Whitlock with a good article on the Riley Cooper situation

[Fat Elvis]

http://msn.foxsports.com/nfl/story/w...d-learn-080113

We, the media, will blow this Riley Cooper teachable moment. It’s what we do when it comes to race. We look for good guys and bad guys, villains and heroes. We choose the politically correct path rather than the road to understanding.

Riley Cooper
RILEY'S RUNAWAY MOUTH



Riley Cooper, a receiver for the Philadelphia Eagles, did and said something very, very stupid and disgusting. Drunk and partying in a sea of whiteness, Cooper apparently lashed out at a black security guard and threatened to "fight every n****r here".

A cellphone camera captured Cooper’s ignorance. It took a month, but the blogosphere unearthed the video and broadcast it to the world. The Eagles reacted responsibly, fining Cooper and forcing him to confront his mistake publicly with the media and privately with his teammates.

Watch what he said. Warning: Language is universally considered to be offensive . . .

I don’t expect the media to respond as responsibly. Too many of us will think the solution is for NFL commissioner Roger Goodell to suspend Riley Cooper. Too many of us will think Riley Cooper in no way reflects on all of us.

Well, I’ve been young, drunk, filled with athletic testosterone and partying in a sea of blackness. I’m glad there were no cellphone cameras then. I’ve been middle-aged, drunk, filled with non-athletic cholesterol and partying in a sea of blackness. I’m glad no one recorded the foolish thoughts I’ve uttered when I assumed no one around me would be offended.

Maybe most of the people working in the media are perfect, immune to impure, biased thoughts or actions. I’m not. And no one I know is. What happens with age and maturity is we get better at combatting our biases and keeping them from spilling out of our mouths. When we intellectually evolve, we get better at seeing the stupidity of our biases and not letting them dictate our actions.

I’m extremely distrustful of anyone who claims they’re free of biases. They’re dishonest or delusional.

For the most part, Riley Cooper handled his apology flawlessly. He forthrightly expressed the proper remorse and humbly answered every question.

“This is the lowest of lows,” Cooper said. “This is not the type of person I want to be portrayed as. This isn’t the type of person I am. I’m extremely sorry.”

There’s no room for Cooper to be totally honest. The media — social and legitimate — won’t allow Cooper to be transparent. What was captured on tape is a reflection of what type of person Cooper is.

He’s flawed. He’s a product of America’s conflicted melting pot. That is not a knock on America. We have racial issues because we’re the most diverse nation on the planet. We have trouble working through those issues because dishonesty and simple-mindedness are rewarded.

Like all of us, Riley Cooper is biased. He needs to admit that to himself so he can adequately combat his biases and be a force for positive change.

I used to be proudly homophobic. I used the F-word regularly. In 1998, while sitting in the New England Patriots press box, I got in a back-and-forth exchange with Pats fans and cracked a “joke” that ended with me asking, “Drew Bledsoe gay?”

The ensuing controversy started the process of me recognizing and realizing the utter ignorance of my homophobia. I used to be offended when people analogized the struggle for gay equality with black people’s struggle for equality. I now get it and understand their struggle benefits our struggle and the overall fight for fairness.

I hope Cooper is allowed to evolve. I hope we don’t demonize him to the point that he becomes John Rocker II and more entrenched in bigotry. I hope Cooper confronts who he is. He didn’t threaten to fight every n****r because there’s no bigotry in his heart and mind. He did it because he has failed to deal with who he really is.

He’s in the same denial most of us are in. I’m talking about all of us — black, white, brown and yellow.

I want to make one other point before I finish. Cooper’s transgression isn’t much of a locker-room issue for the Eagles. There are bigots of every color on sports teams. The beauty of sports is that teams force participants to put aside their biases and work together. Working together is different from liking or respecting each other.

Cooper isn’t a coach or executive with the power to hire and fire people based on his racial biases. Cooper is a player. He’s a 25-year-old kid with immature thoughts. His teammates will move on as long as he plays at a high level.

Racial slurs fly on football fields somewhat regularly. It’s a violent game that brings out the worst in people. My junior season at Ball State, I played against a white Northern Illinois defensive tackle who N-bombed me most of the afternoon. I kept shouting at his mostly black defensive teammates about why they would tolerate such a flaming idiot. The next year, the same guy was the most courteous opponent I played against all season.

Let’s help Cooper evolve and mature. We might be surprised by the results.

[ThatRaceCardGuy]

Originally Posted by scott free

RACE... i've often wondered whether or not to make my own thread, or post it in the Zimmerman thread or what, but since i'm here now and the ideas are flowing freely in this thread, here is my honest question...

When are black people going to finally say... yep, we've done it, we now feel as one with and equal with all of America, what in the name of God is the final measurement?

Everything i've ever experienced, read or watched in my life tells me that black people truly permeate every strata of our society at the very highest levels... in business large and small, local and national politics, the military, police forces, Supreme Court judges, entertainment of every kind... sports, music, newscasters, tv and movie stars, authors, US statesmen of international renown.

We have black universities, black websites, black television, black movie stations (which i have 0 problems with, as Dane said, there are pretty much 300 white entertainment televisions), lobbyists for black causes of every kind... in essence, black representation at every single level of our society at this point.

I mean, when is this idea of unequal representation going to end?

I'll now discuss two well known arguments that blacks often make...

1) "Its the shoddy public education systems that arent preparing our youth for the world" - first off, i went to public schools, and while not even close to rich, i enjoy my life. For the most part, i paid attention in school and got the education i deserved, pretty much every moderately to wildly successful person i know is the product of public schools... from business owners, to states attorneys, policemen, to district judges... public school graduates all.

I've heard it before that "yeah but inner city kids get the worst teachers, apathetic school boards etc"... is anyone reeeally going to tell me that school boards across the nation sit down and deliberately say to one another "ok, we're going to ship our best teaching minds out to the white neighborhoods and send our thoughtless idiots to the blacks!"... if you believe that, i want a ****ing link to help bolster your hunch. If there IS some kind of dedication disparity in teachers, its because the teachers themselves choose it to be so, as far as i know,... maybe many dont want to deal with the apathy, violence and inner city attitude that cannot be denied that says being smart, talking proper english and basically paying attention isnt "keepin it real", that its "stupid" to try and be smart.

2) "There is a massive disparity between blacks in incarceration and whites in incarceration, particularly when it comes to drugs" - several years ago, a longtime policeman and i were having drinks together and i posed this question... "i've been to atleast 100 wild college parties and know for a fact that there is a crap ton of drugs in a given dorm or frat house, why do i never hear about massive drug raids on those guys?"... his answer was short... "thats because college kids arent blowing holes in each other over it, its the violence that keeps police cracking down on black neighborhoods". I'm just unable to listen to arguments that say the police are -FLAT OUT- out to get black people in particular, they hammer down on black neighborhoods because of the extreme amount of violence and nothing else, IMO.

I'm open to any interpretation of this post, if you wanna knock me or the ideas contained here, knock yourself out... but i simply DO NOT see this massive apparatus that consciously holds down blacks.

Is the idea to get rid of every single white person who just cant stand a darkie no matter what they do or who they are?... we all know thats not going to happen, you just cant rid the world of idiots, there's hundreds being born every day.

You cant get rid of them any more than you can get rid of the black people who hate a cracker ass cracker for what they do or who they are... there is no perfect world outside of Heaven, but is there a world in which black people get an entirely fair shake? I believe it exists right now.

When will people wake up and realize not all black people play the victim role; in fact most don't. You claim to have first hand experience but I'm black. .trust we aren't thinking like that. The media loves to perpetuate that myth by interviewing the jessy Jacksons of the world because it's good tv.

[ThaVirus]

Originally Posted by Maverick91579

Of course he did. He wanted to dispel the use of words as weapons, and learn to embrace each other for who we were, and not the color of our skin.....Listen carefully to the I HAVE A DREAM speech, you will see what I mean.

Huh?

You said this:

Originally Posted by Maverick91579

MLK wanted badly for both whites and blacks to move away from the animosity that was built over a word. When people still use it as a common slang you are defeating that purpose. You are hanging on to a negative that really has nothing to do with anyone alive today.

And then I said this:

Originally Posted by ThaVirus

A poster here, I think it was Micjones, actually dispelled that argument a while back. MLK Jr used the word himself, in jest, toward other blacks.

[ThaVirus]

Originally Posted by scott free

is there a world in which black people get an entirely fair shake? I believe it exists right now.

Yeah, it's getting better but I don't think so.

Although some of these anecdotes are a bit dated, these types of prejudicial thoughts still persist.

Originally Posted by Baby Lee

I can honestly say I've never leveled that word at anyone identifiable or any identifiable group. I have said it in reciting a joke I heard or read, but I make no apologies for my love of aggressive shocking humor.
And I have the background for [and, winning in the end, against] it. My two best friends were jacked in the Crown Center parking garage when they were 16 by a prowling group of AAs, put them in the hospital, ended up with a settlement from Crown Center. My mom's side of the family is in the deep south and it was as simple as saying someone's proper name. I can remember as young as 5-6 playing with kids at the laundromat and my grandma whispering salaciously 'get away from them n___s, boy.' I watched my uncle throw half of his stepdaughter's stuff out on the lawn because she was running around town with a group that included a couple n___r boys. That last was particularly ironic as he had no problem with his step-brother coming around with his black twink boyfriend. Even my mom went into a tizzy in the early 90s when there was a house on the market on our block and a black family came to check it out, peering through the curtains and muttering under her breath.

But they gave me a shit ton of leeway as a kid growing up [amazing because they stayed out of my 'romantic' life as well, while my younger sister got the eagle eye throughout puberty and never had a closed bedroom door from age 13 on], and I made friends with the minorities as a matter of course, tastes in music, love of soccer, BMX-skateboard culture all contributed. Then in college I had a black roommate for two years who subverted every stereotype, dude was Count-RY!! Studying for a pilot's license, pledged Alpha Gamma Rho [the farmer's frat], music major with agriculture minor, listened most always to classical music. Funny story, his dad was even more nerdy than him, and showed up at the end of the first year to take him home wearing a t-shirt with a huge triangle with a rainbow inside it he'd found at Goodwill, Jamaal had to explain to him he was wearing a LGBT shirt.

Shit, just read the "Would you let your daughter date a black guy?" thread or pop into that one about the white lady that got the shit beaten out of her by the black burglar. That thread started the whole ninja bullshit and to paraphrase Idiot_For_Life58: "90% of all ninjas are pieces of shit".

[Easy 6]

Originally Posted by Thatguy

When will people wake up and realize not all black people play the victim role; in fact most don't. You claim to have first hand experience but I'm black. .trust we aren't thinking like that. The media loves to perpetuate that myth by interviewing the jessy Jacksons of the world because it's good tv.

I'm pretty sure this is my favorite post by you, it shows a level of openness i havent yet seen.

For the record, i dont claim anything here i havent personally experienced and never will, i refuse to be a lying shit in real life and refuse to be one on my favorite website.

I'll give you another example of my gripes... a few weeks back i posted a link in the zimmerman thread from a site called Bossip, a black joint, in multiple spots in the comments section an actual site administrator was telling obviously white posters with strictly non-vulgar, thoughtful posts "why dont you just leave and go to TMZ or some shit, we dont want you here".

There was NO room for another take, just a bunch of barely legible nonsense.

[ThatRaceCardGuy]

Originally Posted by scott free

I'm pretty sure this is my favorite post by you, it shows a level of openness i havent yet seen.

For the record, i dont claim anything here i havent personally experienced and never will, i refuse to be a lying shit in real life and refuse to be one on my favorite website.

I'll give you another example of my gripes... a few weeks back i posted a link in the zimmerman thread from a site called Bossip, a black joint, in multiple spots in the comments section an actual site administrator was telling obviously white posters with strictly non-vulgar, thoughtful posts "why dont you just leave and go to TMZ or some shit, we dont want you here".

There was NO room for another take, just a bunch of barely legible nonsense.

Mods do that all the time. You think an anti gun guy would be treated well on a pro NRA site? Same thing with a Republican posting on a Democratic site. Take away race and its people being people when it comes to a topic their passionate about.

[Easy 6]

Originally Posted by ThaVirus

Yeah, it's getting better but I don't think so.

Ok, i'll give you one three year slice of my perspective from a one car dealership.

In my three years there, we had a minimum of 10 black dudes come in asking for applications, God as my witness all but one was wearing a t-shirt and jeans, some nicer looking jeans and t-shirts, some not so nice looking... but still, a t-shirt and friggin jeans into a professional environment, hands in the pockets, looking at the floor, mumbling.

Of those ten, there was one single dude who obviously had his shit together... dressed sharp, engaging personality, chatted us salesmen up before his interview, big smile... this guy knew how to get a job.

To a man we wanted this guy hired, "hey, i like him, he could be a good one"... but the owner was a hardcore old racist...

Now, does that tell you that "yep, every whitey is a racist who'll never see past it"... or that seven other guys were like "yep, i can work with him?'

Like i said earlier, there is no perfect world, but seven out of eight wanted that guy hired on the spot and grumbled amongst each other after he wasnt, because we needed another man, the owners excuse was "no car experience"... but do you see whre i'm going? for every example of whitey being a true turd, MOST are fairminded people who recognize a man when they see him.

[jettio]

Originally Posted by 9er guy

He's a coon as well. He's always hanging out with black celebrities and trying to be cool with the rappers when they come on the show. He goes to the Shaq All-Star comedy jam and sits in the front row.

And then he has the gaul to throw the rappers and comedians under the bus in respect to the "N" word today on First Take.

He also is one of those "only we can say it" dudes. He makes my ****ing blood boil when he talks about that stuff.

It's like, "Yo man. Fall back. You're not the spokesman for the black race"

SMFH

I think it would be better to choose a word that is not a racial epithet if you want to say that a celebrity is not genuine or whatever point you are trying to make.

And I think Stephen A. Smith can be irritating because he thinks he has a great vocabulary when he oftentimes misuses words or uses too many fashionable words and phrases.

But I saw what he said on today's show, and I do not know why you got any impression that we was claiming to be a spokesman for a larger group of people. I think he made a fair point because I am not convinced that there is any good reason to continue using the N-word, or any other racial naughty word in any form by anybody.

If there is a such thing as a black community that unifies over issues like the killing of Trayvon Martin or other issues, successful and psychologically sound black people ought to remember just how many unsuccessful, troubled black kids are growing up to become unsuccessful, troubled adults.

If the black community wants to do something about that, I think teaching young people better habits and better values would help and a lot of the music that they listen to ain't helping; and the way some of the parents talk to them ain't helping; and the way that some of their peers talk to them ain't helping.

[Easy 6]

Originally Posted by Thatguy

Mods do that all the time. You think an anti gun guy would be treated well on a pro NRA site? Same thing with a Republican posting on a Democratic site. Take away race and its people being people when it comes to a topic their passionate about.

You dont see that kind of pea brained bigotry here...

[Chiefshrink]

Originally Posted by TEX

WRONG! Blacks CAN get away with saying it because they are black and have experienced racism first hand from their own unique perspective. The rest of us aren't qualified because we are not black and do not understand. The media will tell you that. On the flip side, often times if blacks say something racist against whites, it's acceptable because that's how they talk so its not "really" meant as racist. The media will tell you that as well. There is clearly a double standard in this country regarding who says what and can get away with it but don't dare suggest that because then YOU will be considered RACIST. CLEAR???

Originally Posted by Maverick91579

Can I ask a question? What part of slavery, did any NFL player active today, have a perspective from to experience from it?

MLK wanted badly for both whites and blacks to move away from the animosity that was built over a word. When people still use it as a common slang you are defeating that purpose. You are hanging on to a negative that really has nothing to do with anyone alive today.


The original word was a derogatory word used to display the unequalness between slaves, and their owners. The slaves then embraced the word as their own, but for us to come together as a country, we have to move past such terms.

It seriously is blowing my mind that while Donte Stallworth killed a guy, Leonard Little killed a guy, yet they were barely blips on the radars as far as being public enemy number one, yet a word, a VERY STUPID ACT BY A DRUNK STUPID IDIOT, has incited this much of a controversy.....Unbelievable......This is getting more backlash, than the George Zimmerman trial, or that woman who got off in Florida.

Originally Posted by Halfcan

If the word brings back 300 years of pain and suffering to African Americans- then why do they perpetuate the word even more and glamorize it in movies and rap lyrics?

Sorry I don't call my friends "cracker" lol "Hows my cracker doing today?" "You Crackers ready to party?"

Maverick, the reason this is getting more backlash than even Zimmerman is because the Saul Alinsky Media recognizes that Cooper is a full fledged 'caucasian male' and not a white hispanic so now this 'roasting' will get to the 'charred stage' for sure and will go on for who knows how long

[Setsuna]

Half Can you don't say, "What's crack-a-lackin my cracka?" every chance you get. I am disappoint.

[9er guy]

Originally Posted by jettio

If the black community wants to do something about that, I think teaching young people better habits and better values would help and a lot of the music that they listen to ain't helping; and the way some of the parents talk to them ain't helping; and the way that some of their peers talk to them ain't helping.

The number one consumers of rap music are white people.

You're making a sweeping judgement about a genre of music and the people who listen to it.

I think that in any situation if a person isn't raised right, they're going to have trouble assimilating into contemporary society. Regardless of race. That's more of a class thing to me.

The "Black community" can unify over Trayvon Martin, but I think there were a lot of people unified over that incident. Not just black people.

And that's really my point. That's what I was saying about Stephen A. Smith.

All black people don't think the same. And all black people don't care about other black people. I don't feel any responsibility to teach these little mother****ers anything.

**** them. Like if you see a white kid that's a punk you're not gonna be like,

"Let me steer this young man in the right direction"

**** him. I don't know that little mother****er.

Now, there's no stereotype associated with white teens and young men, so maybe it's different.

I know My family and the people I associate with are good dudes. And that's really all that matters to me.

I think it's more important for Fathers to be in the home. I think that's huge.

['Hamas' Jenkins]

Given that there was a system of institutionalized apartheid for about 185 years in a swath of this country, I'm cool with giving them an extra word in the vocabulary.

[ThaVirus]

Originally Posted by 'Hamas' Jenkins

Given that there was a system of institutionalized apartheid for about 185 years in a swath of this country, I'm cool with giving them an extra word in the vocabulary.

Don't forget your fat women. We'll take those too.

[9er guy]

Originally Posted by ThaVirus

Don't forget your fat women. We'll take those too.

and a Banana Cognac Bitch!

['Hamas' Jenkins]

Originally Posted by 9er guy

and a Banana Cognac Bitch!

Holy shit, a "Mad Real World" quote. I like this guy.