STrib Letter to Editors on Gophers "end racism" uniforms

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NotAFanOfBecky said:
Oh oh, I can see where this is going to go. I do find it interesting that the Strib published only 2 letters, and both were like that (I bet many wrote in that liked them but they neglected to report them). Hmmm...I can't remember if they do objective journalism over there. Oh, wait that's right, there is no such thing as objective journalism.
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Of course they did. Go with the two most extreme and knuckle-dragging comments that were received, print those, and you get the desired effect; putting any dissenting opinions in that frame to fortify the ongoing narrative.
 


Gold Vision said:
There’s a huge difference here. MAGA is literally a political campaign slogan. The uniforms didn’t say “Black Lives Matter” they said End Racism. Those are both terrible examples.

People mad at this statement deny there is an issue.
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Thank YOU SO MUCH! This is exactly what needed to be said.

The fact that people are trying to conflate any statement regarding social justice or anti-racism with the Black Lives Matter organization is truly sad and desperate.
 

WriterGoph said:
Thank YOU SO MUCH! This is exactly what needed to be said.

The fact that people are trying to conflate any statement regarding social justice or anti-racism with the Black Lives Matter organization is truly sad and desperate.
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Honestly think some people don't comprehend that there is a difference ...

That was one of the main goals of the Qanon cohort in attacking BLM, in the first place.
 

4four4 said:
In this day and age part of the problem from my point of view many people are sick of everything being political. It's in your face all the time they just want to enjoy a sporting event without having to see the problems in our society.
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That's really too bad. There are always a portion of people unhappy/uncomfortable when society goes through a major transformation. Look at the Civil Rights movement in the 1960s. But we got through that and some important changes took place.

The moment we are in now is another period of great unrest and needed change. We'll look back at this time 5-10 years down the road and think how crazy it was that so many people were upset about this time of change.
 


MplsGopher said:
Honestly think some people don't comprehend that there is a difference ...

That was one of the main goals of the Qanon cohort in attacking BLM, in the first place.
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I think there are some less intelligent people who may not be able to comprehend, but moreso it's people who CAN comprehend, but it's just easier for them to put all of this in the same bucket so they can look the other way and not acknowledge that anything is amiss in America.
 

WriterGoph said:
I think there are some less intelligent people who may not be able to comprehend, but moreso it's people who CAN comprehend, but it's just easier for them to put all of this in the same bucket so they can look the other way and not acknowledge that anything is amiss in America.
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Yes.

Or say to themselves "well, I'm not a racist, so I'll just teach my kids that we're just going to 'start over' with a clean slate. As long as we don't say or do something racist against other races, that's good enough".
 


RogueGopher said:
Hey Ron, we don't want you there anyways bud.
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Lol. I grew up near this area and believe me racism is alive and well. I was overwhelmed after returning for a class reunion to hear many of my white classmates talking about " those people " in the Minneapolis area. They also had plenty of names and negative stereotypes for the migrant workers and Native Americans living in their area. We have a lot of listening , education and work ahead of us in this country. There are many Ron's living among us.
 



GringaGopher said:
Lol. I grew up near this area and believe me racism is alive and well. I was overwhelmed after returning for a class reunion to hear many of my white classmates talking about " those people " in the Minneapolis area. They also had plenty of names and negative stereotypes for the migrant workers and Native Americans living in their area. We have a lot of listening , education and work ahead of us in this country. There are many Ron's living among us.
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No way, dude. This cannot be true. Some guy on GopherHole lived next to a black doctor and they had an 800k house, so life was obviously perfect for them. So you see, racism is clearly dead because blacks are allowed to be successful. They should be happy enough with that, don't ya know??
 

There is a long history of people not wanting athletes or entertainers to make any type of political statement.

Some people see sports, music, movies and TV as an escape from real-world issues and problems, and they don't like to see those real-world issues intrude on what, to them, is an 'isssue-free zone.'

so, it's not just about racism. it's a reaction to athletes and entertainers using their workplace to express political opinions or just to comment on what's happening in society.

for those people, I don't think it matters whether the opinions being expressed are "liberal" or "conservative."

But, to be sure, some of this gets filtered through the partisan prism. it depends on whose Ox is being gored.
 

People want to watch football, not the political opinion of 19- and 20-year-olds who get free rides to college.
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This comment makes it seem like players made a speech in between each play or something. It’s really telling if two words on the back of uniforms impacts your ability to watch the game.
 

GophersInIowa said:
This comment makes it seem like players made a speech in between each play or something. It’s really telling if two words on the back of uniforms impacts your ability to watch the game.
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I don't think you're accounting for the BURDEN that those folks at home turning on their TV to watch other people risk their health to entertain them are carrying.


I mean they had to turn on the TV... sit down, and there's probably a light on that they forgot to turn off but would have to get up to do something about it ....


A few of them maybe set down their drink a few feet out of reach!


These folks are in rough shape.
 



"There are people who would say you shouldn't mix music and politics, or sport and politics, or whatever."

But I think that's kind of bull$h**."

-Adam Clayton

 

White supremacist groups are alive in Minnesota and elsewhere. I have neighbors who say all blacks are bad. Racism is extremely alive. Too bad that the people who are racist are having issues with this. Worse part is that they call themselves Christians.
 

BleedGopher said:
People want to watch football, not the political opinion of 19- and 20-year-olds who get free rides to college.
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I got a free ride to college at the U (ROTC), made a fraction of the sacrifices the football players do, and yet the group's political opinion was made very well known. I disagreed with it (in the post-9/11 era), which is why I never served and am glad I didn't.
 

I won’t name names but one of the ironies here are the many posters that insist the football forum stay free of anything that could be construed as political or non-football related...”take it to OTB”.

End Racism is an admirable goal and statement but realistically many who see that in 2020 will link it to BLM political activists (that some of you may have heard of) that have been adopted by other leagues, or maybe as a “dog whistle” political statement, they may not totally agree with. Fair to criticize or disagree with that take.
 

My answer to you is go watch your own bobber. If I think the jersey is political, then it is in my mind. I really don’t want my tax money supporting this statement. My opinion guaranteed by the Constitution.
 

Putting some slogan on a jersey doesn't solve a problem. Its just a statement and nothing more. Those that are getting their undies in a bundle about this topic have really jumped off the ledge. And why do so many think that their opinion is always "right", what ever that is?

I, like others here, would like to watch a sporting event without being bombarded with political wants and whims.

The mods used to throw this stuff under the bus and discard it to the Off Topic Board.
 


Pete smith said:
My answer to you is go watch your own bobber. If I think the jersey is political, then it is in my mind. I really don’t want my tax money supporting this statement. My opinion guaranteed by the Constitution.
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I don't see what this has to do with anything? The constitution doesn't say the government isn't allowed to spend your tax money on something you disagree with . . .
 

on the other hand, what if a team wore jerseys that were pro-racism?

Imagine a team coming out with "White Power" jerseys or WWG1WGA (the Qanon slogan)

can you imagine that bleep-fest?
 


Pete smith said:
My answer to you is go watch your own bobber. If I think the jersey is political, then it is in my mind. I really don’t want my tax money supporting this statement. My opinion guaranteed by the Constitution.
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Fortunately your opinion carries zero weight and the Gophers literally would rather lose you as a fan than not allow their players to have a voice.

It's funny how all these little pockets of fans who think "I'm gonna really show the NBA/NFL/College Team how much I disagree with these 'political' statements by boycotting watching or going to their games."

News flash: They got the money. They got the TV contracts. And now they have the institutional support by their coaches/owners/conferences/leagues. The beauty is all of that adds up to their voices being heard on a regular basis.

So you go ahead and sit there in your silent protest (or maybe you're spouting off on an obscure fan message board). But don't get it twisted, sports have been huge in this country for 100+ years. They're not going to just whither away and cease to exist because a small minority of people are having a hard time being reminded of our country's abject failures while watching a game. The reality is that an even smaller percentage of these boycotters may walk away from all sports for good and find a new hobby. But most of the tough guys will end up forgetting what they were mad about in a year and will come crawling back to sports.

But the punch line is that athletes will still have a voice and be using this platform in 1, 3, 10 years. We won't be going backward from here. Leagues or coaches aren't about to change course and say "No, no! All you athletes shut up now. Don't talk about issues that are important to you!"

It's really kind of an amazing flip of circumstances when you think about it. For decades, minorities (but mostly black people) were told to "shut up and play!" or "If you try and vote, you die" or "just be happy you have a job" or "don't step out of line". And that's 100% the way they had to live their lives just to survive. Now, we're finally at the point where those previously doing the oppressing, get to feel their own voices being minimized by the majority.

It's too bad it takes so long for humans to evolve, but it's beautiful to see progress being made.
 
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kraftrob said:
What racism exactly?? examples? The coach has lost control of his team.
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Did you speak with the players individually? Oh, cause PJ did exactly that after the George Floyd murder this summer.
 
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A_Slab_of_Bacon said:
I don't think you're accounting for the BURDEN that those folks at home turning on their TV to watch other people risk their health to entertain them are carrying.


I mean they had to turn on the TV... sit down, and there's probably a light on that they forgot to turn off but would have to get up to do something about it ....


A few of them maybe set down their drink a few feet out of reach!


These folks are in rough shape.
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Good Lord, give it a rest. And maybe you need to hit the [ENTER] button a few more times.

Essentially it sounds like you're saying anyone that doesn't agree with what players put on their jerseys or helmets needs to be silenced, shouted down, is not entitled to a differing opinion, and should be ridiculed and outcast. Which would be about where we are today as a society. Intolerance of differing opinions is the new norm.

Myself, I don't have a strong opinion one way or the other (which no doubt will still make me a target of the woke crowd) on what they put on the back of the jerseys. If it makes the players feel better, by all means go for it. It's not like there were actually people in the country who were not "aware" until they saw the Gophers football game. To me it just really was a non-issue; nothing to get upset about and nothing to be celebrated. Football uniforms, whatever, I didn't think anything about it either way; I was more concerned with the Gophers scoring more points at the end of the day.

One thing to think about that nobody has really mentioned; unanimity among the players isn't necessarily a given. We've reached a point where if 6-8 players out of 100 thought this was a good idea and wanted to do it, the other 90+ would be in a position in today's society to NOT be able to confidently or safely express that opinion for fear of repercussions or blowback. I have no doubt that in this case a pretty healthy majority supported it, but you'd be a fool if you thought it was 100%.
 

short ornery norwegian said:
There is a long history of people not wanting athletes or entertainers to make any type of political statement.

Some people see sports, music, movies and TV as an escape from real-world issues and problems, and they don't like to see those real-world issues intrude on what, to them, is an 'isssue-free zone.'

so, it's not just about racism. it's a reaction to athletes and entertainers using their workplace to express political opinions or just to comment on what's happening in society.

for those people, I don't think it matters whether the opinions being expressed are "liberal" or "conservative."

But, to be sure, some of this gets filtered through the partisan prism. it depends on whose Ox is being gored.
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Just Shut Up and Dribble!!
 

Thomasthetank said:
So what's the difference? It's up to each person if they want to attach these very basic, general ideas to be politically charged or intended for a certain side? Give me a break.

Maybe it wasnt until Covid that athletes had this opportunity to do this. If you're against racism, then these nametags should be welcomed!
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"Give me a break"...ok. So the Chinese virus is a good thing...because it gave athletes an opportunity to do this...? In all due respect...how did the jerseys relate to covid19? Maybe I'm misunderstanding you...I don't know.
<edit> The ENDRACISM placard on the jerseys was not a good move. I don't care if you're a liberal or a republican... it was a 'bad' move. I'm sorry...it's just my gut feeling.
 

Plausible Deniability said:
Good Lord, give it a rest. And maybe you need to hit the [ENTER] button a few more times.

Essentially it sounds like you're saying anyone that doesn't agree with what players put on their jerseys or helmets needs to be silenced, shouted down, is not entitled to a differing opinion, and should be ridiculed and outcast.
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Nope.

But taht does sound like a bit of a victim complex you got going on there if you think any criticism is ... all that.
 

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