We're not, you refuse to see why your comparison is asinine and patronizing to boot.
To be honest, I'm not a fan of trying to compare hardships. It's insensitive as all hell. Just show some empathy and continue the discussion. It's like when someone commits suicide and people go straight to the, "well I was depressed one day, and didn't kill myself," nonsense. Hell, that should be even more cause for understanding.
For any system to change, it's going to take more than, "don't get offended," to get it done. Plenty of material to read, watch, and listen too in 2014, to help enact that. People just don't want to be labled (irony) and would rather sweep it under the rug.
This is also what happens when you don't check older heads, because they lived longer.
I never meant it in that way. It wasn't in a "Well, I did it. So can he." way. It was hardships exist. There are ways to fix them. I was lucky to have an easy avenue to fix them. He may not have. He didn't fix them correctly. It sucks.
Right. Attack those evil forces. So smart was supposed to mention this fans disgusting choice of words during the post game press conference? I dont even think he could have gotten the fan removed from the game. How i feel more and more each day is honestly a sports boycott by black players. But itll never happen. That is as non violent as they come but i dont think it is a possibility.
I like to think it can someday. But oh well.
Yeah. Unlike high school where they're forced to take things like bullying very seriously, unfortunately there aren't as many safeguards to racism in regular society.
Especially when it comes to "name calling", which is what nigger usually falls under, where it's mostly just hearsay.
And unlike with your case there's really not much confusion when someone calls you nigger. You can move away to a place no one knows you and reinvent yourself after high school if you were bullied for being a nerd or something, but I mean no matter where you go in the US black is black.
That's very unfortuante, and I don't understand what that's like. I would say we should try to change that but I've been told that's naive
I think what most people,myself included, had a problem with was not what you were saying. but how you were saying it.
because you're right, the non-violent approach is always the preferable method, but I don't think that makes reactions like Smart's so irredeemable. Which is how you came off. That the player was absolutely wrong for reacting that way.
From my experience when it comes to situations like the one in the other thread, people are quick to punish and condemn the retaliatory party and not the instigating one. and your post kind of came off in line with that. To paraphrase, society kind of tells us "Saying nigger is bad, but pushing someone is unacceptable" and quite frankly to me and others in this thread that's bullshit.
That is bullshit, and as I had said in the thread many times he should have been ejected even in the past if he had a history of it. Eject all the shitheels. I do believe it won't take long to make a lot of that insult stuff end after a few rounds of tough security and escorting out.
I apologize if I came off as overly harsh on Smart, the conversation was largely focused on him. There were two wrongs and the thread was, unfairly, focused on the younger, hot headed one.
I think it was the absolute black and white dichotomy in which you framed your argument that bothered most of us here. It just demonstrated a lack of empathy for how the word makes black people feel. That they should just shrug it off and take the high road and if they don't they're wrong for it.
I'm not asking you to compromise your world view and say that violence is acceptable or ok, but just understand why an individual would react that way and that it doesn't make them a bad person under certain circumstances.
because I can't stress enough that being called a nigger can't be understood through the reference point of being bullied for playing magic cards at lunch, and as a result the same expectations can't be placed upon both sets of circumstances equally.
Once again I'm sorry if I came off that way. As I said I, and I believe most in that thread, understood why he did behave in that way.
When I said that 'it didn't matter what was said, he shouldn't have pushed him', I wasn't saying that words weren't hurtful, or I wasn't understanding why he might take so much offense to them.
People shouldn't say mean or hurtful things, I think that goes without saying.
Agreed.
What's so hard about showing sympathy? No one's asking anyone to get on their knees and shit, just offer some support for Christ's sake.
I do offer him support. I wish him the best in life. I wish he would have made a better choice right then and there in that position. It sucks he has to put up with what he does.
