Comments | jcb9: strictly 4 my mccovens

jcb9

strictly 4 my mccovens

Apr 20, 2010 08:56

I am studiously avoiding the thread about the lack of African-American players on the Giants. Sort of like how I studiously avoided postiveumphemism's rant on how recognizing the importance of Jackie Robinson breaking the color barrier was "promoting racism" because it involved mentioning that Robinson was, y'know, black ( Read more... )

Comments 17

fordandfitzroy April 20 2010, 15:57:43 UTC

There's been some discussion, but nothing on the same level of fail as that positiveuphemism comment.

jcb9 April 20 2010, 16:10:46 UTC

Yeah, I've actually read it - when I say I'm studiously avoiding it, I mean commenting.

I agree that nothing in the thread was as obnoxious as the positiveuphemism thing, but there have been a few things that are button-pushers for me, and I'm too emotionally invested and overeducated, I think, to engage in that discussion in a context like MCC.

fordandfitzroy April 20 2010, 16:48:35 UTC

Yeah, it took almost everything I had not to completely flip out at the Jackie Robinson comment.

A whole lot of white privilege going on in that 'discussion'.

jcb9 April 20 2010, 17:49:07 UTC

I was away from my computer when PE's Jackie Robinson comment came up; by the time I checked back in a few minutes later, several people had already jumped on him. I'm pretty familiar with the line of reasoning he was espousing - it's rooted, I think, in the usual nonsense about white men being the true victims because of affirmative action, "political correctness" (and I really loathe that term), but also in the idea that colorblindness is the solution to racism. If colorblindness is the solution, then the problem of racism is essentially reduced to noticing, acknowledging, or commenting upon race, its place in society, and so on. So, celebrating Jackie Robinson's achievement in breaking the color line is "racism." We're not supposed to notice these things, except of course we all do, so we're just not supposed to comment on it (and also, positiveuphemism is just kind of a prick in general ( ... )

Thread 10

casey98 April 20 2010, 17:15:05 UTC

You need to post your feelings and your anger. You have two little ones who will benefit from your schooling others. Seriously.

jcb9 April 20 2010, 17:32:15 UTC

I have had some of these discussions! But sometimes I just don't know if it's possible to do so in a way that's appropriate to the time and place, like I said, or that's productive at all.

casey98 April 20 2010, 18:31:34 UTC

I know, but I think, "fuck off, you ignorant fuck" is a perfectly productive statement.

jcb9 April 20 2010, 18:57:48 UTC

And that's why I love you so much, honey. :)

reveritas April 21 2010, 00:35:55 UTC

What are they doing? Being flip-ass about it as usual?

jcb9 April 21 2010, 01:13:58 UTC

Well, someone posted a fanshot about how, with the Fred Lewis trade, the Giants now have no African-American players for the first time since the team's color barrier was first broken back around 1950. A number of the responses were probably pretty typical, and not really awful or anything, but they were still problematic in my view: white people saying, "who cares about race this is 2010 not 1954," insisting racism couldn't be involved (and seeming rather defensive in doing so), conflating black with African-American (specifically, saying this wasn't true because of Eugenio Velez, etc ( ... )

reveritas April 22 2010, 04:26:32 UTC

It is a little strange, and sad, that we don't have any African-American players. NO, Eugenio Velez does not count ... are they shitting me? And anyone who doesn't care about race because it's 2010, not 1954, probably hasn't been on the business end of a racial slur lately. Like last week or, maybe, the 1990s ( ... )