OT: NBA & Celtics Speak Out Against Racism; George Floyd Thread (Non-Political)

[Parliament10]

As much as we can, let's keep this Thread, Non-Political.
Try to keep it on Equality, and/or Against Racism.
Otherwise, we'll have to Lock it.

~ Parl



https://www.nba.com/article/2020/05/31/nba-teams-respond-tragic-death-george-floyd

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Enes Kanter, Vincent Poirier join Celtics' Marcus Smart at Boston protest
By Darren Hartwell | June 01, 2020

https://www.nbcsports.com/boston/celtics/enes-kanter-vincent-poirier-join-celtics-marcus-smart-boston-protest

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[31to6]

Great — and not surprising — to see some of our guys showing up for justice.

It would be *awesome* if racism weren’t political, but Parl I think you can predict how this thread’ll look in 24 hours. I mean, do you really need the posters who you know are going to come and say certain things to come in and say certain things? (Including me, totally predictable I’d say that:)

[Floody100]

Overlooking it here from Australia & must say I’m very impressed with not only the players but a majority of the nation that want change.
Just a shame that a lot of clowns (cough cough Antifa) has to ruin it with the riots, vandalism, property damage & looting. Theirs a special place in Hell for people like George Soros !
All in all I really hope to see the peaceful protests continue as I really do believe they will make a change.

[big-shot-ROB]

Peaceful protests haven not changed a thing at any point in history. I'm not saying I support people rioting against local businesses, but if you only do marching demonstrations on the street, things are going to keep being **** up.

In a system where money is the center, either you choke it or the people in charge of making the decisions are just going to ignore you.

(I am not an american citizen, fyi)

[big-shot-ROB]

Anyway, it's good to see our young guys stand up for things like this, I gladly appreciated Jaylen verbalizing how being on such a positions doesn't exclude him from speaking out, rather it should be encouraged that people with his influence talk about things like this.

The "focus on basketball, we don't need your opinion on social matters" argument I have always thought is crap. These are young man with their ideas, their moral and should be able to stand up for what they belive in.

Kanter has been so vocal about what's going on in his home country he isn't even allowed to return.

Just glad we have players that involve themselves in social matters and sad we needed a video of a freaking cop kneeling over the neck of someone to react.

[Slax]

Peaceful protests haven not changed a thing at any point in history.

I think that depends on what you mean by "peaceful", but certainly nonviolent protests have occasionally resulted in important social or political changes. For example, in the US, the Voting Rights Act was passed in 1965 as a direct consequence of nonviolent protests in Selma and Montgomery. (I know we're not supposed to talk politics, but I'm assuming a pretty factual take on 55-year-old history should be ok - if not feel free to delete my post.)

[Parliament10]

Peaceful protests haven not changed a thing at any point in history.

I think that depends on what you mean by "peaceful", but certainly nonviolent protests have occasionally resulted in important social or political changes. For example, in the US, the Voting Rights Act was passed in 1965 as a direct consequence of nonviolent protests in Selma and Montgomery. (I know we're not supposed to talk politics, but I'm assuming a pretty factual take on 55-year-old history should be ok - if not feel free to delete my post.)

This is OK. We just don't want to get into the Republican vs Democrat stuff. It never works out, when we do.

[captain green]

As much as I want to stay away from politics it is connected regardless. When you look the other way for so long this is what you get. A hairdresser has more training than as police officer difference is when a barber cuts you he or she is liable but if a cop hurts you there is no accountability. I'll say this the current so called leader isnt any good and sprayed gasoline all overy the fire. People had no relief from sports bars, movies, for almost 3 months that and pent up rage = tryant kings gets there castles sacked.
Same as it was then now in 2020 where we promised floating cars we got white supremacy folks rising up. My grandfather fought these **** my mom and dad army I was air force and damn the fact that we fought against this shot but it's on our soil. Soil I share with all kinds of people. maybe it was my upbringing or the military but we don't see color I see humans.
And I cannot understand racists rapists and child molesters at all. There is no easy fix except to bring hate crimes to highest order of punishment. There are to many of those rats in barns all across the world let's oust those guys 1st.

[djFan71]

Ben & Jerry's actually had a really good post.
https://www.benjerry.com/about-us/media-center/dismantle-white-supremacy?fbclid=IwAR0wIuZJouK-8WxZ-in2UKkgLqkaHYMS1S-tDyzSHMfCd7Vw7v8m14HA0rQ

[threrf23]

We live in a country where, relatively speaking, public officials are rarely held accountable for their actions IMO. And if they are held accountable, it is usually in the form of bad press, a lost job, and/or fallout from a civil suit...whereas if they were treated like everyday citizens, they would often be facing large jail sentences.

If we are talking police brutality, IMO the problem isn't the relatively small percentage of cops who murder citizens, harass masses, and enact racist agendas. The problem is the system that enables, supports, and defends that small percentage of officers more often than not, and then has the gall to try and defend themselves and antagonize opponents when they are accused of such a thing. This effects all races, even if minorities and poor folk tend to be more affected for various reasons.

This whole George Floyd situation is perhaps a good reminder of all this, if not also a painful reminder for many. And what happened is well documented, so it's an opportunity to prove a point. But in the grand scheme, and in the bigger picture, nothing has really changed. This is not a new issue. In principle, there is little if anything that should be done today that should not have also been done yesterday. Either people should have also been doing it yesterday, or they should not be doing it today.

Now I'm white, and came from a middle class neighborhood. I am not as affected by systemic injustice as others are. I also understand that many others are less aloof, more emotional, and more extroverted than I am. Especially given the state of the country and world at the moment, I am in no position to judge anybody that might be letting their emotions get the better of them at the moment, nor can I necessarily judge whether they are letting their emotions get the better of them.

But many people are letting their emotions get the better of them, at least to some effect. And others making scenes, causing trouble, and buying influence have agendas that have nothing to do with social justice. Combined with everything else that's been going on, it makes me want to retreat from this world for a bit (and from this sort of discussion, so I'll probably be bowing out of this thread).

If we are talking protests, it should be mentioned IMO that we're still, supposedly, in the midst of a pandemic. If we aren't all immune, if Covid isn't seasonal, there will be related fall out from the large gatherings for protest that we've been seeing. Masks only do so much, maybe they are much more effective than I (and others) realize, but generally they are recommended where social distancing is not an option, and not as a substitute for social distancing. Masks or no masks, people have to breathe in and breathe out, their breath has to go somewhere, and short of an n95 mask or something I'm pretty sure the virus can and will go anywhere air can go. Large, dense gatherings of people in the same location over long periods of time will cause spread.

Don't get me wrong, short of a cure Covid is here to stay, we all have to move on with life at some point, a prolonged shutdown is unrealistic. I'm just saying, though. It shouldn't suddenly be out of the conversation.

[Ed Pinkney]

Centuries of systemic racism, decades of a capitalist free-for-all that year in year out increases the gap between the haves and the have nots, a grotesque overly-militarised and poorly trained police force with almost non-existent accountability for their actions, a healthcare system that doesn't provide health or care to a huge percentage of those who it is supposed to serve, an ignorant, narcissistic, lazy, racist buffoon in the White House who does nothing but denigrate minorities and enrich and strengthen the wealthy top few percent, and a poorly managed global pandemic that disproportionately kills the poor and people of colour and led to 40 million lost jobs.

It's a complete mystery why this is all happening really, isn't it.

[CeltsfanSinceBirth]

We cannot discuss the topic of George Floyd, systemic racism, police brutality, etc without bringing politics into it. That is like having a game thread without being able to discuss the players. Until we are allowed, my only comment in this thread is this:

Kudos to our players, and all other athletes, celebrities, and others who are using their platform to speak out against police brutality and systemic racism.

[Parliament10]

We cannot discuss the topic of George Floyd, systemic racism, police brutality, etc without bringing politics into it. That is like having a game thread without being able to discuss the players. Until we are allowed, my only comment in this thread is this:

Kudos to our players, and all other athletes, celebrities, and others who are using their platform to speak out against police brutality and systemic racism.

That's not true.
Politics are largely Democrat vs Republican, in the U.S.

Racism, is totally different.
You can be either party, and still be racist, or either party and be non-racist.

[hugepatsfan]

It's a great thing what Brown and others are doing. There are real systemic issues in this country.

It annoys me when I see people try to write off racism by posting stats of black on white crime, showing that cops kill unarmed white men too, etc. Yes, a lot of the problems brought up exist even outside the context of racism. If you had a magic wand to rid the world of all racism there would still be police brutality. And that's not ok. We shouldn't just accept things like that as "the way it is".

But what people miss the point on is that these things affect black Americans DISPROPORTIONATELY to white Americans. Stop trying to "disprove" racism by saying as white Americans we experience the same types of mistreatments. Sure, we do. But we're not specifically targeted for those mistreatments because of our skin color.

At some point you just have to listen to people. If an entire race of people is telling you they feel unfairly treated then you should proably take a step back and listen. I'm not going to lie and say I don't think there aren't cases where someone might use racism as an "excuse" for something. But an entire race of people is not "the boy who cried wolf". This is a real issue and you're **** blind if you can't see it.

It's a shame that the violence and looting is going on as well. I can understand anger but it's clearly not safe to people and needs to be addressed. But it's also a shame of people who want to live in their bubble that racism doesn't exist can point to it as a sign that the cause isn't valid.

[bisme37]

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[ConstableGeneva]

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[Bleeding Green]

Peaceful protests haven not changed a thing at any point in history. I'm not saying I support people rioting against local businesses, but if you only do marching demonstrations on the street, things are going to keep being **** up.

In a system where money is the center, either you choke it or the people in charge of making the decisions are just going to ignore you.

(I am not an american citizen, fyi)

Yeah, zero chance anything changes without bloodshed. And the police have adopted the policy of 'beatings will continue until morale improves' so good luck maintaining peace when you have millions of people protesting across a country and an untrained, militarized gestapo policing it all. Hopefully change is swift; in 1968 when MLK was murdered, we had violent protests and a signed Civil Rights Act signed within a week.

[hugepatsfan]

Peaceful protests haven not changed a thing at any point in history. I'm not saying I support people rioting against local businesses, but if you only do marching demonstrations on the street, things are going to keep being **** up.

In a system where money is the center, either you choke it or the people in charge of making the decisions are just going to ignore you.

(I am not an american citizen, fyi)

Yeah, zero chance anything changes without bloodshed. And the police have adopted the policy of 'beatings will continue until morale improves' so good luck maintaining peace when you have millions of people protesting across a country and an untrained, militarized gestapo policing it all. Hopefully change is swift; in 1968 when MLK was murdered, we had violent protests and a signed Civil Rights Act signed within a week.

And it was never repealed, yet here we are. If the end goal here is to change a law or get a specific conviction that's sure to happen. At the end of the day though I feel like all these problems will keep happening unless people (not all) stop thinking that African Americans are violent and dangerous people in their nature. There's no law or policy that's gonna change the messed up way some people think. And let's be honest, for the people who do think that way, the riots are only going to reinforce in their minds that their line of thinking is right.

Not trying to be pessimistic but I don't think there's really any way to change the deep-rooted way people think. Peaceful won't work as we've seen and I doubt the real life enactment of the stereotype people hold will change it either. It's not like I'm giving a solution that's just the reality I see.

[Parliament10]

I was Born Black. I'll Die Black.
But I don't want Die,
Because I am Black

[ConstableGeneva]

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