I honestly don't see the race angle. I think it was the fact that the old white guy seemed to have the "underdog" type of role. Hell, in this video you see the situations reversed except its one black guy versus 3 white guys. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QutC_7uvTpo
The men and their actions speak for themselves, out their own ignorances, but in the end they themselves are pretty inconsequential. The really concerning part though is this. Epic Beard Man is very clearly on record saying he uses drugs, has been incarcerated, has pimped, has sold drugs; all behaviors that are, by definition, "thug" or menacing. Michael is very clearly on record denying those behaviors. Epic Beard Man gets the benefit of the doubt in the public conscious and Epic Black Man is suspect. What you have is a simple pissing match between culturally juxtaposed personalities, which is extrapolated by inquiring minds to mean so much more than either participant intended. It becomes a trial of character in the public forum, pitting old vs. young, black vs. white, among hundreds of other opposing characteristics you could pick from. It's symbolic to the interpreting masses, and it typifies class warfare and triggers "layered-society" baggage to many Americans. It was never meant to be about tall vs short, beard vs braids... it is just ego on ego, as is the racial hostility it has fostered. I'm not saying this is true for myself, or accusing any poster/person of singularly propagating this divide. This is a general observation. It is troubling to me that the holding seems to favor the white man despite his admissions of 'parallel thug behaviors'.
That's pretty obvious from a lot of commentary on it. Just the fact that anyone picked sides in that thing says as much. They both seemed like two loudmouth dumbasses (though old guy seemed like he threw in a little bit of 'unstable' for good measure) and if anything we should lament the number of idiots in the world around us.
haven't posted in any of the Epic beard threads yet, so I'll state what I saw as obvious. The old man baited the black guy with a potentially racist remark and stood his ground from that point on. he had to defend what he said and he stood up for himself. but after seeing the video edited so many times, the first part of the conversation in the back of the bus gets cut out, it starts with black guy threatening to put his foot up old dude's ass, old dude wrecks shop. example of one facebook post complete with Rocky Theme music: "67 year old Vietnam Vet gets harrassed by a punk on the bus" the reality is that old dude is unstable in my opinion.
I don't really care so much about EBM drug use as long as it doesn't affect me directly. I feel if you want to tear your body up that's your choice. Legalize all drugs if you want to. Ironically, in the bus situation, the black man's actions actions were due to drugs/alcohol while the white man's behavior were due to the fact that he didn't take his drugs. Any of EBM's past criminal convictions are irrelevant as they are in his past and through his own self admission. He said he did his time and everyone deserves a second chance. What's funnier is Amber Lamps apology video. He almost sounded unnatural trying to speak without using ebonics. I believe "next time, I'll whoop dat ass" sounded more natural to me. At least EBM was keeping it real with his loose screws on the bus and in his on camera interviews. The video girl and Amber Lamps did a 180 with their personality as soon as they got air time.
Amber Lamps and Epic Beard Man. Too freakin' crazy. I think the Rockets need to go on a winning streak. Some folks have too much time on their hands.
I think it's noteworthy mostly for the same reasons the Nolan Ryan-Robin Ventura ass-whooping was noteworthy. People generally like seeing old people whip young punks. (If he's 50, he shouldn't wear the corn rows and baggy clothes unless he wants people to think he's much younger.) Does race play into it? Maybe a little, but in only against the guy who got his ass whipped. It's certainly possible that more people paid attention because he's black. If Epic Beard Guy were black the response would be the same.
so, the thousands of "i'm glad that ***** got beat down" youtube comments would be the same? I harbor serious doubts with respect to this hypothesis.
no two hypotheticals can truly be compared, and you are right about the n-bombs. maybe its just me though, but i would probably like the video better if the bearded man was black. although this is likely moot, i'm not the source of the n-bombs.
It's funny, if it was a 20 or 30 year old built white dude with a shaved head, a lot of people would be crying racism right now. But because it's an old man, the general reaction becomes 'the black dude deserved it'. The real truth is both parties were acting like idiots.
People who post on Youtube are probably right on par with people who post on the Houston Chronicle message boards. They probably would call a video clip of Desmond Tutu delivering a Sunday mass "a ***** up to no good." I wouldn't put much trust or value on the sentiment of Youtube commentators in general.
One more comment about the thread title...the way this is phrased sounds kind of wrong to me: "Be Honest"... So either you admit that you are prejudiced against black people or you are not honest?
Well, not our faults some stupid black girl in Atlanta etched this belief into our brains that black people are problematic on buses.
fixed the question to ask the real question you wanted to ask in the first place There are many people who will say "ya most people were happy" but then you'll find most here claim that they weren't happy.
