I think it's kind of cool that he says something like this. I like people who can make somewhat self-deprecating jokes.
I do too. But I also agree that if a Republican made this sort of joke he'd be slimed for it. We'd hear about dog whistles and the non-Fox networks would all get an expert on to tell us the history of pseudosciences employed by racists in America to explain black athleticism, etc. Anyway, Biden is like Bush in my mind. Seems like a cool dude. He has a good sense of humor, seems down to earth, doesn't take himself too seriously, gets along well with people, etc. But, like most people feel now about Bush, I don't trust him with a single major decision.
I'll entertain. I commonly see people let comments like this slide based on how the comment would be taken were it not attached to a stereotype. It is not considered negative to say any one person can jump high. It is, however, very offensive to say someone is incapable of speaking proper English.
I may be black, but I loves me some grilled chicken on my spinach and kale salad. I find fried chicken to be entirely too greasy and fattening.
I love the smell of faux outrage in the morning. Don't you have scandals from the 1990s to discuss or a diplomat's death to try to politicize?
..and you ain't black enough if you don't like your quiche with some Louisiana hot sauce. You know, it's funny.... ...I have to remember that this is a sports blog site... ...but I remember not too long ago watching the "Magic and Bird" documentary, chronicling the careers of both Earvin Johnson and Larry Bird as on-court rivals and off-court friends. Bird grew up in rural Indiana...very poor, culturally segregated in many ways, but with as stable a home as could be expected (given his father's problems with alcohol). One of the commentators in the documentary stated that it was nothing short of a miracle that Bird did not grow up with a racist mentality in that environment. Bird himself noticed the separation of black people and white people in many ways. But he loved playing basketball. And he loved to play with the black people whenever he could. Bird said that they would let him play with them, and didn't hold back against him at all. They didn't make an issue out of his color, so he didn't either. Bird said that to be the best basketball player he could, he had to play against the best players. And the best players were often the black folk. That's the miracle, right there. That a white man would test himself against a black man in ANYTHING, with the belief that he was actually testing himself against the best. I always had a lot of respect for Larry Bird. He just always seemed so genuine and honest. It's not a surprise that he's molded the Indiana Pacers into a championship caliber team again, after the way the team was decimated after the debacle in Auburn Hills. I wonder if Bird even notices that that team is full of black players. But he was a guy who never took the bait offered him, in many ways, of his interactions with black people being anything other than what they were in the moment. He never sought to make an issue out of something that was never an issue for HIM. And he never seemed to make a race issue out of whether or not he could say or do something that would be construed as "racist" or "hypocritical". Bird was an equal-opportunity grinder. He spent more time fighting players in his first 3 or 4 years in the NBA than anybody I ever saw before. Nobody thought Bird was a "thug"...in fact, a lot of people were inspired by Bird's willingness to make big shots and punch people in the face. He'd trade with Allan Bristow or Julius Erving. Didn't matter to him. People really want to know how and when to play the "race card"? White people, I mean? Just look at "Larry Legend", I'd say. You don't play it at all. You deal with the person in front of you. You deal with them honestly. You deal with then directly. And then you don't see or feel or hear anything about color. You see and feel and hear another human being. Then you can joke about vertically-challenged Caucasian males, or ghetto-speech-ified Negroes, and nobody so much as bats an eyelash. Sarah Palin and her ilk would do well to learn some of that. There's only so much shine you ought to expect to get from bathing in sewage....
The sad part is that this fool is actually being serious with this thread. basso is one of the last people I would have a beer with on this forum.
No, it would be equally unacceptable. I was simply noting that there would be a slightly different response to the Palin comment in the OP and the one in this post. I'll also acknowledge that above all people seem to base their opinions on perceived intent.
