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“A balm for the soul”
  review on Goodreads
GOOD PEOPLE Book
upworthy

Penn Collins

Searching for a job, especially as an 18 year-old with little or no experience, is a daunting process under the very best of circumstances.

Unfortunately for Megan Dixon of Leicester, UK, the cruel response she got after one interview left her shaken, then frustrated.

Dixon sat for an interview at Miller and Carter Steakhouse to hopefully join the restaurant as a server. According to Mashable, Dixon was told the assistant manager with whom she spoke would get back to her in a few day's time.


However, not one minute after leaving the interview, she received the following text from that person:

Image via The Sun

The snide messages clearly mock her speaking patterns and offers the completely subjective and pejorative characterization that Dixon came across as “basic" in the meeting, which seems unprofessional, at best.

According to The Sun, a restaurant spokesperson claims that the restaurant intended the message to be sent internally to the establishment's manager, offering, “We can't apologise enough to Megan."

Conveying it was more the principle of their response than its mean-spirited tone, Megan responded: “Maybe because I'm 18 she thinks it's OK not to be professional with me? I don't know."

“I was shocked. The least she should have given me was some proper feedback."

A word of warning to any prospective employers thinking they can get away with rude or dismissive behavior to someone just because they're young and / or female — don't. They know how to fight back.

This story was originally appeared on GOOD.

As the pioneer and historical face of desegregation in sports, Jackie Robinson experienced taunts and death threats at every point of his Major League career as the first black player admitted to the league.

His bravery and persistence in the name of equal rights have been well-documented and honored not just in baseball history, but in the larger context of the struggle to end the disparate treatment of black citizens endemic to American institutions.

But Robinson’s success, in no slight to his considerable achievement, came as the result of the road paved by many less-celebrated predecessors, who, through their careers in the Negro Leagues, brought a resolve and speed to the game unmatched by their Major League counterparts.


In the shadow of Jackie Robinson’s legacy are the efforts of Andrew “Rube” Foster, who was inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1981, having earned the title of “the father of black baseball.”

[rebelmouse-image 19346313 dam="1" original_size="640x408" caption="Foster scoring a hit. Photo via digboston/Flickr." expand=1]Foster scoring a hit. Photo via digboston/Flickr.

Known to few modern-day baseball fans, Foster sought to ensure that black players were given the due attention and compensation they had long been denied in “separate but equal” America.

No individual before Foster or since has been as instrumental in legitimizing black baseball both internally and in the eyes of the fans and media. His achievements, though largely disregarded at the time, were integral in eventually affording all black players the right to play in the Major League.

For example, Foster quietly broke a baseball color barrier almost four decades prior to Jackie Robinson, playing with a semi-pro mixed-race squad out of Otsego, Michigan. Most notably, Foster served as the star pitcher for the Philadelphia X-Giants, pitching four of the team’s five wins in a contest dubbed the “colored championship of the world” in 1903.

In his era and in the decades following, Foster’s success on the mound was virtually unmatched. For instance, the current MLB record for most consecutive wins by a pitcher stands at 24 by the New York Giants’ Car Hubbell, whose streak ended on May 31,1937.

Foster won 44 games in a row three decades prior in 1902.

But as compelling as Foster’s accomplishments on the diamond were, it was his contributions to the game after his playing days that continue to endure almost a century later.

[rebelmouse-image 19346314 dam="1" original_size="286x338" caption="Photo by J.E. Mille[r], Kansas City/Wikimedia Commons." expand=1]Photo by J.E. Mille[r], Kansas City/Wikimedia Commons.

Foster’s goal was simple: Turn the largely overlooked black baseball leagues into a legitimate, respectable, and sustainable organization.

Before his involvement in league management, the black baseball leagues were deemed inferior — if they were considered at all. Yet Foster’s blueprint for a unified organization ushered in a new era that would prove crucial in eroding the Major League’s color barrier.

In 1911, a great step was taken toward legitimizing black baseball as Foster negotiated a partnership with the Comiskey family of Chicago to use the White Sox ballpark for his new team.  With a premiere venue and the team’s marketable aggressive style of play, the newly-formed Chicago American Giants skyrocketed in popularity, leading his once-marginalized club to draw more fans than the neighboring Cubs and White Sox.

Following the success of his own team, Foster immediately set his goal higher, aiming to help elevate all black players, not just those on his team.

[rebelmouse-image 19346315 dam="1" original_size="512x367" caption="Foster with a white player from Joliet, Illinois. Photo via Wikimedia Commons." expand=1]Foster with a white player from Joliet, Illinois. Photo via Wikimedia Commons.

In 1919, as his city of Chicago was embroiled in race riots, Foster felt a sense of urgency to unify black baseball players in one league. He wrote regularly in the Chicago Defender of the need for a league that would “create a profession that would equal the earning capacity of any other profession … keep Colored baseball from the control of whites [and] do something concrete for the loyalty of the Race.”

Gathering the owners of unaffiliated teams, Foster held a meeting at the Kansas City YMCA and shared his vision. The next year, on Feb. 13, 1920, the Negro National League was created, with Foster serving as both president and treasurer.

As other regions developed, they followed in Foster’s footsteps and established their own leagues for black players, serving as an economic boon not just for the players and front office, but for black communities as well.

Sadly, Foster’s oversight would prove to be short-lived as health issues forced him to step away from overseeing the burgeoning league he had created. But that didn’t end the progress he started.

[rebelmouse-image 19346316 dam="1" original_size="512x666" caption="Rube Foster plaque. Photo via Penale52/Wikimedia Commons." expand=1]Rube Foster plaque. Photo via Penale52/Wikimedia Commons.

Even though Negro Leagues shuttered due to the Great Depression and lack of leadership, many teams would return under the banner of the Negro American League in 1937. It was this organization that served as the springboard for Jackie Robinson to make his legendary inroads to Major League Baseball.

While Jackie Robinson remains a civil rights icon, desegregating baseball is an act that no one man can lay claim to. Rube Foster’s legacy may not be as well known as Robinson’s, but his efforts helped ensure equality not just for Jackie Robinson, but every black player who has played Major League baseball since.

No African country has ever competed in the bobsled at the Olympics, but that's going to change at the 2018 Winter Games in Pyeongchang.

Three former track athletes from Nigeria are taking the Olympic stage in another sport altogether, one they began training for as a team only two years ago. Their road to Olympic glory will pit the athletes against more established teams from North America, Europe, and Asia — locales that all feature one element that Nigeria lacks: snow.

But the lack of winter conditions in their homeland is only one of many obstacles that the team has faced — and overcome — in just two years of existence.In their successful run-up to the Games, the team had very little external help in handling the logistics of creating and funding an Olympic team — they did it all by themselves.


In September 2016, Seun Adigun, a 2012 Olympic hurdler for Nigeria, invited runners Ngozi Onwumere and Akuoma Omeoga to join her bobsled team.

They were intrigued but knew next to nothing about the sport. Omeoga later joked about the meeting, "She kidnapped us. That's the story."

But after listening to  Adigun's pitch, Omeoga and Onwumere agreed to join as the brake-women for the team's sled. A team suddenly intact, the meeting ended with a declaration from Adigun on behalf of the nascent squad:

"Today we have decided that we are going to qualify for the 2018 Winter Olympic Games," she said.

Adigun was the only member with any bobsled experience, having trained with the U.S. team just eight months after watching her first race in 2014.

But even though the others were new to the sport, their previous pedigrees served as a vital asset. Historically, track athletes have enjoyed success in the transition to bobsled teams, but they have done so under far better circumstances than the Nigerian team. The team was, quite literally, nothing more than an idea at that early point — lacking funding, knowledge, and even a cohesive strategy as to how they would qualify for the game in a scant two years' time. And they were also missing an actual bobsled.

But Adigun, in what would be one of many instances of resourcefulness, took the matter into her own hands, building a sled from a local hardware store's scraps. Adigun named the ramshackle sled "Maeflower," the variant spelling a tribute to her stepsister, nicknamed Maemae, who died in a car wreck in 2009.

But as  the qualification deadlines loomed, the team still didn't have any money.

That's why two months after the team's creation, Adigun established a GoFundMe campaign to raise the money to travel, train, and compete in a manner comparable to their rivals. Fortunately, the inspiring story of the team's inception and goal buoyed their campaign. The team succeeded in raising $75,000 from strangers, $50,000 of which came from a single anonymous donor.

In addition to their GoFundMe, the athletes sought out funds from friends and family to cover the balance of their training expenses. They "started from zero," according to Akuoma Omeoga.

With yet another issue solved — or at least "managed" — it was time for the team to begin racing.

Over the next 14 months, the Nigerian bobsled team began to coalesce by following races in Park City, Whistler, and Calgary. And after competing in five races, they qualified for the Olympics.

Can't wait to see these ladies in action #nigerianbobsledteam

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Thanks to their ingenuity and perseverance, they have became the team to watch in Pyeongchang.

"We are this Cinderella story, and we didn't really mean it to be this," Adigun told The New York Times. "It comes with a lot more pressure, but I'm not thinking about it that way. I put a plan down, and I am ready to execute that plan."

That plan won't just serve the Nigerian bobsled team. Their approach is an inspiration for any subsequent Olympic hopefuls looking to blaze their nation's trail to the biggest sporting event in the world. To compete at an Olympic level, an emergent team must contend with far more than just the athletic aspect of competition, and those challenges often require out-of-the-box thinking, just like the Nigerian team has demonstrated countless times over.

The Nigerian bobsled team's saga proves to the world, especially aspirational children who may be watching a sport for the first time, that those obstacles, much like the athletic ones, can be overcome as long as a team keeps pushing forward to both plan and prepare for everything that comes its way.

These days, anyone with a relationship to Donald Trump — personal or professional, good or bad — is probably treating social media like a minefield.

Not only are those near him subject to criticisms, but also jokes or even pleas to let reason prevail during this tumultuous time.

Donald Trump Jr. got all three when he decided recently to follow comedic actor Seth Rogen on Twitter.


Rogen was quick to notice his prominent new follower, and the Canadian-born U.S. resident wasn’t about to let this direct line to the president slip through his fingers.

So he reached out in a tweet that’s so in keeping with his on-screen persona that you might as well read it in his voice:

"Hey bro, quick Q..."

Subsequently, Rogen — realizing that perhaps a message of this gravity couldn’t be encapsulated in 140 characters — reached out to Trump Jr. with a direct message, both clarifying and reiterating his request:

"Do me a solid, Broseph..."

Despite not receiving a response from the president’s son (or not sharing one if he did), Rogen then took things a step further, offering unsolicited advice on matters of policy and personnel in the Trump administration:

Let’s all hold out hope for a response, then a dialogue, then the announcement of Seth Rogen as a special advisor to the president.