The poll alludes to the fact that the liberals and democrats have not deserted President Obama. Approval of moderates for Obama holds at at steady 54 percent, which are numbers that can be compared to former Presidents Clinton, Reagan and Bush Sr.

The demographics are changing quite quickly, but they point to a polarization in America. The poll, in a sense, debunks the myth that the unemployed are angry at President Obama, because Hispanics and blacks are disproportionately out of work. Howeverm there is a lot of the reaction against Obama on the part of people that are employed.

Read more at TheGrio

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Part of the shock, or better yet outrage, seemed to be focused on the very thought that a black man making so much money would compare playing in a defensive scheme he despises to the master-slave relationship at the heart of the American Black-white divide. According to Haynesworth his bone of contention was part of his contract negotiations with the Redskins.

Of course he is not the first contemporary athlete to utter the slave comparison. Former NBA great Larry Johnson once referred to some of his New York Knicks teammates as “rebel slaves” which generated similar outrage. William Rhoden’s wonderful book Forty Million Dollar Slaves takes on the historic plantation mentality of American sport culture and contemporary athletes. And my own book, Ballers of The New School, examines the mentality of contemporary post-civil rights, hip-hop generation athletes, bold enough to make such utterances.

RELATED: Albert Haynesworth “I’m not a slave”

To be fair to Haynesworth who is black, the history and legacy of the enslavement of African persons in the New World, and testifying against it or vestiges of it, will forever be part of the psyche of black Americans. Enslavement in America was harsh, bitter, and cruel as recounted in endless slave narratives. These narratives testified against captors and bore witness to the desire of every black person to be free. Haynesworth’s recent tirade or testimony (depending on your point of view) underscores the feelings that most contemporary athletes are either unwilling to or incapable of articulating.

While Haynesworth certainly does not endure the same type of cruel bondage, his rebellion is against those in power of a plantation or system (dominated primarily by white men) that controls black men—even if they pay them. It is a system capable of making them “do whatever they want” whenever they want. Haynesworth, like the slave narratives, which demonstrated the problematic value of plantation culture, is perhaps addressing the problematic white-black labor conditions in contemporary sports culture that is driven by a modicum of the past master-slave ideology.

Rhoden says in his book “sports might be a plantation of sorts.” Haynesworth seems to concur. And, no amount of money will hush black folk with knowledge of this legacy, because America’s foundation is buried in the fields of slave plantations.

Ironically, the foundation of contemporary high profile sports like football and basketball are the descendants of former slaves. Even the structure of contemporary sports teams traces the power dynamics of plantations. Nearly all the people who exercise power over players are white— the owners, head coaches, commissioners, etc.

The outrage directed at Haynesworth for making his “slave” comment confirms the unspoken notion that because he is Black, he is treated as a descendants of former slaves. Critics say Haynesworth should be grateful—more grateful than his white peers—for the money he makes.

But if Haynesworth is getting paid so much and the dynamics are so different, why make the comparison?

Haynesworth is bothered that despite his immense wealth he does not control the terms of his liberation—the problem slaves faced without the benefit of wealth. Further, in the contemporary sports world not only are white men (like his coach and team owner) in power, but they have defined the terms of the liberation for black men. Haynesworth’s analogy is perhaps his way of saying that while his services may be for sale, his pride and self-respect are not. Despite the money, prestige, and lifestyle, he is not blind to the master-slave power dynamic in contemporary sport culture.

What underscores the Haynesworth saga is how it compares to that of Minnesota Vikings’ Brett Favre who is white. Haynesworth dislikes the Redskins 3-4 defensive scheme, preferring to play tackle instead of nose guard. He also skipped the Redskins voluntary off-season conditioning program. The media maligned him for this, suggesting he was lazy. Brett Favre routinely skips training camp until the last two weeks of camp.  He also chose to play for the Vikings because they use an offense he likes.

RELATED: Cavs see LeBron as runaway slave

Yet, the media response to his antics is the antithesis of the response to Haynesworth. Haynesworth is called “ridiculous,” “an idiot” and worse for making his comments. Meanwhile Favre is worshipped for holding teams hostage (deciding if he will play or retire) each year until two weeks before the season begins. In fact, he was given a raise this season. (He now makes $16 million!)

Race is an undeniable variable in the different treatment of these men. The black one is told he should be grateful, shut up and do what he is told.  The other is afforded the latitude to waffle about playing, and is offered a raise for doing so.

My point here is not that Haynesworth is literally a slave, but that because he’s Black he’s treated like one. Nor is it that whites are literally masters. The point is that Haynesworth seems to be aware the racial dynamics at play and rejects them. Our national understanding of race could make leaps and bounds, if the public considered these dynamics alongside Haynesworth words, “I’m not for sale or a slave or whatever.”

Thabiti Lewis is the author of Ballers of the New School: Race and Sports in America (Third World Press, 2010).  He teaches English and American Studies at Washington State University Vancouver.

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“All the hunters gather up, we have a N$%&er in the White House.”

Although sport has been an arena where Black Americans have been successful in forcing some equal opportunity, there is still much work to be done to clear the field of hate. My forthcoming book, Ballers of the New School: Race and Sport in America (Third World Press), deals with racism, from the institutional prejudice that has gripped our country since its inception to flagrant violations like Burnette’s comment.

The troublesome thing is that Texas, a perennial football powerhouse, boasts a team full of Black players who are All-American or All-Conference athletes. Burnette travels, eats, and spends time among his many Black teammates. He witnesses first hand the humanity and excellence of his Black teammates, yet he felt compelled to post a racist comment on his Facebook page.

Acts like his remind us that we have to do more than simply occupy the same huddle if we hope to continue to progress as a country. Although symbolic, merely being on the same field is not enough.

Writing is a deliberate act. It is purposeful and usually heartfelt. So Burnette’s weak apology, posted before Facebook administrators took his page down, is unacceptable:

“Clearly, I have made a mistake and apologized for it and will pay for it. I received it as a text message from an acquaintance and immaturely put it up on facebook in the light of the election. I’m not racist and apologize for offending you. I grew up on a ranch in a small town where that was a real thing and I need to grow up. I sincerely am sorry for being ignorant in thinking that it would be ok to write that publicly and apologize to you in particular. I have to be more mature than to put the reputation of my team at stake and to spread that kind of hate, which I don’t even believe in. Once again, I sincerely apologize.”

What’s most troublesome about his “apology” is that he seems to be apologizing more for saying these things in public. Somehow it was conveyed to him that it is okay to say in “public” what is said and thought behind closed doors. He also mistakenly thinks that such thoughts are merely a result of immaturity and not something that has been taught and requires unteaching.

To his credit, Texas head coach Mack Brown immediately kicked Burnette off the team. But the initial report only stated that he was dismissed for an “unspecified violation of team rules.” The silence suggests that Brown and the University of Texas might be a bit more concerned with bad publicity than with Burnette’s bad ideology. If they really wanted to make a lasting statement about intolerance and garner positive publicity, perhaps they should have been less secretive about what team rules were violated.

Unfortunately when athletes, especially Black Americans, “violate team rules,” it is usually headline news that they got into a scuffle, domestic dispute, etc.

Buck Burnette is only a backup center, so it might have been easier to kick him off the Texas Longhorns team than to try to delve into a discussion of race in order to explain why one of their players was dismissed for a racist act.

This is debatable. Silence or avoidance of difficult racial conflicts must be doused with great display, anything less only allow these fires to fester and reignite later-even in sporting arenas.

Thabiti Lewis teaches English at Washington State University Vancouver. He is the author of the forthcoming book, Ballers of the New School (Third World Press, 2009).

What is clear is that Thomas, the Allen Iverson of my generation, known for his heart, toughness, and incredible skill, has endured a very difficult year. In fact, the last four years have been rough for a man deeply in love with the game of basketball.

Like any scorned lover, Thomas has probably had a rough time trying to rest his mind long enough to figure out how it all went so wrong. He is trying to figure out how after three decades of success, basketball-which rescued him from one the poorest and most dangerous neighborhoods of the Westside of Chicago-has suddenly failed him so miserably.

Basketball helped him to secure a scholarship to St. Mary’s high school in Chicago and another scholarship to Indiana University. That led to an NCAA championship, two NBA championships, two All-Star game MVP kudos, and the honor of being selected of the fifty greatest players in NBA history, as well as all the fame and fortune such accolades provide.

But since 2003, the man who loves the game has endured a rocky relationship with basketball.  Oddly enough, Donnie Walsh has been at the scene of both of his dismissals from NBA organizations.

The first time, Thomas was the coach of the Indiana Pacers and Walsh was the general manager. Once Larry Bird was hired as president, the organization-as per Walsh’s directive-fired Thomas, despite the fine job he had done transforming what was then a very young Pacers team.

The next time, the New York Knicks hired Walsh to get things back on track after Thomas had made a bit of a mess of the organization in his four and a half years at the helm. During Thomas’ run as team president, the Knicks failed miserably: a losing record, only one postseason appearance, and not even one playoff win.

In October 2007, former Madison Square Garden executive Anucha Browne Sanders won a sexual harassment case against Thomas and the Garden. At one point during the trial, Thomas infamously declared it less offensive for black men to call black women the B word than white men. (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ocb4MFkDiAY) In December, Sanders reportedly received an out-of-court settlement of $11.5 million.

So when the Knicks hired Walsh to replace Thomas as team president, his first order of business was to deal with Thomas. Instead of firing him again, Walsh reassigned Thomas to an ambiguous role of scout and consultant. In essence, his contract remained pretty good, basically paying him to get out of the way and assist the team as a talent scout.

While I am certain that Thomas is determined to resurface as an NBA general manager, his Knicks legacy has perhaps ended the likelihood of those aspirations.  It is unlikely he will be given the ball and asked to run the point for an NBA front office again.

To his credit, Thomas, who’s known for having a temper, kept his cool last year. Despite being bashed by the New York media, the chants during home games that he be fired, a woeful team, a sexual harassment lawsuit, his mother’s illness (resulting in a leg amputation), and his brother Preston’s stroke (suffered while visiting their sick mother in the hospital), there were no reports of him lashing out.

In time, I’m sure that Thomas will be fine. But, for now, like every scorned lover, he needs time to heal and regroup. Who wouldn’t? After such a stellar Hall of Fame love affair, from player to coach to executive, to have his one true love turn its back on him, Isiah Thomas is mending a broken heart.

Lewis is the author of the forthcoming Ballers of the New School: Race and Sports in America. He teaches English at Washington State University Vancouver.

Once again, he dishonors the legacy of sports pioneers like Jim Brown and Ernie Davis, who had to endure a lot more challenges than Jones or other contemporary black athletes.

Jones, who began his stellar career with the Tennessee Titans, only lasted five games with the Dallas Cowboys before imploding. This time, he got into a scuffle in an upscale hotel in downtown Dallas-despite having four bodyguards the Cowboys hired as part of the security detail assigned to be with him at all times, due to his troublesome history!

After watching the film The Express, which details Davis’ story as the first African-American Heisman Trophy winner, just one example of the racial mountain many non-white athletes have been forced to climb, the mention of Jones, who has been arrested six times and involved in 13 incidents requiring police intervention, sickens me.

Jones’s actions are indicative of a generation of athletes who have forgotten-or have chosen to ignore-the legacy of pride and purpose demonstrated by the likes of Davis, Brown, Arthur Ashe, Althea Gibson, and others. These people struggled with dignity on playing fields that were often tilted against them, which left scant room for ridiculous off-field antics like the kind that Jones has made a habit.

Those athletes did not only use sports as a means to advance their own career goals, but as a platform from which to force American society to acknowledge and alter racial bias.

Of course, the idea of America being a post-racial society certainly complicates the victories of the past and the continuing legacy of racism, especially alongside antics by athletes like Pacman.

In an interview in the New York Times Sports Magazine, Hall of Fame running back Jim Brown remarks that the political apathy of many contemporary athletes exists because: “They don’t study and read.” And when asked about the prevalence of racism today, he explains that, “The one thing that hasn’t changed is the belief in the Caucasian world that there is a slight superiority because of the color of their skin.”

Brown is correct. Racism’s history and legacy cannot be ignored. However, Pacman’s poor judgment makes it difficult to argue, even if it’s true that there are times he is unfairly singled out.

By contrast race was indisputably front and center the incident in Houston a few weeks ago when D.C. United goalkeeper Louis Crayton, who is Liberian, was told by a fan after a game, “You’re a monkey, go back to the jungle.”

Crayton, who spent the majority of his career in Switzerland, where such incidents are not uncommon, reportedly leapt over a barrier to confront the man before security restrained him. Although Crayton was surprised to have heard such comments in the American Major League Soccer, the incident speaks to the ongoing racial tensions too many contemporary athletes ignore, or refuse to publicly address.

The truth is that, despite the growing number of mega-millionaire black superstars in the major sports, America is not as post-race as it would like to believe.

Earlier this year in MLS, a Columbus fan shouted a racial epithet at New England’s Kheli Dube from Zimbabwe who is black. Similar incidents have occurred at NFL games, in Major League Baseball, and even the NBA. (Shall I remind you of Ron Artest or Vernon Maxwell incidents involving racist hecklers in the stands?).

So what is to be done to clean the bad stain of racism that refuses to go away in a post-race era?

More contemporary athletes should follow the lead of European soccer star Thierry Henry. A few years ago, irked by Spain coach Luis Aragones’ racist slur, Henry enlisted Nike and leading players around Europe (black and white) to help him launch the Europe-wide anti-racism campaign, ‘Stand Up Speak Up,’ which resulted in the sales of thousands of black and white interlocked wristbands for charity.

Henry says that while his campaign is not the answer, “doing nothing will certainly not change anything.” I agree. His campaign is a much-needed reminder that the fight against racism can only be won with action from everyone, superstar NFL cornerbacks included.

Unfortunately, the actions of society-changing role models-from pioneers like Jim Brown and Ernie Davis to their contemporary counterparts like Thierry Henry-get less media attention than those of fools like Pacman Jones.

The former use their fame on the field to draw attention to real issues. The latter’s antics off the field have drawn a swarm of police cruisers and will probably cost him the entire game.

Watch a video of Stand Up, Speak Up here:

Thabiti Lewis is the author of the forthcoming, Ballers of the New School (Third World Press) and teaches English at Washington State University Vancouver.

I didn’t want to believe that any of the students who I’m often surrounded by in the local coffee shop could be responsible for such a terrible and cowardly act. In the aftermath, I decided I would hit the ground, talk to students, campus personnel, anyone, to see for myself what’s really going on at George Fox.

To the casual observer, the cardboard image of Obama bearing a sign that read “Act Six Reject” and hanging from fish string outside Minthorn Hall on September 23^rd was simply another hate-filled incident directed at the Presidential candidate. But the knife cuts much deeper.

It turns out all the symbolic bloodshed is less about Obama and more about producing future versions of him. The angry message was directed at George Fox’s Act 6 Scholarship and Leadership Initiative, which provides full scholarships for economically qualifying entrants and helped the school achieve its most diverse freshman class at 25% students of color.

Ironically enough, the program gets its name from the sixth chapter of the New Testament’s Book of Acts, which speaks of helping those in need.

Though very embarrassed that the incident occurred on its campus, the university feels that initial media coverage-and subsequent lack of it-gave them a bad rap. So does Julian Johnson-Weiss, the Portland Area Director of Act 6. She feels that news outlets haven’t been duly covering George Fox’s efforts in dealing with the incident as much as they covered the incident itself.

She’s right. While the media jumped all over the story, little to no reporting has been done about George Fox’s response beyond coverage of the school’s public statement. For those seeking more information, the university’s webpage includes a link that answers questions about the incident.

It documents the events from September 23^rd to the present, including the Public statement by university President Robin Baker and the apology letter to Senator Obama, as well as upcoming events.

But what’s not being said by anyone is that the situation mirrors the right wing’s “white-lash” against affirmative action and diversity progress in America. Not only is it a microcosm of a larger, uglier problem, it also contradicts what our country is supposed to stand for, as well as George Fox’s stated mission.

“We will not let something like this-that brought $1.7 million to George Fox to bring 10 students each year for 5 years-be destroyed,” says Johnson-Weiss.

Indeed, George Fox and its community are standing their ground. The scholars in the program, who endure 9 months of workshops with community leaders and training in reconciliation and dialogue prior to enrolling, have seized the moment to turn this incident into a catalyst for change.

Jael Chambers, an Act 6 sophomore from Los Angeles majoring in Youth Ministry, says he’s happy with what the university is doing and professes his affinity for the Newberg community at large. The actions of the president and faculty, as well as his white peers, convinced him that Act 6 students are not only welcomed, they’re also loved.

The incident sparked conversations that have evolved into many “Talk Back” sessions. “The Talk Back programs have occurred with administrators, professors, and the student body to discuss different views of racism,” says Jael. “They’ve helped us to understand different cultures.”

Beyond talking, George Fox student body president Joey Bianco has organized people-students and others-to wear dark blue shirts and gather to pray outside Bellman Chapel. To date, there have been many prayer sessions and a huge demonstration is forthcoming.

To demonstrate solidarity in a long-term, visible way, the students have been compiling “I Am” posters. “The goal,” Jael explains, “is to show we are all one body. The ‘I Am’ poster will hang outside the windows of [student activities center] Bruins Den for everyone to see.”

While he can’t speak for everyone, Jael remains confident that the university’s response signals a change for the better. He’s adamant that what happened last week does not represent the George Fox he knows.

“The university’s current actions make clear that George Fox really wants people of color in the school and wants whites to understand that,” he says.

Let’s hope he’s correct that the uncomfortable conversations taking place and symbolic acts of solidarity can foster better understanding for George Fox students, as individuals and as representatives of different ethnicities and cultures and future leaders of our communities.

Let’s also hope these positive efforts of many can outweigh the hateful and regressive acts of a few.

Unfortunately, as has happened countless times when sensationalism wins out over good reporting, the mainstream media will not cover these acts of strength and unity against racial terror as much as they covered the cowardly act that sparked it all in the first place.