The Difficulties of Having Racial Dialogues in America

Wait what?

Off to the google machine.

 

https://www.nytimes.com/2020/06/13/opinion/sunday/gregg-popovich-trump-nba-protests.html



“Especially if you’re a white coach and you’re coaching a group that’s largely black, you’d better gain their trust, you’d better be genuine, you’d better understand their situation,” he tells me. “You’d better understand where they grew up. Maybe there’s a black kid from a prep school. Maybe there’s another black kid who saw his first murder when he was 7 years old.”

But in recent calls with the Spurs’ players and staff he has been amazed at the level of hurt.

“It would bring you to tears,” he says, his voice cracking. “It’s even deeper than you thought, and that’s what really made me start to think: You’re a privileged son of a b**** and you still don’t get it as much as you think you do. You gotta work harder. You gotta be more aware. You gotta be pushed and embarrassed. You’ve gotta call it out.”

He tells of a recent Zoom town hall with Spurs employees. “A black mother said, ‘My son is angry with me.’ I said, ‘Why?’ and she said, ‘Well, because he’s 16 and I’m basically lying to him and dragging my feet and giving him excuses because I don’t want to take him down to the D.M.V. to get his driver’s license because I don’t want him in a car.’ So her own son is angry with her for that but doesn’t realize that she’s scared to death for him.”

I wonder if the former Air Force officer thinks the law-and-order militaristic approach can work for Cadet Bone Spurs in the campaign.

“I honestly do,” he says. “I feel badly for the military around Trump because they’re dealing with the guy who is the poster boy for the aggrieved wannabe. And he’s taking it out on the world and it’s ruining our country.”

About Trump’s refusal to consider renaming military installations named for Confederate leaders, Pop says of U.S. soldiers, “They didn’t go to war for General Bragg; they went to war for our country.”

About Roger Goodell’s mea culpa that the N.F.L. was wrong for not listening sooner to players who wanted to speak out and protest — an apologia he made without mentioning Colin Kaepernick’s name — Popovich is skeptical.

“A smart man is running the N.F.L. and he didn’t understand the difference between the flag and what makes the country great — all the people who fought to allow Kaepernick to have the right to kneel for justice,” he says. “The flag is irrelevant. It’s just a symbol that people glom onto for political reasons, just like Cheney back in the Iraq war.”

He continues about Goodell: “He got intimidated when Trump jumped on the kneeling” and “he folded.” Popovich says it is analogous to Republican lawmakers who support Trump out of fear “that they’ll get tweeted out of their office and not get elected the next go-round.” Don’t Tom Cotton and Lindsey Graham have people at home they are embarrassed to look in the eye, he ponders.

What does he think about the fact that seven N.F.L. owners, including Jerry Jones and Robert Kraft, each gave a million to Trump’s Inaugural Committee?

“It’s just hypocritical,” he replies. “It’s incongruent. It doesn’t make sense. People aren’t blind. Do you go to your staff and your players and talk about injustices and democracy and how to protest? I don’t get it. I think they put themselves in a position that’s untenable.”

When he trashed Trump soon after the election, the suits at the Spurs told him people were turning in their season tickets.

“I just said: ‘I don’t care. If they don’t come, I don’t care. That’s the way it is,’” he recalls. “From ownership, not one phone call, not one look, about dialing it back.”

Is he worried about starting to play again on July 30 at Disney World, with that other plague still on the loose?

He passes the ball to Adam Silver, the smooth N.B.A. commish.

“Ah, the Covid,” the coach murmurs. “I’m just counting on Adam to make sure we’re all safe.”

 

Remember the Dixie Chicks?

 

Skip was raised like the movie The Help.

 

We're such a tiny minority that we don't matter .... no one gives a damn to pander to us for our votes.


@JumpMan is correct , this is a completely one sided conversation.

Moderator ? What moderator ?!

Over on TexansTalk we have a whole team of moderators and do our best to keep the place civil.

 

It's amazing to me how many people think Jordan didn't play in the 95 playoffs

 

It’s extremely difficult for us to have honest discussions in this country because our school systems refuse to present the history as it happened. This leaves gaps in the historical record that get filled by nonsense.

I didn’t learn much about African American history until I took college courses specifically designed to teach that. The students who couldn’t take those courses missed out on that information. We really need to revamp our curriculum.

 

...yup.

...Maybe none of us can fix stupid (because "stupid" is a choice...not an affliction)...

...be we ought to be able to do a good sight better than encouraging it...

 

I took a military history class last year. When World War 1 was brought up, the textbook mentioned that no American units fought under foreign generals because the top American general wanted Americans fighting under the American flag. That sounds good and all, but it is utterly and completely false.

The history of the 369th Infantry regiment (aka The Harlem Hell fighters or The Men of Bronze) is well documented. This regiment was made of up African American /Afro Puerto Rican soldiers who volunteered to join and actively fought to see combat on the front lines. The French were desperate for reinforcements so the Americans loaned them the 369th because many White American soldiers refused to fight along side them.

The Harlem Hell fighters went on to spend more time in combat and control more territory than any other American unit. They never had a man captured or failed to hold an objective. The American government repaid their courage and dedication to duty by providing the French government with leaflets begging them to no treat the Hell FIghters equally because they would expect that back in America. They also warned the French government about the “rape tendencies” of black soldiers, even though there was absolutely zero evidence to this claim.

The 369th produced the first American to win France’s top military award at the time, the Croix de Guerre. His name was SGT Henry Johnson. His own government wouldn’t recognize his sacrifices until the 2000s.

All of these events happened over 100 years ago and have been well documented, yet they are omitted from the history books. The sacrifice and dedication of these men has been white washed. This happens a lot in the American school system.

 

I like Pop's stance a lot better than Skip's.

In the OP, I applaud Sharpe for an articulate and passionate statement, even if it oversimplifies things about as much as the old white narrative of "no really we fixed everything in the 1960s!" does. But I didn't see any dialogue, ironically. Skip didn't really respond, he just did what a lot of us white people do, going to their own "unique" origin story that shows how sympathetic and different they are versus the "actual racists" out there.

On the other hand, Pop is like, "damn, I thought I knew this terrain and I do not. I've got a lot to learn." Maybe I like Pop's take b/c I identify more with that, whereas I used to have a Skip-like origin story of growing up a minority white yadda yadda, lots of interesting childhood angles. But that doesn't give you a real clue, even if it helped get you started.

 

Well it’s the media and people especially here take it for the truth . Especially these sports talk shows which has millions of viewers

here is Shannon talking about Wilt Chamberlain
For which not many of us were alive to watch
And then dropped they Drexler never won a title (1995 Houston Rockets which everyone here better know or they should have their accounts removed)
Not narrative driven? Then when he was corrected the just dropped a ‘OH yeah’ like our championship was just nothing
Like Chappelle said ‘ why do I care what Ja Rule says?’

The original video
Great writing by the team of writers
I’ve attended the tnt show and they gave producers and writers telling kenny and Charles etc what they should discuss and Charles actually has notes

So don’t let the tv or YouTube fool you
All of this was discussed. Even stand up comedy people practice and write before a show . Its a show

@Reeko

 

I don’t care what my favorite comedian, actor
Or sports talk personality thinks To make my own opinion

thanks Dave for always pointed out how society cares too much about media

I especially don’t care what these two think

I can find a better discussion of race by Woody Harleson and Wesley snipes on white man can’t jump

All of this is written . Produced and timed.
How is that they can discuss this topic and never go over their time slot? Cause it’s been planned perfectly .
They are millionaires on a professional show

 

Sorry I’m not going trust Shannon sharpe even is he cries on camera

talking about wilt Chamberlain and then saying Drexler never won a title?
You remember the 60s but 1995 never happened ?
Shannon your writers should be fired

i’d rather hear race talk from 99ers

 

They're people we trust over time. I trust John Oliver to some extent but there are some bits where he tears down everyone and everything that it makes to hard for me not to think that he's oversimplifying their situations (or looks) to make a point.

With printed newspaper articles we used to be able to have that assumption of The Story in a neat little package. Now that Google has ruined most Americans ability to do real research of reading entire books, we all want bullet points of the original Story.

Glide's career is glossed over because he's not worth the time to look into. That's a Dream Teamer. What about the other All Star chumps that didn't win one while Jordan was around?

I doubt this will change. This forum for all of it's warts has a small group of people who are paying attention. We all say we want good responsible media but we aren't paying for it with our eyes and dollars.

Oliver/Noah/Minhaj are delivering info in a medium presentable to their intended audience but i can't say it's not dissimilar to the rage culture Fox News peddles. You might think your side is more accurate but no one is infallible or omniscient even if they try to be honest (and I'm not saying either example always want to)

It's really up to the individual to know the facts they care about and read different sources....aka research.

This is the Post Truth dilemma that the people will repeat until there's a culture to want better and to spend time and effort beyond a one minute burrito to get it.

 

I’m not going to trust people who disrespect the Rockets championships
I don’t care how compelling the topic is

my line is drawn

If your car battery is needing a jump and you are stuck in the desert and you disrespect Clutch City

bye

 

Shannon can talk about wilt chamberlain all day and not remember Clyde won a title ?

I don’t care is Shannon is talking about solving
World peace
Global warming
Famine
race

nothing

 

On a personal note, I have met with and spoken to Ann Snyder on a few occasions and she is a good and thoughtful conservative. And its good that the Board is finally acting on her multiple requests. And hopefully one day in the future the Board itself will reflect the importance of diversity...

Woodlands board to issue diversity statement, discuss policing policies

https://www.chron.com/neighborhood/...208.php?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=twitter

 

Another of trump/mojoman campaign themes... blown away...