Posted by Greg Laden on January 22, 2010 Southern white racists in the US think of themselves as a repressed minority. Which, probably, they should be.
Note the use of the word “fundamental” in this context.
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I wonder what the backstory on the “strike” is!?
Bwa Ha Ha!!! This will be perfect for all the NASCAR lovin’, cousin-lustin’, trailer livin’ white trash that love them some Palin, and universal bigotry.
Hey, J-Dog, isn’t it enough to point out their bigotry? Does noting that they’re poor and (systematically) undereducated really make them more deserving of mockery?
Does that mean no jumping and only two hand set shots allowed?
How about cross over dribbling? Would Bob Cousy be banned for behind the back passes? http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5QCP6mMMH2Q
Would Pete Maravich be kicked out for being too good? http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4aDy8BqEuyE
Will they do a DNA test to make sure no one with even a hint of African ancestor gets in? After all there is a significant percentage of white Americans who find they have a black ancestor who ‘hopped the fence.’
I wonder if they’ll allow American-born people of Arab, Persian, Pakistani, and Indian descent to play. According to one definition these peoples are considered Caucasians.
Stephanie Z – My comment was supposed to be “comedy”. I’m not discussing their socio-economic status, I’m pointing out some of the other likely / funny attributes of the benighted bigots.
My family probably had less money than most of these people when I was growing up, so I have no ethical/moral dillemma poking a stick at them, and I think it’s entirely called for and appropriate.
J-Dog, calling someone “trailer livin’ white trash” is a direct commentary regarding poverty and education. I get that it was meant to be a light-hearted statement. I’m questioning what it is about that phrase that’s supposed to be funny.
And I’m asking as someone who spent several years living in a trailer with the ownership status at risk due to poverty.
WMDKitty, then please explain to me what about it is funny. I’d love to be in on the joke.
This will be perfect for all the NASCAR lovin’, cousin-lustin’, trailer livin’ white trash that love them some Palin, and universal bigotry.
Irony meter: BOOM!
Hypocrisy meter: BOOM!
It’s funny because it’s true. Now grow up.
Oh hey, 100,000 Haitians died due to an earthquake. /laugh
This game is fun.
Or maybe “ha, people that can’t afford homes tend to be uneducated, the louts can’t even read”. lol. Humor sure is easy when you have no compunction about being an asshole.
Yeah, it’s abso-fucking-lutely hilarious that racial minorities and the underclass are played against each other in order to keep the upper class climbing into the ether and that the middle class helps out by playing along. I laugh about it every day. When I don’t cry.
And I need to grow up for asking whether we can stop doing that?
http://www.sportsbybrooks.com/polls-majority-of-georgians-want-all-white-hoops-27670
The Atlanta TV poll asked viewers: “Do you think Lewis’ all-white professional basketball league is racist?” 54% responded, “no, it isn’t racist.”
Comments below please.
Oh, it’s racist all right. But it’s funny how it’s only racist when white people pull shit like that. How about Black Entertainment Television, Miss Black USA Pageant, National Association of Black Physicists, NAACP, United Negro College Fund, and so on and so on? Start a group with “White” substituted into any of the above examples and see what a shit storm would follow. Racism is perfectly acceptable in this country, unless of course you happen to be white.
Swami, there is a difference. Those organisations were set up because black people have an existing disadvantage in those areas. The organisations are an attempt to address that disadvantage and level the playing field somewhat. A white example would not perform the same function, because white people generally already have an advantage.
Jefrir,
If white folks were shown be in higher percentage of possessing a disadvantage to playing elite basketball, then black folks that same disadvatage to playing elite basketball, then would it be ok to have separate leagues?
ACTN3 genome XX polymorphism and its uneven distribution in humans may result in this.
I cant get too worked up over this. Like reaches out to like. All the whites in Georgia who like to play ball, but arent as good, want their own league. Well go start it. But if you asked me who Id rather buy a ticket to watch play, that would be the best players in the good ole NBA.
Hi Jefrir,
Black people have an existing disadvantage in beauty pageants? Would you like to rephrase that? 
More later. I’m busy reading Profiles in Black Courage by Kareem Abdul-Jabbar. Assuming I could write something worthy of publication (I know, I know) and assuming I called my work, Profiles in White Courage, do you think there’s a publisher in this land that would touch it? Of course not! Why would that be?
Matt, I’m with you. I’m not about to watch a bunch of short, white Georgia boys play basketball. I’m waiting for an all black hockey league myself.
Matt, the problem is the definition of “like.”
Swami, there already was a Profiles in White Courage. The word “white” was simply well enough understood to be left out of the title. The same goes for your other examples.
http://araceagainsttime.blogspot.com/2010/01/whites-only-basketball-league-idea.html
This blogger argues there is demand for a family-friendly alternative to the NBA.
Stephanie,
with all due respect, it is you who has the problem. Its a futile task you’ve set yourself up with, and when you quibble with that idea of ‘like’, it is Hannah Arendt you challenge, not me, as I expect you know.
Last fall I was sitting in a biker bar not for from the Oakland, CA airport. Up roll about fifteen or so black gents on harleys. Their jackets said, I think, Black Knights. Im pretty certain they did not form this group because they were somehow disadvantaged. If that were so, where were the hispanics? The Native Americans? I didnt ask.
I find dialectic investigation of human behavior as fascinating as the next liberal arts flunkie, and its all so self-satisfying to uncover and expose all these hypocritical and petty and sometimes nasty manners people possess. People are sometimes tribal. I bet it happens inside academia too.
If these Georgia whiteboys were demanding David Stern to see more white players in the NBA, maybe you and I would agree, Stephanie, they would have no standing.
Larry Bird (he’s white) said a year or two ago the league needed another white star. A few people looked around to see if they were supposed to be scandalized at this, and then Magic Johnson stepped in to support him (he’s black). From a marketing point of view, Larry may be right, the NBA viewership is largely white, but knowing Larry that is no endoresement for a dilution of talent. He’s just telling every Indiana 7 year old farmboy to spend every spare minute of their next 10 years shooting freethrows and 18 footers and they may just find a niche.
Stephanie, I never realized JFK was pursuing a white supremacist agenda when he wrote Profiles in Courage. The name of Kennedy does not come immediately to mind when one considers the white suppression of blacks. Thanks for enlightening me. Good grief!
What’s the big deal?
We have a womens basketball league, Black TV channels, Hispanic TV channels, Black colleges…….If you don’t want to watch an all White Basket Ball League….don’t watch it, for goodness sake.
Jeeze….I don’t watch BET or the NBA……why deny me something I might watch?
No, Matt. I challenge you and the idea that skin color is any kind of decent indicator of “like.” If you’d care to expand your reading, I suggest looking into the naturalistic fallacy.
Swami, you’re not helping your own argument by lumping yourself with those people who claim they can’t be racist because they keep the white sheets on the bed.
John, nobody’s denying you anything. They’re mocking you for hyperventilating. There’s rather a difference.
The funny thing is that there’s definitely a conversation to be had about racism and the makeup of college (and, therefore, professional) sports teams. Part of it is here.
Stephanie, you never actually respond to the arguments made by others, do you? You prefer instead to toss out a few insults. That’s easier, isn’t it? You have a problem with Matt so you insinuate he’s not well read. Me? I’m not lumping myself with anyone. You’ve done that. You tell John he’s being mocked for hyperventilating whatever that’s supposed to mean.
To return to the original argument, Greg refers to this gentleman as “a southern white racist” simply by virtue of the fact he wants to start an all white league. Very little additional information is given about the man. I don’t know if he’s a Klan sympathizer or not. Maybe he is – maybe he isn’t. But he is indeed white and after all he does want to start a whites only organization. Well, that was enough for you and Greg and for most others. He’s a southern white racist! Out came the trailer trash comments. Out came the redneck remarks.
Look, I do happen to believe this is a racist action. It’s wrong when white people do it – it’s wrong when black people do it. How can membership in any organization be allowed or disallowed solely on the basis of skin color and be anything but racist? You apparently have one set of standards you choose to apply to certain races, and a different set of standards for others. Guess what that makes you, Stephanie. So don’t you worry about the sheets on my bed! Cut some little round holes in your own sheets and pull them over your own head. See you at the rally.
Nice try, Swami. I responded both to Matt’s argument and his condescension. The fact that humans like to hang out with people like them doesn’t mean that relying on skin color to determine whether someone is like us isn’t stereotyping. I’d already responded to your argument, too. You just didn’t like my answer.
The answer to “anything other than racist” is that organizations (and books) that are composed of minorities aren’t based on skin color. They’re based on the shared experience of being excluded, etc. by the majority based on that skin color. If JFK had included blacks in Profiles in Courage (and why do you think he didn’t?), there would have been no need for a parallel book. It’s reactionary, not racist, or at least it doesn’t have to be.
And you might just want to go back and have a look at comment #2 and the ensuing discussion before you work yourself up to greater heights of self-righteousness.
It has never been shown that humans like to hang out with people like themselves. There is a tendency for people to group by ethnic categories as long as those categories are part of a cultural ethnocentric pattern, but when that pattern goes away people stop doing that. So called “race” and class categories tend to group people when those categories are culturally forgrounded as meaningful, but if they are not, they do not function.
It is not as though people have some essential “likeness” or “unlikeness” (not talking about gender here) that acts as a grouping/repelling force. It is true that in some cultural settings such things emerge, but they are fluid, they come and go, and they may not emerge at all.
But they can be self fulfilling. Like the percentage of male speakers at TAM is self fulfilling.
Funny how these threads can end up being connected….
The fact that humans like to hang out with people like them doesn’t mean that relying on skin color to determine whether someone is like us isn’t stereotyping
I see where you’re coming from Stephanie, but in this context I’m not sure how far it goes. Given that non-black-people are more likely to be racist toward black people than other black people are, that would seem to be a motivating factor for black people to in general seek out other black people to hang out with. This ‘likeness’ is, yes, a response and defense to invalid stereotyping of others towards them, but on this point relying on skin color isn’t stereotyping on the part of the black person; to an extent it’s a rational response.
Well, I never said this was all simple, Spartan. If it were, there probably wouldn’t be any comments here.
Stephanie, I don’t know why JFK included no blacks in Profiles in Courage. I think it’s unfortunate he did not. There were certainly fine examples from which to choose. We are all, to some extent, shaped and swayed by the times in which we live, and subject to the prevailing attitudes of the day. JFK was not immune. Our nation has come a long way since the mid 50’s. Perhaps we simply weren’t ready. And why do YOU think he didn’t? No doubt some sinister white conspiracy in which “racial minorities and the underclass are played against each other in order to keep the upper class climbing into the ether and that the middle class helps out by playing along”. What a load of drivel! Here’s a site where bloggers pride themselves at least in part to skepticism and critical thinking, and along you come with a head full of socialist ideology as pestered with dogma as the most fundamentalist of Southern Baptists.
Despite your dishonest intellectual gymnastics, and how ever good you are at making excuses, you can’t avoid your double standard approach when it comes to race. It’s plain and simple. You have two sets of values: one for whites – one for blacks. Reactionary, but not necessarily racist? How long is that claim justified? Ten more years? 20 years? Another century? After 3 black presidents have sat in the oval office maybe? How long are you and your apologists going to continue to repress minorities by making excuses and failing to hold them accountable?
Here’s a link to an article by Walter Williams in defense of Bill Cosby who was vilified by the black community when he had the audacity to suggest they hold themselves accountable.
http://www.capmag.com/article.asp?ID=3719
How long are you and your apologists going to continue to repress minorities by making excuses and failing to hold them accountable?
I call Poe.
Greg, someone acting as a Poe would generally still choke on getting all up in my face about suggesting JFK did anything racist in one comment and coming back later to excuse that racism as a product of its times. They’d choke on claiming that the subject of the original post is racist in one statement and demanding to know how long blacks reacting to racism is justified in another. Even Poes generally have too much self-respect for that.
Stephanie, I’ll have to check in the moderation cue for a post that says “Ack — grrkk.. Ack Ack Grkk…”
OK, I’ll bite. What’s a Poe? As in Edgar Allen? Sterling Hayden Purity of Essence rant? What? What is it about a Poe that prevents their self respect from falling below a certain level?
Any comments on the Walter Williams article or is he just a Poe as well? “Ack — grrkk.. Ack Ack Grkk…” to him too, eh Greg?
Stephanie, I suggested certain organizations and actions are racist. You say no, these are reactionary – not racist. Assuming you are correct, I’m asking for how much longer that claim can be justified. Well?
I’ll post one more comment after this and then I’ll shut up. I promise. I’ll give you two the last word. You can call me racist and Poe and Ack ack geek geek all you want. I want to post something about my candidate for Profiles in Black Courage, Ken Hamblin. Thank you both for your indulgence. I didn’t mean to get in your face, Stephanie. I get carried away. It’s a “Poe thing” I guess. I’m sorry. I know your heart is in the right place. I just disagree with you.
Swami, I have to agree with you. According to my very straight forward, highly useful, and very controversial definition of “racist” the NAACP is racist.
How long will these organizations be “needed” … Some will continue forever (more or less) but become focused on something else. Others will become unnedded abvout the time people stop screaming about when they will become unneeded. That will especially be true when we see a laundry list of black-related organizations and the cry of racism but no one mentions Hibernians or the IACC and the like.
A Poe has come to mean a person pretending to be what they are by way of parody, in particular, a parody that meets the exceptions of “Poe’s Law” but for a broader range of topics other than fundamentalism.
Poe’s law:
“Without a winking smiley or other blatant display of humor, it is impossible to create a parody of Fundamentalism that SOMEONE won’t mistake for the real thing.”
Why does’nt everybody just look in the stands at an nba game and see who’s buying the tickets? It’s 90% whites who are paying to go see people grab their croch, choke their coach, beat their chest, attack people in the first rows, take guns into bars, can’t shoot free throws, oh yeah and white americans also pay to go see 7 foot europeans. So why dont you white people just boycott the nba games and write the tv sponsors and espn and tell them you’re not going to watch anymore nba coverage?
This game was played between Pittsburgh and Fordham at Madison Square Garden, and catapulted basketball into a national sensation. Since then basketball has been one of the most watched sports and in fact the March Madness, when almost 350 American colleges compete for the NCAA basketball crown is the most watched event in the United States.
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