I dont get why people just talk about how much Josh has made in his career. As if he lives now in an ethnic-absorbed environment. As an Afro-American millionaire, do you have to cut all ties to other Afro-Americans with lower paychecks? You somehow dont know what racism is about because only the needy Afro-American people experience racism.....?
Does Cuban i.e. the western civilization (lol) pay him and other Afro-Americans to shut up?
Of course not.
People are acting as if they know Josh personally. People
dont know anything about him but his basketball skills or lack of in certain situations. We know he does drugs in the off season but that doesnt make him a worse human being. This youtube-clip just shows him 4 sec IIRC and he mentions race, the star-spangled banner and Obama, isnt it obvious he had a political debate with others? I mean for what we know about the circumstances this could just be a quote that resulted in the middle or after a heated debate and people take it as a well thought out political statement.
Mark made his point. Read in this thread all the emails that got send to him and decide if racism is not a serious and current issue:
viewtopic.php?f=6&t=839441Just less than 65 years ago the Nazis chased Jews worldwide (i know its "cheesy" but really, just 65 years) and it only happened so many years ago that Afro-Americans were prohibited to participate in higher sport leagues in the USA.
This is worthy of a debate everytime and everywhere.With that in mind how is it possible to condemn Josh's quote? Because of respect for a symbol?
What i got out of these threads is that the usual American values the national anthem representing their patriotism higher than a debate about latent racism in todays and past America. And with that we are right in the middle of recent discussions of fundamental muslims who claim that the Mohammed caricatures are disrespecting all Muslims and thus are wrong and have to be condemned
over the right of freedom of media. We are right there when plays in the theater get canceled because they disrespect the believes of others, when musicals get canceled because of content.
Bear this in mind when you read the next outbreak in the medias. Im very sure everyone of you guys who shouts for Josh's head now was like "wtf", the freedom of media is what we, our nation, has fought for in the past and present and this freedom, either in the media, arts, or individual and so on, is one of the major columnes that makes this nation so great.
Where do we draw the line? Where does respect border to freedom? Where does respect block reformation? Where has respect become a mere blind obedience? Where does respect corrupt democratic values?
Everyone has to decide this on their own but notice you have to do this many times in this current world. Josh has probably thought right about this and decided that respect for a symbol is not more important than to demand a further discussion about racism because to him this is a very serious issue. He demanded that through the right of freedom of speech, because
this is why freedom of speech was implemented in the American system to begin with. Reformation. Thats not idiotic at all, maybe tasteless/classless/disrespectful in this case, but i'm too much of a believer in democratic systems that i will call him an idiot for living democracy.
To me there is no right or wrong in this. You either like it or not. But it is not
wrong per se to disrespect a symbol in a
symbolic act to raise conscience for latent racism in the American society and the world.
