The Soul of Sports After Paris & Beirut

“Intellectual and material walls are not the way to progress.” The words of today’s guest, George Atallah from the NFLPA, in response to knee-jerk bigotry against refugees after attacks in Paris and Beirut. Atallah’s own family fled Lebanon’s civil war for the United States decades ago and he denounces passionately, as Aaron Rogers did on Sunday, the prejudicial ideologies which lead to hardened hearts and wrongheaded policies on all sides. Then our host, Dave Zirin, expounds on the conscientious sentiment so aptly expressed by French Forward for the Utah Jazz, Rudy Gobert, when he tweeted: “Ne Vous Laissez Pas Manipuler,” or as Dave translates, #staywoke. Finally, the ‘Just Stand Up’ award goes to the Northwestern women’s basketball team, who modified their warmup shirts to read: “We stand with Mizzou,” also issuing a strong statement of solidarity. Special thanks for all the music in this piece to Ibrahim Maalouf, the renowned Beirut-born, Paris-based jazz trumpeter, composer and educator. All songs used with permission of the artist. Ibrahim Maalouf twitter: https://twitter.com/ibrahim_maaloufIbrahim Maalouf website: http://www.ibrahimmaalouf.com/Ibrahim Maalouf songs: “Paris,” “True Sorry,” “InPressi,” & “Beirut” ft. guitar solo by Nenad Gajin. George Atallah on twitter: https://twitter.com/georgeatallah ‘The Nation’ column: http://www.thenation.com/article/ne-vous-laissez-pas-manipuler-aka-staywoke/  If you like the program, please subscribe, tell a friend, tweet us https://twitter.com/edgeofsports, or email edgeofsports@slate.com

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