Jackie Robinson: Last News

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All news where Jackie Robinson is mentioned

variety.com
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‘Devotion’ Review: JD Dillard Brings ‘Top Gun’ Mojo to Historic Account of a Barrier-Breaking Black Pilot
Peter Debruge Chief Film Critic African American boxing champ Muhammad Ali famously refused to fight for his country, justifying himself with the oft-quoted quip, “No Viet Cong ever called me n—–.” That’s one-half of American history, and an important one. “Devotion” tells the other, presenting the story of a Black pilot so determined to defend — and die for, if need be — the United States that he was willing to endure institutional bigotry to become the Jackie Robinson of the skies: Jesse Brown, the first aviator of color to complete the Navy’s basic training program. A square but satisfying social justice drama set against the backdrop of the Korean War, “Devotion” impressed on the biggest screen possible at the Toronto Film Festival two months before its Nov. 23 theatrical release. Featuring elements of both “Green Book” and “Red Tails,” the film is more than just a stirring case of Black exceptionalism; it also celebrates the one white officer who had Brown’s back, Tom Hudner, treating the bond these two men formed as something exceptional unto itself. Director JD Dillard dazzles with see-it-in-Imax airborne sequences, but the meat of the film focuses on the friendship between Brown (“Da 5 Bloods” star Jonathan Majors) and his white wingman, played by Glen Powell, the “Hidden Figures” actor who most recently appeared in “Top Gun: Maverick.”
variety.com
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‘Sweetwater’ Review: An Intriguing But Sketchy Biopic of Nat Clifton, the Harlem Globetrotter Who Broke the Color Barrier of the NBA
Owen Gleiberman Chief Film Critic “Sweetwater” is a biopic about Nat “Sweetwater” Clifton, the Black power forward who broke the color barrier of the NBA in 1950, three years after Jackie Robinson accomplished the same feat in baseball. It’s telling that Robinson remains one of the most celebrated heroes in sports history, while Clifton is still a somewhat obscure figure. (He was inducted into the Basketball Hall of Fame in 2014, but still.) There’s a biting irony to that contrast. It relates to how the integration of basketball totally changed the game (the way it was played, the way the fans thought of it), even more than the integration of baseball changed baseball. “Sweetwater,” written and directed by Martin Guigui, is a straight-down-the-middle inspirational sports movie — and, one regrets to say, a kind of benign sketchbook version of the form. Yet it also tells the tale (or, at least, one slice of it) of the Harlem Globetrotters, the fabled team of barnstorming trickster prodigies who Clifton started off as a member of. There were several levels to the Globetrotters’ athletic magic, and the film captures how intricately tied it was to the way that Black players remade the game.
essence.com
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MLB Player Apologizes To Jackie Robinson’s Family For Disparaging Remarks Toward Tim Anderson
but that all changed last weekend when Josh Donaldson, a white third baseman for the New York Yankees, called Tim Anderson, a Black shortstop for the White Sox, “Jackie.” Anderson’s teammates overheard the racist remark and the catcher for the White Sox, Yasmani Grandal, “confronted Donaldson in the batter’s box” during a latter inning, and the ensuing “exchange led to the benches clearing.” Donaldson admitted to calling Anderson “Jackie” as a direct reference to Jackie Robinson, explaining that “his quip was…an inside joke between him and Anderson that dated back to 2019, when Anderson invoked Robinson’s name as part of an interview he did with Sports Illustrated;” however, Anderson rejected that notion about being “in on the joke…telling reporters that he had told Donaldson to leave him alone if that’s how he intended to refer to him.”Speaking with ESPN afterward, Anderson said, “He did say that, and I told him we never have to talk again…I don’t speak to you, you don’t speak to me, if that’s how you want to refer to me. I know, he knew exactly what he was doing because I already told him.”In trying to defend himself, Donaldson stated, “[m]y meaning of that is not any term trying to be racist by any fat of the matter…Obviously, he deemed it disrespectful.
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