OT New NFL Kneeling Rule

So how do you propose we change the minds of racist people? Do you think it's possible on a large scale?

 

Sorry to sicken your stomach but I'm an unabashed Christian. This means being nice to others. So, I really don't mean to offend even if I do. Any offense is not consciously intended.

My problem is dealing with trolls which we do not seem to have in here. In this case I would be referring to Laker Lanny whom you undoubtedly have never heard of and JetBlack who used to infest O-Live's Blazer forum quite a while ago. These were almost professional trolls whom I had trouble dealing with.

If I'm wearing my religion on my sleeve, well, I shouldn't. I shouldn't wear my religion on my sleeve 'cause it can hurt my cause rather than help it. I don't want to be counter productive. This being said, I can't hide who I am and I have every right to express my opinion as long as I don't insist on others seeing it my way. Of course, there are basic tenants that anyone would expect of another but nothing special or out of the ordinary.

 

Well said.

 

Bingo. Not all coins are quarters, but all quarters are coins.

 

We've been doing it since the end of the 50s. I remember when the future governor of Georgia owned a restaurant and a next door hardware store. When some African-Americans threatened to enter his restaurant to order a sit down meal when they had previously been restricted to getting a sack meal handed to them at the back door, this future governor told his white patrons to go next door pick up a pick ax handle made out of hardwood and use it on them thar 'N'ers who tried to enter. Later that year he won the office of governor in Georgia. This all took place in Atlanta, my birthplace. I know a thing or two about that struggle.

I'd like to add my father's stories about Alabama, his birth place, and all the hangings of uppity 'N'ers there.

In the 60s and even into the 70s you could not find a white jury that would convict a white man for an atrocity of an African-American, even a young one in the deep South.

 

Even though I lean right in a lot of the ways I think, I have a hard time supporting any politician no matter the side they claim to represent.
I don't know how anyone can look at most of our politicians and think they are working to help us out, no matter our skin color, or world-views. They might be working for our votes so they can continue to make laws to make them and their buddies money, but they don't seem to want or care if I succeed, if my kids succeed, if my neighbors, succeed.
They're in it for themselves. Anyways this isn't all that relevant to the this discussion. I just hope that one day all of us can feel safe in our skin, we can feel like were judged based on the merits of our actions rather than how we look on the outside.
If that means I or my kids lose a job or a promotion or whatever because someone of color worked harder than we did then GOOD they deserved it.
In terms of kneeling during a song, if that's what it takes to get people to discuss our differences, to see the issues we have in our police force then GOOD, we need to look at it. Still kind of annoys me that somehow this became about the military, and kneeling during the anthem being anti-american, was never about that.

 

Just stop... Stop this line of bullshit.

Everybody knows those Dixiecrats became Republican after civil rights passed.

So please stop parroting some talking point somebody lied to you about and do some research.

 

Bullshit. Many of the most racist people I've seen in the 21st century are liberal SJW types. The far left just refuses to acknowledge that. Racism is a sickness of the mind that goes hand in hand with extremist political opinions, both left and right. Has nothing to do with which party you support. There are hundreds of thousands of idiotic bigoted hacks on both sides and that's part of why we are failing as a country.

 

Sorry, but "racist" and "social justice" are mutually exclusive. I have no doubt there are many militant, angry, hateful, and even bigoted liberals. And certainly many liberals still struggle to overcome the institutional racism they've been indoctrinated with since birth. But there's a world of difference between them and the actively racist conservatives who don't want to make any attempt to change, who want to silence people of color, and institute very UN-AMERICAN laws, rules, and social mores in order to preserve their ill-claimed social dominance.

 

You know you hate Aminu cuz he's black!!!

No JK.

EPIC post.

 

And that's why they're failing and we have Trump in the White House right now, because there really isn't a difference at all and because those types fail to see that two wrongs don't make a right. They have the same fundamental errors in their logic as the stereotypical "peckerwood" Republicans. Identity politics are a sham no matter who is being catered to/villified. It's sad that so many "progressive" people fail to understand that.

 

People seem to forget that Kaepernick was originally sitting during the Anthem. Not kneeling. It was after a one on one conversation with ex Green Beret and NFL long snapper, Nate Boyers, that Kaepernick started kneeling instead of sitting. Nate suggested it was a more respectful gesture. Kaepernick took his advice. What a dick.

 

Epic

 

Yeah, if you want freedom of speech and freedom of expression, go somewhere where you really can have it ... we don't want you in the land of the free ...

Idiocracy ...

 

First off, identity politics are NOT a sham or a problem - it's all about equal rights for everyone.
With that said, please do not take my disparaging remarks of republicans as an endorsement of democrats. While I do believe they are the lesser of two evils, I do not find them to be good or useful politicians (with few exceptions...as there are with republicans). I had hoped that the election of Trump was the beginning of the dismantling of our two-party system. But with the way republicans have fallen into lock-step with him, I no longer have much hope that anything is going to change.

 

But isn't the problem oppression and those being in a position to oppress while others are just fighting tooth and nail to get a fair deal? I mean, to me, this just sounds like another variation of the argument that the little guy is keeping the man down.

Where I will kind of agree with you is this: Minority groups need to better recognize and express that when one of them is oppressed, all of us are oppressed. Every single one of us probably identified with a group that is or could be targeted simply for its characteristics regardless of its character. Blacks need to stand up for women's rights. Muslims need to identify with those being judged simply on their age. Asians need to support LGBT causes and Americans with physical, mental or emotional disadvantages. And vice versa, etc.

That's how you stop bigotry and prejudice, IMO. You create a bigger tent where ALL of these groups realize they have a common cause. Harder to divide and conquer or to obfuscate when you have more voices to keep the argument on topic.

 

In my experience, identity politics in this day and age generally seek to divide and be as ostentatious as possible while serving more as partisan dog whistles for election campaigns than anything else. It's an easy talking point for a politician looking to pander for votes, be it Democrats with inner city blacks or Republicans with rural whites. And once they're in office it quickly goes back out the window. A vast majority of people in this country share the same problems, namely economical, and it's just a shame that some seek to drive a wedge further between them for what are usually purely superficial BS reasons.

As far as uprooting oppression, I'm all for identifying key issues and working to make tangible changes towards improving them i.e. with something legislative. The problem I see today is that many of the fervently political people on both sides don't seem remotely interested in doing that. It's pretty easy to just lament something that you don't like. It's much more difficult to come up with an an answer or two. People would rather complain and reduce everything with these complex issues to false dichotomies (often minority versus white or rich versus poor) than use their brains and actually point to tangible solutions. It's sad that in the information age, actual research on issues seems to be derided more than ever while reactionarism is somehow lauded. It's a big part of why the current bozo-in-chief got to be where he is.