Toni Smith-Thompson Travels Full Circle

Toni Smith-Thompson Travels Full Circle

The activist  joins the show to talk about a huge recent development in her story.

Dave Zirin
Facebook
Twitter
Email
Flipboard
Pocket

In 2003, a Manhattanville College basketball player named Toni Smith caused a media frenzy when she turned her back on the National Anthem during President Bush’s wars in the Middle East. It was not received well. Now, two decades later, Toni Smith-Thompson was the commencement speaker at the Manhattanville graduation and received an honorary doctorate. We speak to Toni Smith-Thompson about that journey.

In this episode, we have Choice Words about the silence from male athletes when it comes to Brittney Griner’s unjust detainment in Russia. We also have a Just Stand Up award for the US women’s soccer team for being victorious in their landmark suit for equal pay. And we have a Just Sit Down award for sports bloviator Doug Gottlieb, who seems unable to recognize what real racism looks like, let alone a history book. All this and more on this week’s show!

Subscribe to The Nation to support all of our podcasts: thenation.com/podcastsubscribe.

Thank you for reading The Nation!

We hope you enjoyed the story you just read, just one of the many incisive, deeply-reported articles we publish daily. Now more than ever, we need fearless journalism that shifts the needle on important issues, uncovers malfeasance and corruption, and uplifts voices and perspectives that often go unheard in mainstream media.

Throughout this critical election year and a time of media austerity and renewed campus activism and rising labor organizing, independent journalism that gets to the heart of the matter is more critical than ever before. Donate right now and help us hold the powerful accountable, shine a light on issues that would otherwise be swept under the rug, and build a more just and equitable future.

For nearly 160 years, The Nation has stood for truth, justice, and moral clarity. As a reader-supported publication, we are not beholden to the whims of advertisers or a corporate owner. But it does take financial resources to report on stories that may take weeks or months to properly investigate, thoroughly edit and fact-check articles, and get our stories into the hands of readers.

Donate today and stand with us for a better future. Thank you for being a supporter of independent journalism.

Thank you for your generosity.

Dave Zirin Dave Zirin is the sports editor at The Nation. He is the author of 11 books on the politics of sports. He is also the coproducer and writer of the new documentary Behind the Shield: The Power and Politics of the NFL.


x