Last week on August 23rd, a man was shot 7 times in the back by police officers in front of his kids. Thus begun a most interesting week. It was one that saw the largest strike by black (and somewhat more un-willingly their white "allies") in American history and it lead to actual policy concessions by their pay-masters. The collective rolling-strike action by the NBA/WNBA, USTA, MLB, and eventually the NHL. Though this was a mostly symbolic gesture, it did have the very real consequence of forcing the concession of NBA owners opening their sports arenas to polling on Election Day, partially-thwarting the voter suppression of the reactionaries. Nothing of like this has ever been achieved. That a group of black millionaires could make their mostly-Republican bosses go against their interest in the name of labor-peace and the maintaining of the still relatively-recently agreed CBA is astonishing. The idea that a black Japanese female tennis player could bring one of the larger-level tennis tournaments to a complete halt is astonishing. We've reached a new phase in this civil rights struggle.
And yet we end this week with the death of the Black Panther/Jackie Robinson himself Chadwick Boseman. That he had spent the last 4 years dying of colon cancer before our eyes is shocking--another incalculable loss.
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