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22nd December 2018, 05:58 PM | #41 |
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I guess I'm unclear what the problem is. If you want to make money in the basketball profesion and you have the talent sign with an NBA team.. Or don't. Go to a foreign league, play for the globetrotters, play for Ice Cube's league (BIG3), start your own rival league, or get into coaching. If you want to make the argument that too many old white dudes own too much, doesn't that apply, like, to everything?
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22nd December 2018, 06:01 PM | #42 |
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I like LaBron James, for a number of reasons. Hyperbole, yes. Racism? No.
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22nd December 2018, 06:38 PM | #43 |
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An easy way to determine if the statement was racist would be to switch "white" to "black" and see if it holds up.
In this case I would say it doesn't. The reference is to a small group of white men, not all white people, there is not generalization about white people in the statement. The second thing to note is, are NFL teams pretty much all owned by Old White Guys? If so then it's an accurate description, not racism. Racism is where you use a, usually negative, generalization about a racism to describe a person or group. For instance saying that a black person is a drug dealer because all blacks are drug dealers. Had he said that the old white men in charge of the NFL had a slave owner mentality like all whites, that would have been racist. What he said wasn't. |
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22nd December 2018, 06:46 PM | #44 |
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Complaining that a bunch of old black men own something would be highly inflammatory. It would be about like someone complaining that Jews control the entertainment industry and that's gotten many people fired. Ie Rick Sanchez.
Eta: what James said isn't exactly racsist in of itself, its our reaction to it that is. |
22nd December 2018, 07:20 PM | #45 |
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22nd December 2018, 08:36 PM | #46 |
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Again, quite true. But how many of us get to do exactly what we live and die for, and receives a king's ransom as a bonus? Really finding it hard to work up any sympathy here. Professional athletes have notoriously short careers in their fields, the occasional George Foremans excepted. The coin made during their 20's is often exponentially more than what others will earn in their entire lifetimes. Perhaps, like others, they could do something else career-wise afterwards? Not too unreasonable, I would think.
Agreed, not just all fun. There are pressures and relentless conditioning. Still, I think most are more than willing to make those sacrifices to do what they do.
Quote:
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23rd December 2018, 03:07 AM | #47 |
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This place reminds me of an aging priest who has begun to doubt his faith. He is depressed because he thinks he dedicated his life to a lie.
The same is true for white boomer "skeptics." He has invested much of his life thinking the world would eventually be "color blind" and "not care about race." He thought if he could just get the 7.5 billion non-whites to think like him, |
23rd December 2018, 04:23 AM | #48 |
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23rd December 2018, 04:55 AM | #49 |
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It's not even an original piece of hyperbole:
I am a slave, says Ronaldo as he pushes for Madrid move It seems some ridiculously highly paid sports stars regard the notion that they should actually have to fulfil the terms of their contracts as being akin to slavery, it seems to be more about ego than racism. |
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23rd December 2018, 05:16 AM | #50 |
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23rd December 2018, 09:06 AM | #51 |
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Haven't read the whole thread, not going to, but....
Professional athlete says something stupid. In other news, water is wet and the sun rose in the east this morning. |
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23rd December 2018, 09:35 AM | #52 |
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23rd December 2018, 11:30 AM | #53 |
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'A knave; a rascal; an eater of broken meats; a base, proud, shallow, beggardly, three-suited, hundred-pound, filthy, worsted-stocking knave; a lily-livered, action-taking knave, a whoreson, glass-gazing, superservicable, finical rogue;... the son and heir of a mongral bitch: one whom I will beat into clamorous whining, if thou deniest the least syllable of thy addition."' -The Bard |
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23rd December 2018, 11:37 AM | #54 |
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23rd December 2018, 11:59 AM | #55 |
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This is exactly my reaction. Seeing players earning big money really upsets some people, whereas seeing the owners, or the CEOs of failing companies, etc., doing so does not cause nearly such a reaction.
Such salaries for players are portrayed by these folks as "undeserved." I guess seeing players make out well causes even dyed-in-the-wool conservatives to forget completely their commitment to the free market. Why do the top players earn multi-million of dollars during the (often brief) years they can play? Because the top players bring in more than enough money in turn to make substantial profits for the owners. Because they are worth it in a simple economic sense! People pay to see them. That's the American way, right? You can't be earning too much if that is what you are worth in a competitive market to the organization paying you! Even more so - why would anyone earning a substantial of money upset others? Especially people who did not come from a life of privilege and family wealth. Good for them! And no skin off my teeth, unless it results in me being priced out of tickets. Is that the problem? Frankly I doubt ticket prices would drop much if we undercut play salaries. And aren't most of us watching on TV? So is it jealousy or a feeling that the common people (perhaps certain common people in particular) need to be "kept in their places?" I wonder... |
23rd December 2018, 12:26 PM | #56 |
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23rd December 2018, 12:38 PM | #57 |
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23rd December 2018, 12:41 PM | #58 |
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But the CEOs aren't complaining that they are slaves.
What surprises me is that any criticism of certain sports people receives, from some quarters, an outraged defence, as if the very act of not treating these individuals as the gods they believe themselves to be is a kind of blasphemy. |
23rd December 2018, 12:43 PM | #59 |
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23rd December 2018, 12:44 PM | #60 |
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23rd December 2018, 12:53 PM | #61 |
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24th December 2018, 06:27 AM | #62 |
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24th December 2018, 04:54 PM | #63 |
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24th December 2018, 04:57 PM | #64 |
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25th December 2018, 03:04 PM | #65 |
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Regarding the linked article and ignoring the posts in this thread, I think James makes valid points about the NFL. Kapernick has been blacklisted by the team owners, who seek to dictate control over aspects of the players that have nothing to do with football. Was his comment about the NFL owners racist? Maybe so, but justified in context.
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25th December 2018, 03:06 PM | #66 |
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Hand me my pearls! They needs some clutching right now! And my knickers need twisting!
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25th December 2018, 04:32 PM | #67 |
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Aspects that have everything to do with football. Pro sports are entertainment. The public personas of professional entertainers have always been an important part of the business of entertainment.
And we only have to look outside of the entertainment industry to see a double standard in your idea. |
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25th December 2018, 04:56 PM | #68 |
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The thread is about multimillion dollar celebrities complaining about being treated like a slave. If the burden is too much he can do one thing that other slaves could not do and that is find another job/employer. If multi million dollar CEOs start whinging about being slaves, or cry about comparing their jobs to being forced to whore themselves out on a nightly basis, ect. let me know and I will call out their BS as well. Forgive me for reserving my sympathetic outrage for actual victims of slavery.
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25th December 2018, 05:01 PM | #69 |
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Oh no! and now they are going to give him 50 lashes, stick him in the hotbox for a day and send him out in the fields while they resell his wife and children! If only he had a way to escape and start a new life! Thank god us mere mortals with finite resources and below average wage jobs get to lord it over him.
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25th December 2018, 05:10 PM | #70 |
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Oh no he is just claiming that following your employers job related orders for an agreed amount of compensation is exhibiting a slave mentality. Why can't the employees tell the owner how to run his business? Stupid old white slave driver mentality. Pays people millions to play with a ball for a few months of the year. Tells his employees what he expects, Oh The humanity!
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26th December 2018, 01:52 AM | #71 |
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Professional sports like the NFL is different from other professions.
Imagine if, after graduating from high school or college with a degree in, say computer science, that companies could "draft" you and then you would have to go work for that company and no other, or find another field of work besides what you studied in college. And you couldn't go to work for any other company until you put in 6 years at the company that "drafted" you, unless they "release" you or trade you to another company (which you have no say in). So it's not just a normal job. |
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26th December 2018, 05:42 AM | #72 |
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What does everyone else do who graduates from college with a degree and then either cannot find a job in their chosen field, or suddenly realise that they do not actually like their job in their chosen field? Especially when everyone else is not being paid millions of dollars to suffer through a job.
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26th December 2018, 05:51 AM | #73 |
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26th December 2018, 07:35 AM | #74 |
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How little does one have to be earning before one is allowed to voice concerns over the contracts offered by a monopoly?
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26th December 2018, 07:47 AM | #75 |
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Professional sports are weird. Owners very much so have a cartel and league rules have a tremendous affect on the athletes. The players also have very strong unions and have been very effective in the past for advocacy.
Things like the draft and salary caps have negative impacts on players, especially young players, but also help keep leagues competitive by allowing marginal teams with small budgets to keep up with the bigger teams. The interests of an open, fair job market are a lower priority to keeping the league itself diverse, competitive, and interesting. I find it hard to get animated by the plight of the wealthy athlete. They have a strong union, popular support, and all the money needed to hire lawyers to forcefully advocate for their best interests. These guys aren't exactly the downtrodden working man. The real scandals of exploiting players occurs at the college level, where student athletes are explicitly forbidden from enjoying any part of the enormous sums of money generated by their efforts. |
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26th December 2018, 08:01 AM | #76 |
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Like a racist?
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26th December 2018, 08:05 AM | #77 |
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26th December 2018, 08:14 AM | #78 |
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26th December 2018, 10:10 AM | #79 |
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26th December 2018, 10:14 AM | #80 |
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