"A Nation Divided, Sports United" ~ The Equality & Other Issues Thread

[Curmudgeon]

In the NFL, the pentagon paid a promotional fee to have the anthem played whiile the players were on the field. I'm not sure if the same thing happened in the NBA.

[Bostondave]

Anytime one of those guys shows up to grandstand they should take a knee looking right at them. Let them waste all that time and miss the game and leave.

[Curmudgeon]

Jerry Jones says that the the Cowboys aren't going to play if the opposing team demonstrates. Obviously all 53 guys on the opposing team should take a knee. I'd love to see the Cowboys forfeit the rest of the season over this issue-- and lose all of their good Black free agents to boot-- because these protests are not about disrespecting the country, they are about police violence against Black youth.

[Bostondave]

Ha! Please someone call him on that. That would be too rich for words!

[Ed Pinkney]

I don't know who this guys is (this tweet was liked by Kevin O'Connor who I follow) but it pretty much seems to sum it all up.

Read on Twitter

[GoCeltics123]

I don't know who this guys is (this tweet was liked by Kevin O'Connor who I follow) but it pretty much seems to sum it all up.

Read on Twitter

Couldn't have said it better to be honest

[Leprechaun18]

Everyone is a racist! Only hypocrits say they are not. Racism is based on ignorance. Peeps tend to fear the unknown. Once they know people of other races then they can relate to them better. I think sports like BBall can help reduce racism.

[sam_I_am]

I wasn't surprised to see Pence pull out early yesterday. That is his preferred birth control method too.

[ZeroTolerance]

I thought peeps were gonna keep politics off the board.

They gave us a thread - it’s been mostly civil.

This thread was and is the best decision ever made by the board....Today's world is so complex that politics finds it's way into everything....

No matter where you stand on issues, it's important that we all have a place to vent our frustrations and learn to understand opposing viewpoints...

if you are trying to avoid politics, you simply skip over this thread.

IMO it's better to have this thread than lose some good posters because they are socially conscious and feel the need to speak up....

I enjoy reading this thread and I've learned allot from it thus far....And it's good to know what's on people's minds...

[ZeroTolerance]

I wasn't surprised to see Pence pull out early yesterday. That is his preferred birth control method too.

Monkey see, monkey do...What else is new?

Pence seems to pretty much follow Trump around and he tries to clean up and somehow legitimize (for the Republican establishment) whatever Trump has on his mind...That was the whole purpose of Pence even being there....

I mean do you really think he even cared about the game?

This was just another publicity stunt... A way to keep Trump's base all wound up...

[celticfan42487]

Everyone is a racist! Only hypocrits say they are not. Racism is based on ignorance. Peeps tend to fear the unknown. Once they know people of other races then they can relate to them better. I think sports like BBall can help reduce racism.

While being able to relate to them better is true...this is not always an improvement, cultural differences are a thing. People don't suddenly accept other's cultures just because they understand them.

Hence politics and this exact debate. Both sides I'm sure can understand how the other interprets it, but people in response just become more solidified in their bias.

[Curmudgeon]

I don't believe for a moment that everyone is a racist. The current administration in power in Washington and a substantial chunk of their voter base are racist, and that makes the problem seem worse than it is.

[Andrew McCeltic]

Everyone is a racist! Only hypocrits say they are not. Racism is based on ignorance. Peeps tend to fear the unknown. Once they know people of other races then they can relate to them better. I think sports like BBall can help reduce racism.

While being able to relate to them better is true...this is not always an improvement, cultural differences are a thing. People don't suddenly accept other's cultures just because they understand them.

Hence politics and this exact debate. Both sides I'm sure can understand how the other interprets it, but people in response just become more solidified in their bias.

You don’t have to “accept” someone’s culture, you just have to respect it and coexist with it.

There’s plenty of common ground. And there’s historical precedent for differences subsiding into the background of common life and common sympathy - look how America has shifted in its attitudes toward Irish people, Italians, Germans, Catholics, who were all subjected to mass prejudice within the last 50-100 years.

[Andrew McCeltic]

I thought peeps were gonna keep politics off the board.

They gave us a thread - it’s been mostly civil.

This thread was and is the best decision ever made by the board....Today's world is so complex that politics finds it's way into everything....

No matter where you stand on issues, it's important that we all have a place to vent our frustrations and learn to understand opposing viewpoints...

if you are trying to avoid politics, you simply skip over this thread.

IMO it's better to have this thread than lose some good posters because they are socially conscious and feel the need to speak up....

I enjoy reading this thread and I've learned allot from it thus far....And it's good to know what's on people's minds...

Glad you like it.. if we can talk about things that seem like life and death to Celtics nation, we can talk about things that mean just as much to our actual nation. If we can’t do that, we’re in trouble. I still have a ton of faith in Anericans’ collective intelligence, flexibility, creativity and problem-solving skills. We’ve just been at a kind of psychological impasse..

[sully00]

Everyone is a racist! Only hypocrits say they are not. Racism is based on ignorance. Peeps tend to fear the unknown. Once they know people of other races then they can relate to them better. I think sports like BBall can help reduce racism.

No. Everyone has prejudices. They think they know something about someone or something based on what they have heard, learned or experienced. Racism is:

rac·ism
[ˈrāˌsizəm]
NOUN
prejudice, discrimination, or antagonism directed against someone of a different race based on the belief that one's own race is superior:
"a program to combat racism"
synonyms: racial discrimination · racialism · racial prejudice · xenophobia · chauvinism · bigotry · casteism
the belief that all members of each race possess characteristics or abilities specific to that race, especially so as to distinguish it as inferior or superior to another race or races.

Not everyone is racist.

[Parliament10]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black_Lives_Matter
Black Lives Matter (BLM) is an international activist movement, originating in the African-American community, that campaigns against violence and systemic racism towards black people. BLM regularly holds protests against police killings of black people and broader issues of racial profiling, police brutality, and racial inequality in the United States criminal justice system.[1]

In 2013, the movement began with the use of the hashtag #BlackLivesMatter on social media after the acquittal of George Zimmerman in the shooting death of African-American teen Trayvon Martin. Black Lives Matter became nationally recognized for its street demonstrations following the 2014 deaths of two African Americans: Michael Brown, resulting in protests and unrest in Ferguson, and Eric Garner in New York City.[2][3] Since the Ferguson protests, participants in the movement have demonstrated against the deaths of numerous other African Americans by police actions or while in police custody. In the summer of 2015, Black Lives Matter activists became involved in the 2016 United States presidential election.[4] The originators of the hashtag and call to action, Alicia Garza, Patrisse Cullors, and Opal Tometi, expanded their project into a national network of over 30 local chapters between 2014 and 2016.[5] The overall Black Lives Matter movement, however, is a decentralized network and has no formal hierarchy.[6]

Twitter Account for Black Lives Matter
https://twitter.com/blklivesmatter

Graphic Photo Collage Below. Shows Deceased Individuals.:

Spoiler:

[jmr07019]

I don't believe for a moment that everyone is a racist. The current administration in power in Washington and a substantial chunk of their voter base are racist, and that makes the problem seem worse than it is.

You are a bigot and no better than a racist.

[ermocrate]

Everyone is a racist! Only hypocrits say they are not. Racism is based on ignorance. Peeps tend to fear the unknown. Once they know people of other races then they can relate to them better. I think sports like BBall can help reduce racism.

Racism is based on ignorance
Not only, it's also based upon (lack of) intelligence, that's why I'm not racist, "racist" means you differentiate humans in "races", I really don't think there are, some human beings need to feel themselves included in a group that vastly dictates the way you have to live your life because in reality they don't even have a clue how to do it by themselves. Such groups are usually defined by multiple factors that are either cultural or envinomental, skin tone or biological structure are not really relevant, but while you can't guess the cultural background of a man watching a picture you can tell his form and color so the "racist" beaviour consist in mindlessly associate a shape or a color to a cultural or environmental background. There is something that makes those people live like the famous Pavlov's Dogs, to me they are worthless human beings, US culture of winning at all costs doesn't help the critical thinking tho.

[FlatearthZorro]

Honestly I saw that Jamele Hill was suspended cause of talking about politics again. No offense but Jamele is an absurdly bad sports journalist. She's always seemed kinda clueless to me. I have no idea how she was at ESPN in the first place. Has nothing to do with skin color, gender, she's just that awful and has always sounded entitled. No idea if it has been discussed.

[truth18]

Honestly I saw that Jamele Hill was suspended cause of talking about politics again. No offense but Jamele is an absurdly bad sports journalist. She's always seemed kinda clueless to me. I have no idea how she was at ESPN in the first place. Has nothing to do with skin color, gender, she's just that awful and has always sounded entitled. No idea if it has been discussed.

She's an awful journalist. Not sure what you mean about sounding entitled. That Michael Smith dude brought her up with him and he's pretty milquetoast as well.

Mike Dikta is a piece of ****. Just said that there has been no oppression in the country for one hundred years.

Complete idiocy. Read a book.