BearFan33 said:
ImwithBU said:
BearFan33 said:
tallman1 said:
You either didn't understand my comment and question to you or you chose not to acknowledge what I was saying or address what I was asking. Again, you don't have to be oppressed to speak up and stand up for those who are oppressed (again your choice of word, not mine). If those who have the prosperity, popularity, power, & platform don't do it, who will? The stance that "if you are successful & rich, then you have no right to speak out on the issues like systematic racism, discrimination, and being targeted" is a pretty weak & lazy argument in my opinion. You do know that a lot of these successful people that made it still have in some form experienced those things, have family members, friends, or just want to do something to better this world (it's their choice how they choose to contribute or not). The days of be quiet and dribble, be quiet and pass/catch/run are a thing of the past. Again, why is it a bad thing??
Personally I watch football, movies and the such to be entertained. That's it. When there is kneeling and the such and movies are permeated with social justice messages it takes away the entertainment value for me. With that said if RG3 or anyone for that matter wants to tweet things and share his feelings on the matter when interviewed (without the uniform on), more power to him. I don't find social justice messages (or political discussions) offensive, I just don't want them mixed with everything in life.
You can protest just don't do it where it's obvious. GTFOH. If you don't like it then don't watch, no one give a flying flip if it's not where and when you want them to speak up.
I realize its fashionable to gametime protest these days, but I see it as a slippery slope and a distraction from the event. Today's BLM will be something else tomorrow. Where do you draw the line as to what someone can do during their protest? Ok kneel during the national anthem. What happens next when that is not enough?
As I said before this is how it is for me and its ok if it is different for you. I simply tune in to see what these tremendous athletes can do on the field of play in the execution of sport. For me it's an escape to be entertained and be taken away from the problems of the world, at least for just a little while.
I admire RG3 and follow him on Twitter along with 2 million people. I would hope he could respect my point of view, even if he doesn't agree with it.
While I can respect your position, and you've articulated it well, expecting these athletes to just shut up and entertain you is very dehumanizing. They're more than entitled to use their platform to draw attention to the causes they feel passionate about.
This isn't necessarily directed at you, but I see a similar sentiment on these boards quite often. The "I watch sports to escape from all this stuff and I shouldn't be subjected to it here. They can protest on their own time." However, that completely ignores the point of the peaceful protest. The point is to disrupt the status quo. To make you uncomfortable. To draw attention to something that you could otherwise brush aside. It also is exactly how Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. went about staging his peaceful protests. Here's an excerpt from "Letter from a Birmingham City Jail:"
Quote:
You deplore the demonstrations taking place in Birmingham. But your statement, I am sorry to say, fails to express a similar concern for the conditions that brought about the demonstrations. I am sure that none of you would want to rest content with the superficial kind of social analysis that deals merely with effects and does not grapple with underlying causes. It is unfortunate that demonstrations are taking place in Birmingham, but it is even more unfortunate that the city's white power structure left the Negro community with no alternative.
In any nonviolent campaign there are four basic steps: collection of the facts to determine whether injustices exist; negotiation; self purification; and direct action[...]
[...]We decided to schedule our direct action program for the Easter season, realizing that except for Christmas, this is the main shopping period of the year. Knowing that a strong economic-withdrawal program would be the by product of direct action, we felt that this would be the best time to bring pressure to bear on the merchants for the needed change[...]
[...]You may well ask: "Why direct action? Why sit ins, marches and so forth? Isn't negotiation a better path?" You are quite right in calling for negotiation. Indeed, this is the very purpose of direct action. Nonviolent direct action seeks to create such a crisis and foster such a tension that a community which has constantly refused to negotiate is forced to confront the issue. It seeks so to dramatize the issue that it can no longer be ignored. My citing the creation of tension as part of the work of the nonviolent resister may sound rather shocking. But I must confess that I am not afraid of the word "tension." I have earnestly opposed violent tension, but there is a type of constructive, nonviolent tension which is necessary for growth.
(You can read the letter in its entirety here:
https://www.africa.upenn.edu/Articles_Gen/Letter_Birmingham.html )
You can't consider MLK an inspirational leader, American hero, and great man and then turn around and tell these athletes to stick to sports. The hypocrisy is too large. What they're doing is taking a page directly out of the MLK playbook.
The same rationalization applies when I hear people say things like "I think Jesus was a great teacher." Well, then, you weren't listening very closely to what he had to say. Because if you were, you'd believe one of two things: he's either the Messiah, or he's a lunatic. There's not really much room in his words to settle somewhere in between.
In the same way, you can't with one breath praise MLK and then, with the next breath say that athletes shouldn't protest when you're just trying to watch a game.