(During the summer, these blizzards could come at any time of the day).
Via the Fanhouse, Dr. Z says Randy Moss shouldn't be a Hall of Famer. His logic, however, is dreadfully flawed. Says Dr. Z: "The guy's a dog, and there are too many people who spent years of sacrifice without getting a sniff from the Hall." So because other people worked hard and sacrificed but weren't good enough to get into the Hall of Fame, Randy Moss can't get in even though he dominated for a long stretch of time? By that logic, if you give 75% effort and break every record in the game, you shouldn't get in because other people gave 100% effort and still didn't get into the HOF (even if at 100% effort they weren't that good).
Chris Mortenson, hypocrite?
I completely support Charles Barkley's right to say whatever he wants to say on a national stage. Members of minority groups being able to have this type of carte blanche free expression is good for the nation and a sign of progress.
Why do minorities have the right to say whatever they want? Wrong is wrong no matter who says it and under what pretense!
ReplyDeleteTechnically, we all get to say whatever we want.
ReplyDeleteHistorically, however, that hasn't been the case. And so I see it as a sign of progress that minorities are now able to. Would Charles Barkley be able to go on TV and say whatever he wanted 50 years ago? If he had done so, what would have been the reaction? That he can do so now is progress.
When members of a minority have the opportunity for a strong, free voice, issues that might otherwise be ignored can get pushed into public discourse, which I see as a good thing.
And a white saying what he wants is fired. Sounds fair?
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ReplyDeleteI'm really tired of getting into this, but here goes...) Considering U.S. history includes slavery, Jim Crow laws, segregation, genocide of Native Americans, internment camps for Japanese Americans in WWII, a whole lot of violent injustice based on race in the past, and continuing economic and institutional injustices today, no, I don't consider it even close to fair.
ReplyDeleteIf you assume that people of all races share the same history and equality in this nation, then you can complain about a lack of fairness today. But your assumption would be wrong. We can disagree about the best way to progress now: I believe granting larger leeway of expression to members of previously oppressed groups is a good way to achieve progress. You can disagree with what I believe will help advance the cause of equality (some believe that treating everybody's words equal right now is the best way to progress; I would agree, if everybody was now treated equal in every other way right now, too). But I hope you don't oppose the advancement of equality.
To address your "a white saying what he wants is fired" claim, I'll say this: if what a white person "wants" to say is racist, I consider it a good thing if the rest of the nation acts with outrage because we no longer tolerate racism.
This is hypothetical, because the link to Barkley's comments didn't include any racism against white people, but I'll repeat what I've said before: members of a majority saying racist things against a minority is much more damaging than members of a minority saying racist things about a majority. There's a dynamic of power involved.
I'm tired of debating this. I've said what I believe; if you disagree, fine. I know a lot of readers do disagree with me here. But I've said what I believe.
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ReplyDeleteLet me add something here to try shift the discussion.
ReplyDeleteInstead of complaining about what people (of any race) say, why don't we complain about the great economic disparity in our nation? Why don't we try to bring more equality to how we fund our schools (and fund our schools better)? Why don't we examine why most of the positions of power in this country (both economic and governmental power) are primarily held by white men?
I think words are important; I think people being able to express their ideas freely is important to the advancement of progress. But to complain about white or black people getting in more or less trouble for what they say seems silly when there is so much real, material injustice in our society. I want to work to change that real, material injustice, and I may have different ideas about how to strive for greater justice and equality, but I hope that more and more people do believe that it is that striving for greater justice that really matters.
I'm making the same arguments here I made in the Michael Irvin-Tony Romo arguments I made, which led to the "Is PV bigoted against southerners?" debate, which was the lowlight of this blog's history, and since I have such bad associations of that, I'll probably just abandon this thread.
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