Wednesday, November 22, 2006

The Idea of a "Double Standard" and Sports

When I hear white people complain about a "double standard" by which black people (or members of any minority group) get away with saying things that white people would not get away with saying, I'm a little perplexed. It happens fairly frequently. Most recently, Pro Football Talk compared recent odd comments by Michael Irvin to Rush Limbaugh's comments on Donovan McNabb:

"But what of the African-American public figure who makes comments just as idiotic, and arguably as blatantly racist? Why is a pass granted in this regard?"

"Can someone please explain to us why Irvin hasn't been fired or suspended or even called out for his comments?"

Here's why it's silly to complain about a "double standard" that supposedly benefits black people. In America's history, there has always been a double standard, and that double standard has overwhelmingly been to the advantage of white people. If you even want to argue with this point, you have a terrible grasp of American history. What happened to the Native Americans? What was slavery? What happened after slavery was abolished? What was the experience of Asian Americans in America? How long ago was the Civil Rights movement? Who holds most of the positions of power and prestige in America? It's quite obvious that there has always been a double standard that has favored white people. And if that means that people like Charles Barkley and Michael Irvin can now say things that would get white people in trouble, so be it.

And by the way, I'm just sad about Michael Richards. Basically unable to even talk about it.

11 comments:

  1. hey pacifist i really enjoy your blog - glad you commented back to me on vikes geek page otherwise i wouldnt have checked you out. its an awesome blog and i will bookmark it. you're a good writer. thanx for giving me another source for viking literature! keep up the good work
    -Fran

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  2. its too bad the moment says something like what michael richards said you hear all these people shout 'racist! racist!' and then you have an apology and more cries of 'racist! racist!' michael richards apology went 10 times further toward some sort of honest discussion than anything else out there. its another wasted opportunity to have an honest discussion about things. at least to get things out in the open. this idea that michael richards is the only racist in america is absurd. that's the impression tho. so then you have jessie jackson and all these other leaders protesting and so on. like michael richards making some stupid comments, some bad jokes really, trying to stupidly push the envelope, is the big problem facing Black america in the year 2006. it makes me sick for the world. its a witch its a witch its a witch oohhh ooohhh ooohhh.

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  3. Michael Richards' actual comments were no worse than a lot of standup comedians--white or black--make in their "push the envelope, destroy the taboo" schticks. It was the anger and the interaction which gave Richards' comments some level of...authenticity. Based on my experience and knowledge of standup comedy, it seems he really was just trying to go over the top on purpose...but he did so with real anger, and that made it so disturbing.
    He's always been a troubled soul.

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  4. You know why the double standard bothers me? Because it's being used to protect an idiot, who is one of the worst "analysts" on TV. I think he should be fired because he's an idiot--and the racist remarks are ESPN's excuse to do so.

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  5. Anonymous6:36 PM

    "Here's why it's silly to complain about a "double standard" that supposedly benefits black people. In America's history, there has always been a double standard, and that double standard has overwhelmingly been to the advantage of white people."

    Mmmmmm, two wrongs making a right.

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  6. babaganoosh, it's not about something as cliched as "two wrongs don't make a right": it's about power. White people, in general, still hold most of the positions of power and prestige in our country. A lot of black people are economically and socially disadvantaged by all sorts of factors far outside their control.

    Because white people still hold most positions of power and prestige, when a white person says something vaguely racist about a black person or black people, we should be disturbed because our goal should be equality. When a black person says something vaguely racist about a white person or white people, there's a different power dynamic going on. Black people really aren't in a position to "oppress" white people, and never have been. White people have been, and some still are. So they are most definitely NOT the same thing.

    There are serious problems with racism and racial equality in America. White people saying racist things does more damage to the cause of equality than black people saying racist things.

    We need to have real dialogue about such things, not just, as klossrober suggests, shout "racist!" when we think there's a problem.

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  7. Anonymous2:38 AM

    "Because white people still hold most positions of power and prestige, when a white person says something vaguely racist about a black person or black people, we should be disturbed because our goal should be equality. When a black person says something vaguely racist about a white person or white people, there's a different power dynamic going on."

    But it's still racism. It is not okay for Jesse Jackson to be calling New York 'Hymietown' or black students at my university to not want anything to do with 'Those crackas', as it were. It is not justifiable to punish the son and daughter for the sins of the parents.

    When a white person says something racist, we should be disturbed, because it's wrong. When a black person says the same thing towards white people, we should be disturbed, because they're essentially saying the same thing.

    And Michael Irvin is nauseating, but apart from being a ******** Cowboys homer sunuva*****, he's done nothing to get himself fired.

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  8. Let me make my view as clear as possible: A white person saying something insulting about black people is not the same thing as a black person saying something insulting about white people. All racism is bad, but centuries of racial oppression, injustice, and inequality ensure that they are not the same thing. I don't mean to say that a black person saying something racist about white people is OK; I just mean to say they are not the same thing.

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  9. Anonymous10:42 PM

    The pendulum swings... when a white kid says nigger all hell breaks loose, when a black kid says cracker everybody laughs. Minorities get scholarships and jobs because the color of their skin, whites have to work twice as hard. Sounds like a double standard to me...

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  10. Anonymous6:19 PM

    whoever writes this column is a racist, confused, hypocritical bum. I know many black people that dont use their "strife" and "history" as an excuse for their race's shortcomings as a people or certainly not to justify racism.

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  11. Anonymous2:06 PM

    Let's reexamine history which you claim to be an authority on and then determine the double standard shall we:

    Blacks started the African slave trade selling millions to be castrated in Arabia.

    Blacks enslaved 1.25 million Whites via the Barbary pirates. Not bought and sold mind you (like the Trans-Atlantic trade). Forcibly captured by their Black enslavers.

    Whites are responsible for ending all slave trades in Africa except for the few small lingering Blacks selling Blacks trades in the Sudan. So we a have prevented more Blacks from being enslaved than any other race (by the cost of our lives). The Trans-Saharan trade would have continued indefinitely without us.

    Ten times as many whites fought to end slavery as those that fought to preserve it in the Civil War.

    White inventions are responsible for at least 80% of the advances in our quality of life which all races benefit from. That's a conservative estimate and you know it. And don't bring up the supposed great scientists and inventions from like a million years ago in Egypt. Give me an F-ing break. (Oh but I forgot Viking, in your racist score card, anything positive whites have done for the world and for your race doesn't really count does it. I'm sure you'll have some smart answer for why White technology can't be considered as a racial contribution, but all of the negative things done by whites count against us - isn't that right).

    And the finally - Check your FBI statistics, for the last 40 years (about the length of time of the Jim Crow era) whites have endured a reverse Jim Crow era where Blacks have murdered at least 1.3 million whites while whites have murdered about 180,000 Blacks, making Blacks about 50 times more likely to murder whites. More whites have been murdered by blacks during this time than Blacks have been murdered by Whites during the entire history of our country (if you don't count the Middle Passage which is equally the fault of Whites and Blacks so that's a wash).
    A total of only about 5500 Blacks were lynched during the Jim Crow era vs about 1300 Whites and we know for a fact that MANY of the Black lynchings were actually due to crime committed by Blacks during the reconstruction. Again I STRESS - 1.3 million whites murdered by Blacks.

    Oh and forgot - the second finale - the 40 years of affirmative action privelege that Blacks have enjoyed.

    Recheck your scorecard bitch. We have been bending over backwards to kiss Black's collective asses for the last 40 years and have been getting slaughtered in the process. There's a double standard going on alright.

    Furthermore, let's talk about the torture inflicted upon White settlers by your poor Native Americans. Asians discriminated in the US?? WTF?? I must have forgot about the millions of Whites that have been INVITED to Asian countries where the Whites improved their standard of living just by stepping of the boat and the Asians had no other reason to invite them other than the principle of racial equality in immigration practices (via the 1965 immigration act). Oh wait. That's right. That never happened. It was the other way around. That's it. Oh and now I remember what happens to Whites in Asia like the thousands that were put into concentration camps by the Japanese in China during WWII. Only it wasn't an F-ing internment based on NATIONALITY. It was a death camp based on RACE. Oh and forgot to mention the thousands of Germans that were interned in the US during WWII. Were they a separate oppressed race. Oh and what happened to whites living in Japan during WWII. Oh my god, don't even ask. There was not a nice little internment camp for them. B.S.

    White people wake up and quit being weak guilt ridden punks and learn your history.

    The only racism that exists in the world today is the complete double standard of guilt that is applied to the White race when a true examination of HISTORY would show a heap of guilt that can be levied on other races and a heap of credit can be given (but isn't) to Whites.

    Check your facts and your scorecard bitches.

    Oh, and don't get me started on the most disloyal species in the history of DNA that is one of the loudest sht talkers against white males and who have benefited 1000x from white males - The White Female. I'm sure that half of the White bashing sht talkers on this site are my loyal sisters. Thanks Bitches. Glad to have you on our team. Please keep it up..

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