps the more chilling question: who’s next?

Why do African-Americans still need to cautiously navigate as pedestrians? Late last year, the movie “Green Book,” starring Mahershala Ali and Viggo Mortensen was released. This true story, which received three Oscars, including Best Picture and Best Supporting Actor for Ali, was about Tony Lip (Mortensen), an Italian-American bouncer in the early 1960s, being hired to drive Dr. Don Shirley (Ali), an African-American jazz pianist, on his eight-week concert tour through the Midwest and Deep South using The Negro Motorist Green Book, or simply the Green Book.

A year ago, I wrote about the concerns regarding the International Association of Athletics Federations’ (IAAF) newest policy on testosterone regulation and the science “supporting” their policy. In this piece, I critiqued the IAAF’s proposed policy around testosterone regulation of athletes with higher levels of naturally occurring testosterone. Specifically, I focused on the discriminatory nature of this policy and failure of the science behind it to corroborate the IAAF’s assertion that endogenous testosterone unfairly benefits female athletes.

The news article probably would’ve been written something like this. “On Thursday, 23-year-old College Park resident Brandon Wallace was fatally shot by local police officers after entering the police station armed with a deadly weapon. According to authorities, Wallace rushed into the police station wielding a 10-inch knife with intent to kill. A local police officer, who has asked to remain anonymous at this time, saw the knife in Wallace’s hands immediately after Wallace entered the station. The officer shot Wallace 11 times, killing him on the spot. The officer claims that he feared for his life and the lives of his fellow officers. The police administration has stated that the officer’s actions followed protocol and were justified. An investigation into the incident is pending…”

“Why do they always look at me like that?” That’s what I think when I consistently see the same white men and women on the running trail in my neighborhood. My boyfriend and I recently moved to this neighborhood, motivated in part by the vast amount of running trails in the area. Granted, I see more people using the trails to walk their dogs in the morning, but I don’t mind the dogs. What I do mind are the constantly surveilling eyes that watch me as I jog over the bridge. I cannot help but think that their gaze is a response to both my being black and running on the trail. My blackness may be disrupting their racially homogenous space, and my activity may seem odd…or suspicious.

Over the past six months, I have been reading, researching, and writing about hyperandrogenism as it concerns sport and intersex athletes. And let me tell you, it has been an experience. The more I read, the more my own understandings of sex, gender, and sport become blurred and unclear. From Stella Walsh and Heinrich Ratjen in the 1936 Olympics, to the most recent ‘controversy’ around Dutee Chand, I am increasingly horrified, shocked, and fired up by everything I read and stumble across.

While the divide between players and executives in the National Football League (NFL) has rightfully dominated media sporting discourse over the last couple of years, a similar dilemma is quietly emerging in the National Basketball Association (NBA) – although for a different reason. One of the most prominent stories of the first half of the NBA season has been the seemingly deteriorating relationship between players and referees

Racial profiling in police forces is a systemic national problem. Even though the United States Constitution states that “all men are created equal” and prohibits unreasonable searches and seizures, state police departments continue to abuse the law for the ‘betterment of society’. Looking through the lens of sociologist George Ritzer’s Weberian concept of “McDonaldization,” I argue that racial profiling has become McDonaldized in American police culture.