ballup wrote:redbeamer wrote:truth18 wrote:
I mentioned on here a few months back that I have a friend in Philly who regularly serves Reddick at one of Philly's premier restaurants.
He's a good tipper, but the guy is a straight up alcoholic who drinks multiple bottles of wine to the face plus shots throughout and then does it the next day again.
Dude probably has his neurons crossed in that video. My friend said that he's the worst regular alcoholic the restaurant has had in his time there (he's been there a few years now). I doubt his brain is in good shape and we'll probably hear some bad stuff about him down the road if he keeps at the bottle like that.
That's crazy and sad. It makes you wonder how many pro athletes have skeletons like that in their closet.
That being said, it doesn't make him a racist. Sure he slipped up and said something he shouldn't have. I just don't buy it that he had racist intent.
How many times has Charles Barkley made disparaging comments about white people on air? The sad part is he is or at least used to be married to a white woman. Yet no one calls him racist.
What about Chris Rock. I haven't watched him lately but his whole shtick used to be degrading whites.
Racism is not acceptable in any fashion but JJ is not a racist because of a slip in an interview.
Racism isn't black and white, it's a spectrum. I'll give you an example. My grandma demands I do not date outside of my ethnicity. Then there are other Asian parents who are only willing to allow interracial dating with White people. Now, what can't be said is both these people are equally racist.
JJ did not mean to use a slur and that's not what I'm accusing him of doing. What I'm saying is that he has used the slur enough in his lifetime to blurt it out. One does not use different sounding words (chahy-neez and chingk) without the two words having an association in their perspective. Does this mean JJ hates Chinese people? No, not necessarily. None of us can read his mind, but it doesn't mean I'm going to group JJ with the KKK or the Nazis.
And yes, people of all races can be racist and it is true White people get much more flak for racism than minorities when they shouldn't if we want to promote real equality. Charles Barkley himself even admitted Black people can be racist:
However, that doesn't mean Barkley isn't racist to a degree himself. I'm willing to bet Charles has made multiple racial comments in his life and I'd make the same bet for almost every single person on this planet.
Chris Rock's standup largely poked fun at Black people and Black culture. He definitely makes jokes at White people's expense, but that's not his main material. Rock had a joke about how as a Black person, there is more respect for time spent in jail than educational degrees and that was a part of a whole bit about ignorance among certain groups of Black people.
I think I can see where you are coming from and I like your spectrum analogy. The way I have always thought of it is all people have some degree of prejudice because it is difficult to understand the nuances of other cultures. The natural reaction when people do not understand other groups is to be critical and disassociate themselves.
On the other hand, my idea of racism is when a person acts on those prejudices. Whether it be through direct action, verbally, or indirectly as in the case you described above.
I do not think our way of thinking is as far apart as I originally thought and I respect the way you continued the dialog. I could have done better with my initial reply. I suppose my interpretation was that you thought JJ is some flaming racist and I wholeheartedly disagree with that. Thanks for helping me understand where you are coming from.
