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Racial Injustice's Impact on Sports


CS85

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25 minutes ago, JerseyJimmy said:

 

there's a lot to be said about why certain types of people (specifically talking about americans) hold hockey on such a high pedestal. not to be said here, but there's a lot to be said.

 

There is a lot to be said .... you won't be hearing it by Sidney Crosby though

 

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17 minutes ago, GDAWG said:

 

They might have postponed if their bubbles were in America.  But they are in Canada.  

 

It's more that if you're Canadian or European, especially playing for a Canadian organization, you're at kind of a remove from America's race war. That's not to say those places don't have race-relations problems of their own, they do, but not this particular race war. So I kind of understand how the reaction would be to say that wow, this is terrible, but still stop short of going on strike about it. It's likely that this is the wrong approach, but they can try to get it right the next time American cops murder a black man in broad daylight, which I believe they have scheduled for Friday afternoon at 2:43 EDT.

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38 minutes ago, the admiral said:

 

It's more that if you're Canadian or European, especially playing for a Canadian organization, you're at kind of a remove from America's race war. That's not to say those places don't have race-relations problems of their own, they do, but not this particular race war. So I kind of understand how the reaction would be to say that wow, this is terrible, but still stop short of going on strike about it. It's likely that this is the wrong approach, but they can try to get it right the next time American cops murder a black man in broad daylight, which I believe they have scheduled for Friday afternoon at 2:43 EDT.

 

Most of the European players in the NHL have largely come from Eastern Europe (Czech Republic, Slovakia), Switzerland, Scandinavia (Denmark, Norway, Sweden and Finland) and Russia so many of them have probably never grown up seeing Asians or Africans in their home countries and they come from countries without any colonial pasts, except Russia (and their only overseas territory was Alaska), Sweden (owned St. Barts until 1878) and Denmark (Greenland and Danish West Indies until 1917 when it was sold to the US).  I think that if most of the European NHL Players were French, British, Dutch, Portuguese, German, Spanish or Belgian, things might be different.  

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Sounds like both LA teams are going to boycott remainder of season.  

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8 minutes ago, CS85 said:

Sounds like both LA teams are going to boycott remainder of season.  

I'm hearing the final decision will be based on the outcome of the Board of Governors' meeting tomorrow on what action ownership will take to help the players fight for justice while isolated in the bubble.

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4 minutes ago, LMU said:

I'm hearing the final decision will be based on the outcome of the Board of Governors' meeting tomorrow on what action ownership will take to help the players fight for justice while isolated in the bubble.

 

Mark Cuban seems like he would be on the players side.  Not sure about the other owners.

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This isn't about the owners taking the sides of the players and saying their strike is legitimate, its about making the owners choose to lose millions of dollars by not having playoff games or making a couple of phone calls to other rich white folks in power they are connected with who could potentially start to make changes in political and social circles.

 

If the NBA just votes to close up shop, everybody loses and nothing improves.  The players have leverage right now.

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2 hours ago, BringBackTheVet said:

 

Is it really a shock that the league comprised of predominately white Europeans & Scandinavians isn't taking "Black Lives Matter" as seriously as the league with predominantly black players? 

 

Regardless, sports need to start doing more than just lip service. 

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2 minutes ago, AustinFromBoston said:

Is it really a shock that the league comprised of predominately white Europeans & Scandinavians isn't taking "Black Lives Matter" as seriously as the league with predominantly black players? 

 

Regardless, sports need to start doing more than just lip service. 

 

Nope.  And I base this on the geography of these players.  A large majority of these players come from Norway, Sweden, Finland, Denmark, Russia, Latvia, Slovakia, The Czech Republic, Switzerland and Russia.  None of these countries had any history of enslaving an entire continent (Africa).  So I don't think they would be to inclined to take this stuff seriously anyways.  Also many of these players probably did not see their first black person until they went to North America for the first time.

 

However, the NHL is also Canadian and they have a long history of Black Canadians in their country.  I don't know how race relations are up there, but the Canadians in the NHL should at least take this seriously.  I know that Dallas Stars Jamie Benn was.  He was at the BLM protests in Dallas before he went into the bubble.  

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I'm sure a lot of the NHL guys are on the side of the righteous here, as evidenced by the statements they have made earlier and yes, Chara casually marching with his neighbors etc -- but, when you have few to no black players, you're probably not feeling the issues at hand as intensely as black athletes are, and maybe don't feel the urgency to strike as protest (or as emotional decompression) the way a majority-black league does.

 

There is maybe a solidarity issue at play but that's way past my pay grade.

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9 hours ago, schlim said:

This isn't about the owners taking the sides of the players and saying their strike is legitimate, its about making the owners choose to lose millions of dollars by not having playoff games or making a couple of phone calls to other rich white folks in power they are connected with who could potentially start to make changes in political and social circles.

 

I'm having trouble mapping this one out. The issue at hand is a police force that's been militarized by Afghanistan/Iraq veterans and equipment surplus on one side, and infiltrated by white nationalists on the other, all in a country that spits on both black people and its underclass, which itself is disproportionately black. I don't know how Dan Gilbert and James Dolan are supposed to get on the blower and solve that. We already have an elite that has never been more culturally liberal and all it's gotten us is where we are now.

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1 minute ago, the admiral said:

 

I'm having trouble mapping this one out. The issue at hand is a police force that's been militarized by Afghanistan/Iraq veterans and equipment surplus on one side, and infiltrated by white nationalists on the other, all in a country that spits on both black people and its underclass, which itself is disproportionately black. I don't know how Dan Gilbert and James Dolan are supposed to get on the blower and solve that. We already have an elite that has never been more culturally liberal and all it's gotten us is where we are now.

I think the idea is that these ultra-rich owners use their money for good and pour it into movements like BLM. If their players won't play and earn them money, they'll have to mitigate the risk to their wallets by giving in to the players' demands, just like any other strike. The difference is that this strike is for racial justice, not better working conditions or higher pay. 

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Corporations have been pouring money into Black Lives Matter all summer. It's been a redistribution of wealth to the professional-managerial class. It's been great for people who work at not-for-profits or aspire to work for not-for-profits but it clearly hasn't kept any guns holstered.

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I don't think it's just a pressure thing, though apparently the Bucks got an audience with Wisconsin's lieutenant governor so there's that. Seems like a lot of these guys are not in the headspace to play, they can't be with family and community, and maybe they're willing to forego games and paychecks instead.

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52 minutes ago, the admiral said:

 

I'm having trouble mapping this one out. The issue at hand is a police force that's been militarized by Afghanistan/Iraq veterans and equipment surplus on one side, and infiltrated by white nationalists on the other, all in a country that spits on both black people and its underclass, which itself is disproportionately black. I don't know how Dan Gilbert and James Dolan are supposed to get on the blower and solve that. We already have an elite that has never been more culturally liberal and all it's gotten us is where we are now.

I'm struggling with this too. The owners can't really solve anything. So what is it that they should do besides agree to cancel the season? They are probably for a cancelation because I would think they are hemorrhaging money (not sure if this is actually true). 

And if they do cancel the season, will the players be happy enough to return in a few months? Or do they want or need more from others such as lawmakers?

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By essentially performing a general strike, they refuse to be the distraction people want.  What they want ownership to do is beyond me, but in my mind this is a general middle finger to the "stick to sports" crowd who uses pro sports as a safe space to ignore police (and otherwise) violence against black Americans.

 

edit:  bunch of NFL teams aren't practicing today.

 

 

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There's always been a disconnect between the political priorities of most players and most owners (I'm dramatically oversimplifying here). In 2016, LeBron James supported his candidate while Dan Gilbert supported the other.

 

I think what the players may eventually be heading toward is to ask that the people who pay their salaries stop also supporting financially those more likely to be okay with (or however you want to define it) black people being executed by police officers. I know that's a political statement, but it's also kind of the crux of the matter here.

 

There's been an undercurrent of idea over the past few years for NBA players to go all-in on player empowerment by starting their own league. Big 3 was a start on how that might work; if there aren't substantial commitments from the owners to do things differently, then there's always that risk of LeBron, Chris Paul, KD, and others wishing the NBA well but then starting their own league. If The Rock can buy XFL, LeBron can start the XBA. Or whatever you want to call it. There's more leverage here than I think people think.

1 hour ago, ShutUpLutz! said:

and the drunken doodoobags jumping off the tops of SUV's/vans/RV's onto tables because, oh yeah, they are drunken drug abusing doodoobags

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