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There's an interesting historical reference to 1991 and Craig Hodges of the Bulls:
Wednesday’s boycott recalls a similarly troubled time in US history following the brutal beating of Rodney King, a black man, by white police officers in 1991. The Chicago Bulls player Craig Hodges wanted his team, along with their opponents the Lakers, to boycott the opening game of the NBA finals so that: “we would stand in solidarity with the black community while calling out racism and economic inequality in the NBA, where there were no black owners and almost no black coaches despite the fact that 75% of the players in the league were African American”.
Bulls legend Michael Jordan told Hodges he was “crazy” while Lakers star Magic Johnson said: “That’s too extreme, man.”
From Wikipedia:
In 1996, Hodges filed a $40 million lawsuit against the NBA and its then 29 teams, claiming they blackballed him for his association with Louis Farrakhan and criticism of "African-American professional athletes who failed to use their considerable wealth and influence to assist the poor and disenfranchised." After he was waived by the Bulls in 1992, he did not receive an offer or a tryout from a single NBA team, even though he was only 32 years old and still able to contribute to contenders. The lawsuit claimed that Bulls assistant coach Jim Cleamons told him that the team was troubled by his criticism of players' lack of involvement in inner-city communities. The suit also claimed Billy McKinney, the director of player personnel for the Seattle SuperSonics initially showed interest in Hodges in 1992, and then shortly after backed away, telling Hodges he could do nothing because "brothers have families, if you know what I mean." While a Bulls official said Hodges was waived as he was getting old and could not play defense, head coach Phil Jackson said, "I also found it strange that not a single team called to inquire about him. Usually, I get at least one call about a player we've decided not to sign. And yes, he couldn't play much defense, but a lot of guys in the league can't, but not many can shoot from his range, either."
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Craig_Hodges
I've just read that despite being closer to Milwaukee, Kenosha is technically within Chicago, so if the Bulls are in the playoffs (I haven't been following the season), that might concern them, too.
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... and now it's all NBA playoff games that are off tonight.
Those shootings appear to have been murder, and were perhaps done by the arrested 17-year old.
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Just wanted to add a little note on this here thread about blackface and if you see it anywhere in your communities to please challenge it and call it out as being wrong.
Speaking from my experiences over the last year, I moved the family out of London (where we had been for 10 years) to Haslemere in West Sussex/Surrey. My family and I were shocked at how different life was out there and we ended up back in London. There were quite a few incidents within the 6 months we were there.
My daughter was made fun of at the school over the way she looked. For want of a better term we are a mixed family and I guess wasn't many of us out there.
I stepped in to help calm down a gentleman who was verbally abused and then subsequently lost his cool, at the local Tesco FFS.
Then there was the other weird looks and I guess unexplained weird behavior but the use of blackface out there as some kind of traditional bullshit was really shocking.
Case in point at the end of the road there was 'carnival' planned, a quick google of the 'Liphook Carnival' and my wife spotted a picture of a child in blackface WTF, we decided not to go.
Christmas time and there was a little performance planned at the local museum by a group of amateur dramatics called 'Chiddingfold Tipteerers' thought it would be nice to take the family so once again I decided to google them and low and behold they quite enjoy a spot of inappropriate blackface bullshit, not just that but they are quite defensive of its use as a 'cultural tradition'.
Look blackface is wrong and people find it offensive it makes them feel uncomfortable please help stop it now.
I guess I am writing this here so another family/individual doesn't have the same experience we did. Sure there were a few reasons we didn't stay but the ignorance out there was truly shocking to us and a major factor in us not taking to the area. We randomly picked it as nice countryside and living in cities for so long didn't expect the racism to be so prevalent.
TLDR if you live in the countryside I guess in particular Haslemere and you see people doing blackface tell them its wrong and ask them to please stop it.
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The Bulls missed the playoffs this year.
Craig Hodges was the original Colin Kaepernick, they were both tossed out of their leagues by a collusion of owners and management.
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@Settle your story and experience sounds harrowing and traumatic. As a mixed race guy with a black GF I can’t imagine living outside London or any large city in the UK, of course I have always loved cycle in the Home Counties and beyond but living there and feeling welcome.. no chance.
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It was to be fair. My daughter became quite withdrawn and we knew that we had to do something about it, ended up pulling her out of the school and homeschooling. Thank fuck that we got back to London before this whole corona thing, she is back to her happy self now. Hindsight is great but perhaps I should have been more skeptical of the home counties. My wife grew up in Jamaica and didn't have many clues about the English countryside and how things are out there.
The black lives matter movement has helped my daughter realise that there is a wider issue that many people experience prejudice and she wasn't alone her thoughts and feelings, I am thankful for the conversations that are opening up over race. Also thankful for this here thread.
Like yourself I am also mixed (Dad European-Mum Ethiopian) and I grew up in suburban Birmingham my mum taught me not to pay attention to race and not too 'see it' something that I don't particularly wish to teach to my kids, she almost had to disguise many parts of herself in order to I guess pass in her communities, didn't teach me her language (Tigrinyan) as a child and its something I've had to learn as an adult. I don't blame her though as arriving here as a black woman in the 80s must have been fraught with many more challenges. I am adding this back story as a point to not assume anything about people, language predetermines perception. My father went to work in Ethiopia where he met my mum and when he wrote a message home to say he had met an African woman his parents were so narrow minded they told him if he did marry her they never wanted to see him again, so I never had any contact with the European side of my family growing up, I've tried to change this somewhat now my grandparents from his side have passed away.
Sorry for my waffling post I guess it can be summed up by saying don't assume. Sounds like we have much in common, come to the bridges ride and we can chat shit.
Haslemere is now know in our house as 'stink-lemere' great for riding but IMHO that is about it.
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@Settle thanks for sharing your story. I might not have all the answers, but it is good to talk, share experiences, gain understanding and importantly encourage young people like your daughter to develop self worth, sense of identity, be respectful, yet confidence to confront racial bullying. In the short time I have been with my GF I have learnt so much about being black and born in Britain. I am in awe of GF resilience yet staggered by the extent of prejudice that exists today even in London.
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Saw these on the Carnival live stream yesterday.
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Have only lurked so far as I'm not sure what I can contribute by writing stuff here being white, middle aged etc etc ad nauseam, but found this on insta which I found interesting and heartening. Made me think (again) about how it's always white people in ads and videos.
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All are here to contribute, we're trying to make anti racists rather than non racists. People of colour want to be heard and not dismissed. That requires a lot unlearning by white people. It starts with a conversation and then actively doing something in the communities you live ,only then can we start to change the status quo.
Here's a good example https://www.instagram.com/tv/CEiirNSJVo9/?igshid=6vu3dp75yz05 -
People of colour want to be heard and not dismissed. That requires a lot unlearning by white people.
Sure. I only meant I don't really have anything of unique value to add here, so rather than barge in I tend to hang back and read what others write.
Only concrete thing I've done lately is I've gotten better at calling people out at work about racist shit. It's surprising how many people there are that have chosen to work in hospitals, supposedly to help people, but are also bigoted racist f*cks.
Here's a guy I've learnt a few things from lately
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More on the protests in US sports
https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/extra/1g500y2qln/From-Trayvon-Martin-to-Colin-Kaepernick
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Indeed we all have to play our part
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I guess in the US there are so many guns knocking around that there is always the fear that you're going to get shot and the response seems to be generally based on that worst case scenario.
I remember reading an article where a couple of US police were seconded over here for a while and they were amazed at UK police, often not armed, talking down people with knives rather than just challenging and possibly shooting them.
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Here's another one of those puzzling cases in which an academic pretends to be black, similar to that of Rachel Dolezal.
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/sep/03/jessica-krug-white-professor-pretended-black
Oliver Schick
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#blacklivesmatter racism is a human problem
Posted by
@chokalateboywonder
Bucks boycotted their NBA playoff game tonight in protest at yet another shooting. Good on them, and they’ve got a history of taking a stand.
Also good their opponents - Magic - refused the win.