The Richard Sherman debacle

or how people can be quick to use the N word

Now, i don't follow sports...like at all. But i did manage to hear about the Richard Shermen clip(here). I found the video amusing but didn't make much of it. That is until i saw people quick to call him a Nigger and use a racially coded insult like thug. Now, he was definitely a bit over the top in the clip,but its not like he was hurting anyone so i don't think its that big of a deal. For gods sake, he is a sports player who just had a good game and was probably just really excited. 

Personally,i am more disturbed that people were so quick to bring up racist terms to express there disagreement. When Charlie Sheen did that infamous "winning" interview, i don't remember anyone bringing up his race in there comments on him. And in none of the coverage of Rob Ford's multiple scandals, i don't remember people bring up his race either. But apparently if a black person gets a bit animated people think its ok to use what has generally been accepted as racist language towards him or her. And we're supposed to be living in a "post-racial" society.

Now, a while back a football player named Jason babin(Who looks white to me,tho i could be wrong. Definetly doesn't look black) ripped a guys hair off and held it like a trophy. I looked up his name on twitter to see if i could get a general idea of how people reacted to it, and there seemed to be barely any real outrage, and definitely no racial insults. So apparently getting a bit too excited in a postgame interview makes a black person a nigger/thug, but ripping out a guys hair is perfectly ok.

I've seen people bring his his education at stanford as a defense against the racism being hurled at him. I do appreciate the effort,but to me his education shouldn't have to be brought up to prove he's not a thug. I would love to hear from people more invested in sports than i am on this, but from what im seeing this whole incident seems to have stirred up some repressed racism in folks.

In what is a sad irony, this has happened to coincide with MLK day. if this has shown us anything,is that we may be further from MLK's dream than we thought

Bad comparisons

 A list of words not to use

 Sometimes, to make a point we like to compare things. While at times this can be a great tactic, other times it can come off just offensive.This usually happens when using a historical tragedy as a comparison. Im not saying you can never use a historical tragedy as a comparison,but if you do please make sure the situations are actually comparable. To help with this,i have decided to make a list of events/people you should think twice before using as fodder,along with evidence of them being used incorrectly

Slavery
Examples of bad comparisons- Food Stamps,Obamacare,Jennifer Lawrences shooting schedule(Tho to be fair,Russel has since apologized for this)
Why its bad-Unless if the thing you are referring to is the systematic denial of all human rights and personal agency for a entire group of people, it is not ok to use this as a comparison. Just because you feel a program is unfair,does not make it slavery.

Hitler
Examples of bad comparisons- Both Bush and Obama have been compared to him. From what i've seen,this comparison is usually used politically
Why its bad-Unless if the person you are referring to is systematically trying to exterminate a entire group of people the comparison is not appropriate. Now i am no fan of Bush, but i do not believe he is comparable to Hitler. Comparisons to Nazies are bad for basically the same reason. 99% of the time there are better ways to voice your disagreement with someones leadership/actions

Holocaust
Examples of bad comparisons- Again,Obamacare
Why its bad-If you're not referring to a systematic annihilation of a entire group of people, don't bring it up.Just like with slavery,just because you disagree with a program doesn't mean it has any relation to the Holocaust.

Rape
Examples of bad comparisons- Filibuster reform
Why its bad-Most often this is used to express discomfort caused by someone or something. However,unless if said discomfort comes from unconsensual sex, you don't get to compare it to rape.

I realize these explanations probably got a bit repetitive, but that's because they all basically boil down to the same thing. Which is appropriating a horrible,tragic event just because you don't like something and can't think of a better way to get your point across.

The whole MHP Controversy: A perspective from a interracial child

As most of you know,there was a huge controversy about a segment Melissa harris perry did on Romneys adopted black son. Suffice to say,i had a lot about to say about that one that i posted at various times(twitter and facebook mostly),but i've decided to collect them all in one permanent place.

First off i did not offended at the segment. I mean, both sides of my family have joked about my parents being a interracial couple at times,and its all good. That is what i was reminded of when seeing the segment. Interracial families(and people from them) can laugh at themselves from time to time,and as long as a person isn't obviously hateful about it or anything i don't think its a big deal for most interracial families/children.
 

What does annoy me is people who aren't from interracial families and never really cared about them before suddenly appointing themselves savior of them. Now, im not saying this applies to every single person who expressed offense at the segment, but i definitely feel like most of the conservatives participated in the backlash were like this. And speaking of of who participated in the backlash,there seemed to be a conspicuous lack of prominent interracial people getting to speak on this. Which frankly i find more insulting than the segment. People from interracial families can speak for ourselves.

I feel like the only reason Perry got attacked so much is because she's a black women. I mean, when the cheerios commercial with the interracial families got a bunch of backlash i didn't see many people standing up for it. The only mainstream coverage of it i could find was from MSNBC. And in the Phil Robertson interview that got so much attention for its homophobic comments,he also said some rather idiotic shit about blacks being happier pre-civil rights which didn't get much attention in comparison to the homophobic comments(Just to be clear, i think both statements deserved widespread condemnation). So yeah, im not sure i trust the sincerity of this baklash

With all that said, even though i don't think her on-air apology was necessary, i respect that she gave one that didn't fixate on intent unlike a lot of the ones given by public figures when they mess up. A recent example of that is the Ani Difranco apology,which seemed like a whole lot of words without much substance to them. On a related note, i can't remember the last time a white person gave a apology as sincere as Melissa's for offending black people.