This is not just an overreaction to this G7 massacre. But this guy can not get $55M per year. He has a lot of skill and is a great player. I used to prefer him to Tatum but just the bad decisions on the court are unforgivable. Also as a person, he is not a good dude. This may even be a rare scenario where trading him for a bunch of really good players may be worth it even if we do not get a stud in return that is on his level.
P.S. I wish we just lost in 4 after this being the outcome, at least Slow Joe would maybe be gone and we could have Nurse or a competent coach. I'd honestly even have Doc back at this point, which is saying something since the last 15 years for him has not been good.
It's fair to critique a player's flaws and he definitely deserves it after this game. I'm pretty hard on him and have a history of being onboard with a trade. But you don't know these guys at all. It's a reach to attack players personally.
The guy defends Kanye, Kris & Black Hebrew Israelites.. you serious?
Not to mention violent criminals and woman-beaters juts because they are black, and openly going to a Celtics games wearing a "black power" jacket.
If any white basketball player tried to defend a violent white criminal or wore a "white power" jacket I can guarantee that they would be suspended and fined by either the Celtics or the league, so I struggle to understand the double standard.
I'm not sure if he is genuinely a bad guy or if he's just a young and impressionable kid who's been influenced by the wrong people, but some of his actions and words are extremely off-putting.
If White people were a discriminated minority then you’d have an analogous situation but that isn’t the history in this country. White power connotes Whites over other races; supremacy. Black power is an equality-seeking message. Like it or not, America’s history places the races in a different mentality and makes the analogy you’re trying to make incorrect and poorly informed.
Whites in America - when the term Black Power came into being - had the power to legally discriminate. They did so (along with frequent impunity from violence) by refusing to allow blacks into hotels, restaurants, bathrooms, not allowing them in certain neighborhoods, providing them with poor schools, fewer opportunities, systematic and very directly racism. When Blacks began to fight back it made sense to gain power through messages of self-worth, messages of fighting racism as opposed to White Power which sends a message of blatant racism and supremacy given American history. Many Black Americans still feel racism is alive and well in America and that is why the reaction to police shootings/killings is so visceral. Doesn’t mean Jaylen is right in his reaction in this case, but your attempt to simplify through a non-analogous analogy neglects historical perspective.
America has a long history of racism committed by white people against black people. This is well known and well documented and nobody would every try to dispute that. Many people (including many white people, mind you) fought and gave their lives to help eradicate that way of like and to make sure it became history and remained as such.
We don't live in the 1940s anymore. American citizens today all have the same rights and opportunities under the law. Trying to imply that a black man raping a girl is not as bad as a white man raping a woman just because the black man's ancestors faced racism 100 year ago is disgusting. I guarantee you that girl being raped doesn't feel any better knowing that the perpetrator was black. Likewise the family of the kid who just got shot in the street doesn't grieve any less because their son got shot by a black man instead of a white man.
Crime is crime. Violent acts are violent acts. They are equally disgusting and despicable regardless of the colour of skin of either the suspect or the victim. Standing up for a rapist and woman-beater just because he's black is absolutely disgusting on Jaylen's part. He may be young, but he's not THAT young and he's certainly not stupid. He's old enough and smart enough to know better, so it's difficult for me to just shrug it off as "he doesn't know what he's saying so I'll let it go". He knows exactly what he's saying. Whether he truly believes what he's saying or just feels social pressure (from friends, family or other people with influence in his life) to say it is another matter.
Also you describe white power as a "superirority" movement and black power as an "equality" movement. I don't agree with that at all. Black Power is a black superiority movement, and I don't see how it is any different at all. They are both disgraceful, immoral and should be treated as such.
This whole recent concept of trying to combat racism by supporting different types of racism is one of the biggest problems with western society today. You don't fix racism with counter-racism. Just like you don't fix rape by counter-rape or murder with counter-murder.
Just about every race of people has been the subject of racial discrimination and violence by other racial groups at some point in history. Whites in south Africa, jews in Germany, Greeks by the Turks, Croatians vs Serbs - I could go on forever. If you allow bad historic acts to justify bad future acts then you're basically just giving everybody on the planet a green light to murder, pillage, assault and rape each other at will. It's a truly fudged up mentality.
The only way there is any hope of achieve "equality" is to stop judging people by their skin colour and start judging all people as purely by their acts and actions. The story shouldn't be "black man got shot by a white cop". The story should be "a rapist and wife beater got shot by a Police officer after trying to kidnap his gf's kids, resist arrest, and stab an Officer with a knife". The only thing that ISN'T relevant in that scenario is the skin colour of the people involved, and yet that is the one single thing JB focusses on. I'm sorry, but that is a problematic mentality and is the type of mentality that breeds hate, which in turn just drives further crime and violence.
Your ideal is one I can hope for as well. Obviously we have different points of view as to where we are, and see the “power” slogans having different messaging/ meaning. I think you’re wrong but respect your opinion, hope you respect mine, and hope that your ideal does comes to fruition. The challenge is that such a change doesn’t happen unilaterally. Ideally you’d hope that one side could just do the right thing, but reality is that if you try to judge people solely by the content of their character and you are then treated in a way that feels judged by race, it’s hard.
Your views about the 1940’s is an exaggerated attempt to suggest ‘we’re over that now’. You are entitled to believe that but I hope you hear that not everyone agrees that is the case. Judgments based on race still exist - sometimes as blatant racism (hopefully rarely) and sometimes in milder forms such as bias. As a child of the 60’s and as a person who witnessed forced busing 1st hand in the 70s - and listening through the years to experiences of people of color - it’s my opinion that we haven’t achieved the ideal of race-blindness, and I don’t really think we’re very close. But that’s my thought. And my hope is that people like Jaylen will ultimately do their best to promote the ideal. I don’t believe he’s forging that path yet, but I haven’t given up on him and I hope he gets there in time.
I do respect your view, and I appreciate having the ability to discuss subjects like this respectfully without resorting to insults or abuse. That is refreshing these days.
Regarding things changing...I think a bit of both is true. I absolutely think things have changed today compared to the 1940's. Back then the country was openly racist and was totally ok with being that way. The country as a whole saw black people as less than human, or at the very least "less than" a white person. Black people didn't have the ability to vote, didn't have the same ability to earn money, buy houses, etc. There was no way in hell a black person would have ever been considered for a major political position, been allowed to own/operate a large enterprise, etc.
Today that's very different. There is no law that classifies a black person as having any less rights then a white person. We've had a black president. Right now we even have a black female vice-president. Black athletes (like Michael Jordan, Lebron James and Tiger Woods) and celebrities (like Samual L Jackson, Denzel Washington and Morgan Freeman) are among some of the wealthiest, most respected and most influential people in the Western World. There are tonnes of black men and women in high paying executive positions in private companies, public companies and in politics.
Right now there are infinite examples out there serving as proof that if you work hard, study hard, and make smart life decisions, then you can be successful - no matter your skin colour or you beliefs. That is a dramatically different reality compared to the 1940s.
THAT BEING SAID does this mean that racism no longer exists? Absolutely not. It does and unfortunately it always will. White kids who are brought up in racist homes, and fed racist viewpoints from a young age more often then not are going to grow up with an element of racial bias - there is no stopping that. The same is true of black kids growing up in black homes where they are being taught to hate white people because of things that have occured in the past - that's never going to be eradicated either. In fact I would argue that there are probably more young black children brought up to hate white people then the other way around - and some may say that is understandable or justified. I think it's unfortunate and a terrible thing, but at the same time I can understand it and empathise. As much as logic says "don't be racist", unfortunately when somebody feels very strongly about something emotionally it can be very difficult for that person to change their own feeling, even if they want to. Even if a part of them knows it isn't right.
Another major problem though is black-on-black crime as well. Because if you look at the crime statistics it's clear that many of the worst crime areas in the US are areas that have predominantly black populations. If statistics say "area with more black people is more likely to be a high crime area" then that is going to contribute to racial bias as well - because there are going to be white people out there who are going to associate violence and crime with black people, which in turn will lead to white people having an instinctive fear of black people. If white people are afraid of black people, then that fear is more likely to lead to responses like a lack of trust, lack of comfort, lack of desire to be around black people, and a higher probability to overreact when they see a potential threat who happens to be black. Again this is horrible and is something we dont want to see, but it's something that's going to be instinctively passed on in some white families from parents to children, and feelings like this are also going to be hard to drive out when they are instilled so deeply.
There's no doubt that there is still racial bias. I have no doubt that there are still black people who are looked down upon or treated different because of their colour. I'm sure the same happens in the reverse order as well. It's a complex situation that is very difficult to ever fully eradicate, and certainly is not something that can be changed over night, or in the space of 3-4 years. But I think it's undisputed that the situation is improving, and that racism is reducing over time. As people live in more egalitarian times they are going to gradually grow more comfortable coexisting with people of the opposite race, and that will result in them being a little less biased in the way they bring up their kids. And the next generation will then be once again that little bit more accepting, which will then allow people to grow closer again, and that will then flow on to the next generation, and the next generation, etc. As time goes on racism will gradually reduce and will slowly filter out, but it will take generations for that to happen. But I think that's something we just need to be patent with and allow to play out, while doing all we can to set better examples for future generations. -
People understandably want to speed up that process, and I certainly understand why - nobody wants to just sit there and endure racism for 100 years while it slowly fades out. But unfortunately many of the approaches people are taking to try to speed things up (like trying to teach in schools and society that white people are evil and are the enemy, or trying to be lenient on people of colour when they commit harsh crimes) is only going to make things worse by creating more tension and more hate, and it's going to send progress backwards. How are you going to stop white people from viewing black people as aggressive, violent criminals if you're increasing the amount of crime commited by black people (by defunding police, bailing out violent protestors, making excuses for violent black criminals, etc? This is only going to make white people who already have racist feeling become even more afraid / less trusting of black people which sends progress in the absolute wrong direction.
I think that in this past decade, things have been the best that have ever been in terms of equality - not only across races, but also across genders, people with different sexual orientation, religion, etc. The reason why things are better then ever is because slowly, generation by geneation, people are starting to teach their chidren that they don't need to fear people of different races/colours, and that they need to be tolerant of people with different religons or sexual orientations. And just naturally those future generations are becoming more and more tolerant and accepting as a result. And that trend WILL continue if you allow it to.
At least that is my view on things. And yes, I absolutely know that it's not the answer people want to hear - that the answer to reducing racism is "just wait it out". But we it's not necessarily so grim because there ARE things we can do to speed it up. As induvial we can all make an effort to be more accepting, more tolerant, mor understanding. And we can all teach our children and our nieces and our nephews to be more tolerant.
And if you are somebody like Jaylen Brown you can stop making defending bad people just because they are black. Send the message out there that no, we shouldn't hate this cop for shooting this black man. We should stand by the cop for protecting himself against a violent criminal and for trying to do what's right. Send the message that no, being black is NOT a justification for being a bad person. Lets all try to be better, no matter what we look like. Lets all try to be better so that hopefully one day in the future nobody needs to deal with the type of bias and judgment that manu people still face today.
Sorry for the rant - this is something I am quite passionate about so I do sometimes get a little carried away.
