joeschmoe wrote:
phinsfansc wrote:
Also, since I am a man of color I don't buy race being a cop out for any black man.
I didn't say it IS a cop out, I said that it can be. I don't want it to come out the wrong way because I know it is such a sensitive topic, and I am in no way, shape or form racist. I just think that it's not right that the media will turn tiny issues into a race issue if it involves somebody of color, but the questions that toby and rob konrad got are completetly ignored.
So if it's such a sensitive and real topic, Then why can it not be a topic of conversation? Again, not defending Hyde, as his writing shows he is not addressing the issue race may play in NFL-player relations seriously, he just threw it out there for the sake of an article. In this case, I agree that he should have developed his ideas more thoroughly before implying that race had something to do with it.
I'm not attacking anyone on this board or saying Ireland is racist. But the "race card" thing is nonsense. Like I said in my other post, that label intimidates people from talking about real issues of race and trivializes those issues. It goes along with the naive "color blind society" view that believes race doesn't play an issue in these day-to-day situations, when in fact it very well could. We don't know anything about Jeff Ireland or the way he conducts business, for all you know it could have been a question filled with racial prejudice, and that's not a hard thing to imagine considering we ALL deal with racial prejudice in our heads to some extent.
Hyde made a mistake in not backing up his article better with a serious discussion about race, rather he just threw it out there abruptly, so I understand your complaints. But in general terms , there is as much evidence to suggest that Ireland's question was race fueled as there is to support that it wasn't, yet we automatically pull out the dreaded "race card", automatically eliminating it as a topic of conversation and deeming anyone who brings it up as an idiot. That is a naive way of looking at race, a way of pretending like it doesn't exist. That a man of Ireland's success and stature would not reduce himself to such racism. I would like to believe that, but we have been proven time and time again that race plays a hurtful role in America's institutions.