The NFL Makes A Statement
The NFL made a statement and it was exactly as bullshit as you’d expect it to be. To even try and feign support for a cause they happily smothered out of the league already feels particularly vile.
Stick to sports is absolute horseshit. I’ve made a statement on that before, but I want to bring it up again, because even though I know it’s horseshit peddled by people who actually just want me to stop having different political opinions than them, I generally do stick to sports. Outside the occasional post calling out the NFL for hypocrisy or whatnot, I’m actually pretty happy to stick to sports and be generally lighthearted. I’ve always just wanted to make silly jokes. To look at our silly sport and laugh at the silly things that happen. When it came to my actual political thoughts, I feel the last thing anyone needed was another opinion from a cis white male who has a relatively decent life and hasn’t faced much genuine hardship. I’m not in a position to speak for black people, or women, or any minority. My philosophy was to stand behind the real leaders who could speak and lead more eloquently than I can, and just try to support them and stay out of their way. To try and be humble, to listen, to learn, and to follow. The only thing I felt smart enough to know was that I know nothing. So I’m honestly pretty okay with just trying to be a small piece of levity in someone’s day. Not everything has to be life or death, and some silly fun, even something as small and insignificant as drawing silly cartoons about sports, can help people cope.
That’s all I’ve ever really wanted to be. How I’ve always wanted to live. But I can afford to do that. I’ve been blessed to be able to do that. I know of a lot of people who can’t. Those people who will never be able to do that. Those people need our help right now, and they are not getting it from the very people who have been entrusted to protect them. Their lives are in literal danger every day.
I’ve donated already, but please give what you can if you haven’t done so yet. Do something to help the people that the system won’t.
https://www.blackvisionsmn.org/
https://blacklivesmatter.com/
https://minnesotafreedomfund.org/donate
There is so much I have yet to learn, so much growth I have yet to do, but I want you to know I’m trying. I’ve messed up. I’ll mess up again. If this silly site dedicated to silly things can help even one person by speaking out, then by god it’ll be worth it. There is so much I want to say, but I’m not the right person to say it. I don’t even know how to properly channel my feelings from this week into a post. I’ve spent the past days furious, scared, depressed, and stunned. So I’ll keep it very simple.
Black Lives Matter.
I don’t think I’ll be putting up any more comics this week. I’m too angry to be funny and I don’t want this post to quietly vanish after a couple days. If this post makes you mad, just leave and don’t come back. I don’t want you here.
Wow Dave,
Thank you, as a young black man who grew up on your comics for the past 7 years, I honestly never expected seeing the names of people lost in that exact same time period on your page. And as emotional it was reading the end of the post, I can’t explain how important it is to spread the issues we face on every platform. Even on a NFL webcomic. Thank you for being honest and thank you for trying to make a difference, which is more than what I can say about the hypocrites that run the NFL
This is such a sad time to be an American. I am disgusted. As a white man I can never fully understand the gift I have and by gift I mean a feeling of safety. Kaepernick tried to protest quietly and many followed his lead but his quiet protest was squashed as bad for business and he lost the job he loved because of it. Those quiet protests did nothing and this is what happens now. The minority has tried to protest in quiet with no change. Mayhem and distraction is their last resort and even no the president deflects and can’t even show empathy to their plight. Without major reform in our law enforcement I don’t see anyway these protestors should be quieted. Fight for your right and your just freedoms and fight for Lloyd and all the unjust minority lives lost unjustly by police. Let’s find the love again if the love was ever their for some people.
An idea for a comic. Recently I watched the Madden championship. The winner did not pass the entire tournament. He had a punter at qb and Gayle Sayers at running back. He had Offensive linemen at the WR and TE positions as well. The tournament is a salary cap roster. Without spending on a qb or wr he could stack the defense with his worst D lineman being Clowney
This is the first time I’ve ever commented, and I’ve loved your comics for years. I feel just like you have described. I’ve been blessed to live how I live but many people can’t live like that. My privilege is not theirs and I feel ashamed and scared and depressed and stunned just like you that they can’t have the security that I enjoy. I love the NFL (and the Ravens, tbh mostly the Ravens) but it is so true that they have been completely hypocritical with this situation. I don’t know what to do, other than add my small tiny voice to the throng. Maybe it will help.
Nicely done Dave.
THIS, well done!
black lives matter
I realize that my semi-anonymous statement of support from another cis white male, whose only minority status is of a religion that has managed to get out from under its vilification for the most part in this county, on a website that has nothing to do with what’s going on is worth anything, I’m glad you’re willing to make this kind of statement when you think it’s necessary.
“Stick to sports” is a bullshit complaint, whether it’s directed at you, or LeBron James, or Mark Cuban, or whomever. If you have a platform, you have every right to leverage it when you feel it’s necessary.
“I realize that my semi-anonymous statement of support from another cis white male, whose only minority status is of a religion that has managed to get out from under its vilification for the most part in this county, on a website that has nothing to do with what’s going on is worth anything”
Should read “isn’t worth much of anything”
I saw that he had made a statement and just felt gross about it, and couldn’t.put my finger on why, but Dave summed it up. Black lives matter, and as a parent to mixed children, I can only pray some good comes out of this.
On that note did you know that Anti-Fa can be abbreviated as AF. If you add 1 to each letter you get BG, which everyone knows is Bill Gates initials. What have the violent protestors been damaging. Windows. And who invented Windows? That’s right. Bill. Gates.
Breeus has spoken
And that explains why the first place they hit in the Scottsdale AZ mall was…
…the Apple store
Dave it brings me so much hope that to see this post from you. This is easily my favorite webcomic and the attitudes of many fans of the NFL have driven me to stay away from discussion about the sport in order to keep my faith in humanity. I walked through the looting of Melrose of Los Angles yesterday and these were my thoughts I posted to the local subreddit. I hope you deem them worthy to leave up in your comment section. I’ve ‘edited’ out the incendiary language.
I think there’s three different groups of actions to me that are definable during this time. Inevitably people fall into multiple of these but there’s no way to separate that. Looters, rioters, and protesters.
I am 100% for the protestors no questions asked. This s*** has gone on long enough in this country and it won’t stop without severe action. And the reaction to Kaepernick and other kneelers in the NFL prove that the vast majority of those in power don’t support the average citizens right to protest, let alone the cause they are protesting for.
Rioters are the tough one for me to figure out how I feel. Clearly these protests aren’t working the way we would like them to. So what is the next step if nothings being done? Voting? Not like we can do that for a few months, and those in power clearly are doing everything they can to rig the elections up to actually rigging the elections come this fall. But rioting needs to be targeted. Destroying businesses on Melrose (for anyone who hasn’t yet, I’d encourage you to take a walk along Melrose and see the devastation for yourself) can’t be the answer. The amount of minority owners and workers cleaning up the broken glass in front of their livelihoods was as heartbreaking as it was rage inducing. So what do you do? I don’t know if I could in good faith encourage the destruction of public and police property, but I certainly would struggle to condemn it in light of what’s been going on over the last four years. And truthfully what’s been going on our entire history. Even in 2020 progress is written in blood. Not good faith requests.
Looters: F*** you. You not only hurt people whom you almost certainly have no idea their stances on the issue at hand. Who may be minority’s themselves. Or who may be so close to the poorhouse post corona that you’ve just cost them their homes. You don’t know if insurance will pay out, you don’t know if you took away their last dollar. You don’t know their politics, their philosophies, or who in their lives may depend on them to stay alive. F*** you.
And even more importantly you shift the topic away from what’s important (Do you see that even in this post you get the most text?). You stop people from talking about police brutality towards minority’s. You stop people from talking about corruption spread across all levels of government and law enforcement. Every building and random car you light on fire potentially lights the fire of someone adamantly against the cause. You are worse than those who are being protested against. Because you are enabling them from a place of greed at a time where there is supposed to be hope and compassion.
Thanks for keeping it real.
I hope there is justice for George Floyd and his family. I hope that those who are guilty are brought to justice and pay for their crimes. It’s time for our country to move forward. But how? Violence is absolutely not the answer. How can one cry out for justice while committing crimes? It’s just doesn’t seem right. At the same time, silent and peaceful protests are mostly ignored. How many innocent people lives must be affected before we discover a way to spread a message of love rather than poison more people with hatred? It saddens me to see the state of our country.
The social contract says that if you follow the law, you will be safe from the police. If the police are breaking the contract, what incentive do others have to keep up their part?
1 – A lot of the violence and looting is being perpetrated by the police or the angry few, and many of the few aren’t even protesters but instigators. In Portland the Proud Boys love to come into protests and try and provoke the cops to attack while blending in pretending to be antifa. Most of the 10,000 protesters this weekend didn’t commit any violence and many protesters actually tried to stop it
2 – Why violence? Because time and time again, everything else hasn’t worked. Peacefully protesting hasn’t worked. Trying to reform police departments hasn’t worked. Hell, I think they even know violence won’t work, but they’ve tried everything and nothing is working. Nothing changes no matter what they do. A riot is the language of the unheard. If they can’t get justice and the police can continue to do whatever they want (As we’ve seen, they are the ones escalating most of the violence this weekend), then of course they have nothing they can do except take out their rage on some property. They are going to be blamed and screwed either way. If I had no options to be heard, I’d fuck some shit up too. At that point why not? At least this way people are paying attention.
Target will rebuild. Stores will rebuild. George Floyd and the like cannot.
The best summary of this debacle comes from a guy who makes dick jokes on the internet.
They were rioting about an hour from my house over the weekend. They were attempting to run onto the busy interstate highway. Why? What does that accomplish? People who only want things to be made right could have been killed. I’m lost and confused on the methods being used. We have no idea on all of the actual information in these events. Only what is reported (I’m talking about the rioting, looting, etc.)
I’m all for finding a way to to make your voice heard, but shouldn’t there be a line? I personally know innocent people who have been caught and treated unfairly by large mobs of people. They lost property. They were innocent. They are people hit hard by not being able to work because of the pandemic. They are not Target. Rebuilding for some in my area is hard. Small businesses that were already barely keeping the doors open are being targeted for what exactly? That’s my concern.
George Floyd and his family deserve justice. But like you said Dave, George Floyd and the like. The innocent individuals who are being wrongly mistreated through no fault of their own. I wish there was a better way. But sadly, there doesn’t seem to be. If I were in the shoes of some of these people, I would be mad. I would demand justice. I would do my very best to be civil. But we all know that will only do so much.
as a cis white dude it is decidedly not my place to evaluate or judge how people systematically left out of our nations progress protest
i cannot possibly understand the why of it
Here’s something a colleague asked me that captured this.
Rather than asking why are they doing this, don’t they know this will set back the justice that they seek themselves? Rather than asking how can they do this and create such risks by gathering in crowds in the middle of a respiratory pandemic?
Ask yourself: What would it take? What would it take to make me do these things? What kind of pain after pain after generational pain would it take for me, full knowing these risks, full knowing these setbacks, full knowing these dangers, to choose it anyway?
They’re not dumb, they’re not ignorant, they’re not unaware of the costs to themselves or to each other or to their families or to the movement their actions might have. But they’ve chosen it anyway. So ask yourself: What would it take to make you do the same? And recognize that that’s where they are.
trevor noah’s recent viral video essentially said the same thing
very powerful. if youre white, it requires elevating your thinking beyond what youve experienced
right on, man, right on.
As a Minneapolis native, thank you.
Why don’t these “stick to sports” types ever say that to realtors, forklift drivers, accountants, etc. Somehow making a living related in some way to sports (or acting) somehow makes a person’s opinion less valid?
I’ve been reading your comics without fail since close to the beginning (came in somewhere around comic 20). As a black male in America, I applaud everything that you wrote. Kudos to you sir.
Thanks Dave,
I read your comics weekly and as a black man it feels good to see you make a post about this issue. I do come here for some chuckles, so I’m surprised and happy to see this from you. Keep up the amazing work Dave.
Great post. Thank you. Like I said a couple weeks ago, you DO have a platform and that comes with a responsibility… and it’s awesome seeing you take such a strong stand for goodness & sanity, especially as so many evil, selfish, greedy people try to exploit this crisis.
I don’t agree but, Nah I’ll stay I like the way you’d Draw butts
Everyone be safe, be strong, be compassionate. We have work to do
Everyone be safe, be strong, be compassionate. We have work to do
I wonder if politicizing the national anthem was the best thing to do. It was divisive and Kaep knew it. There are a lot of other tactics he could have used that wouldn’t have alienated a lot of people. But he sunk his heels in and made it about the american flag instead. Arsonists are, how should i put it, also very divisive. They really screwed this up badly. Very few people were not horrified by the Floyd video. But now the conversation is about fires and theft and how it’s totally ok to harm someone’s business if you’re mad about something. Violent radicals hijacked something that could have had some good come out of it but now nothing will change because everyone’s digging in their heels.
Damn it man, are you not paying attention? The national anthem is political. Flying the flag at half mast indicates distress. Kneeling during the national anthem indicates distress.
I think half mast is mourning. Upside down is distress.
(That’s it! Kaep shoulda stood upside down during the anthem)
How much of the money you donate goes directly to support the looting?
(Dave Note: If they loot your house, I’ll donate even more. You can rebuild. George Floyd can’t)
Get lost
https://www.politifact.com/factchecks/2020/jun/01/candace-owens/no-soros-and-foundation-do-not-pay-people-protest/
Phxgator all I can do is laugh at how blind you are.
And all I can do is hope that in the 8th layer of hell for you fucking racist bastards, you will feel the pain of getting a knife shoved up your ass and twisted, sliding down a bannister covered with razors, and getting your dick bitten by a piranha, over and over again, and then you will have to fucking kneel before Satan, and learn how fucking stupid you were for being a racist bigot.
Thank you, danke, and köszönőm.
Hi there!
Fuck off and die, you anti-semetic racist cunt.
“At its core, BlackLivesMatter isa revolutionary Marxist ideology. Alicia Garza, Opal Tometi and Patrisse Cullors, BLM’s founders, are self-identified Marxists who make no secret of their worship of communist terrorists and fugitives, like Assata Shakur. They want the abolishment of law enforcement and capitalism. They want regime change and the end of the rule of law. Antifa has partnered with Black Lives Matter, for now, to help accelerate the break down of society.”
(Dave Note: Hey Lawrence Person- Using Andy Ngo as a source on literally anything is laughable, and if he’s your source I kindly ask you start expanding your horizons and listening to more sides, maybe you’ll learn something instead of just parroting a dipshit who literally lost his job at Quillette because he decided to be chummy with Right Wing extremists and not report their planned attack on left wingers)
Wow thanks for educating us that helped a lot.
Firstly, no no no. Just keep it to yourself.
Wow. I know there are gullible people getting tricked into believing all sorts of crazy thngs these days…. but, jeez, here is someone who actually thinks BLM is about “ending the rule of law”
Look here, we got ourselves an idiot!
It’s scary to know people like you exist, so utterly sheltered away from reality. I pity you.
To be clear, since you seem lacking in legitimate news sources:
BLM IS ABOUT ENFORCING LAW WITH JUSTICE AND EQUALITY!!
Justice and equality, since you seem so confused, are what this country used to be all about. Before we traded our ideals for Russian mob money, that is.
sounds awesome, thanks for the info comrade
it’s true i saw it in my antifa newsletter, published by antifa press out of the associated township of antifa springs, MO.
That’s funny. I saw it in the letter attached to my monthly check from George Soros.
Well I heard that the leaders of Antifa once read the cliff notes of Das Kapital. Typical Marxist. All those 17-20 year old jobless trust fund liberal arts students are surely more coordinated than the US military, and could easily overwhelm them with their fireworks and hipster rhetoric.
Atlanta will surely never recover from the 15-20 million dollars in damages. Even after the insurance check clears and everything is restored, the fragile psyche of the city will always remember the true way the Target used to be.
couldnt have said it better myself
well put fellow internet denizen
Thank you, Dave.
I was watching an eagles/dallas replay on NFL Network tonite when Goodell’s statement came on the scroll. I came here to make a livid “ahem, Kaepernick!” comment on WHATEVER comic was current, but you said it much better than I could.
Dave for Commish.
I appreciate your thoughts here, Dave, and leaving this up all week is the right move.
“If this post makes you mad, just leave and don’t come back. I don’t want you here.”
I legitimately struggle with this sentiment, and this isn’t directed specifically at you – I’ve seen dozens of similar posts on facebook, so it’s more of a societal thing. And when I say “struggle with” – I mean that. I’m not trying to say you’re wrong, because I have zero idea if you are. I am just legitimately uncertain if this moves us forward.
Are we going to fix things by pushing everyone who doesn’t agree with us away, so that the only people left are those who hold our same views? I feel like the people who agree with us aren’t the problem. So I can’t help but fear that pushing the “basket of deplorables” away is exactly how they all teamed up and put you-know-who into office in the first place. And to be clear, I’m only talking about your garden variety “functioning” racists. KKK members marching with pitchforks, anarchists leaving brick pallets out in cities, and people bringing violence and murder into the picture are a special kind of delinquent that need all the jail time and therapy we can throw at them – they’re not going to be fixed by us.
I’m cis white as well, and although it’s shameful to admit, both sides of my family grew up with a ton of learned prejudices. Not just against blacks. Jewish people are all this, French people are that, Italians are this… etc. Are we fixing the problem if we just up and tell those people who grew up being taught that black people are dangerous to “Leave now and never come baaack!” ?
I don’t have answers, but my personal belief is that the best thing I can do to help stop this is by unraveling the knots in my own house and making absolutely certain none of it reaches my kid. Reaching out to try and help my family understand how deceived they were. But if we just slam the door in their faces, I fear this is going to keep happening over and over until all of these people are dead… but by then they’ll probably pass it on down to someone else, the same way it was passed on to them.
It’s a dilemma for sure, but I think recently the world has been showing us that hate and intolerance SPREAD when we give those whackos a voice. Trying to be tolerant of all opinions, even horrible ones, just enables those ideas. It gives them a platform and validity. And that needs to end.
I think we need to accept that it’s ok to be intolerant of intolerance. Hate hatred. It seems like an oxymoron but it’s really not.
Let the morons come here and post their ridiculous claims peddled by ridiculous sources. Let them take advantage of their free speech. And then let the majority of sane rational people shout them down, and tell them THIS IS NOT OK. That we don’t want them here.
If they want to fuck off to insulated communities– where they can pass around hate rhetoric and not be called out for it– where they can shake their fists at people of color with their fellow brainwashed, hate-filled, scared little snowflakes who still haven’t learned a kindergartner’s level of respect for their fellow humans, good riddance.
If they get this bent out of shape and afraid at black people protesting, good riddance.
If they get so upset at being called “Bunker boy” that they need to TEARGAS PEACEFUL PROTESTORS for a BIBLE PHOTO-OP… good fuckin riddance.
I APPLAUD Dave for stating it so plainly, and I think the vast majority of sensible people in this world need to echo the thought:
Leave and don’t come back. Our society doesn’t want or need you.
I want to clarify one thing – I don’t think we should be tolerant of all opinions. If people are racist or borderline / prejudiced, they need to be directed down the right path to an existential education. If they are a public figure, then they absolutely should be silenced where appropriate or slapped with a giant “ACTUAL FAKE NEWS” sticker (Alex Jones jumps to mind).
My crisis of conscience is whether abandoning everyone in the middle area is the right move – those holding certain prejudices, but smart and reasonable enough to have the HOPE of changing under the right circumstances. We’re never going to teach them how to be better by telling them to F off, and I don’t think it’s “good riddance.” Because they don’t leave. They don’t go anywhere. They just coalesce into a giant mass of voters and contribute to setting society back a few decades, like voting a glazed donut into office.
Case in point, my brother-in-law has nothing against any minorities. He has friends of all persuasions, he hates the KKK, and all that jazz. But, he doesn’t believe systemic racism exists, and he bristles if you tell him he has “white privilege.” He thinks black communities just “make poor choices,” and that if they complied with the police, they’d be fine. If we tell people like him to F off, instead of trying to show him where the error in his thinking lies, he’s just going to keep believing what he does, and if he ever has kids, guess what he’s going to teach them?
Does this mean we’re doing the hard work for people like him? Most likely, but if we want to improve society, I think that is part of our responsibility. I don’t know that we have the luxury of firing those who disagree with us into deep space. We’re all stuck on this spaceship together, and we need to figure out how to co-exist and educate the educate-able.
Good point, there are a lot of people in the middle ground who aren’t driven by racial fears or anything so ugly or simple.
I’m not saying that we should yell at your BIL, “get out of here you racist!” because it sounds like his lack of understanding is coming from something more subtle. For people like him, I would hope society can express that his opinion is wrong, obsolete, and dangerous in a more subtle way that is appropriate for his case.
The right tool for the right job.
To use a more extreme & simple example, I see it like the difference between a hardcore white supremacist using the N-word in hate, which should be met with extreme intolerance…. compared to someone in a friend group using the N-word as a (bad) attempt at a joke. In that case I would hope his friends would still be intolerant of it, but express that via compassion and a “not cool, man” rather than just banishing him.
So to revise my point with the subtlety you rightly point out that it needs…
Let’s be intolerant of intolerance, but express it in the best way called for in each given situation that “hate” pops up. Even if it’s deep, systemic, subconscious thing so deep that your BIL doesn’t even realize it is remotely related to hatred or racism
But thank you for bringing this up. Unfortunately it’s not as simple as banishing racists, and there are a lot of genuinely compassionate people who are just extremely misguided, and haven’t had the life experiences to truly show them the other side of the issue.
What do we do about it? I think you rightly identify that it’s difficult and frustrating, and in a lot of cases probably something they will never come to understand.
BUT it also sounds like you’re having the conversation with him. I think that’s all you can do, and it is EVERYTHING. Lead the horse to water. If enough people he respects do the same, it’ll sink in eventually.
Thanks for the thoughtful responses. It’s a topic worth considering as we try to figure out how to move forward towards a hopefully brighter tomorrow.
The Drew Brees situation is a perfect example of what I’m afraid of. Setting aside what we may think of his comments and subsequent apology, there is an entire hashtag dedicated to “Cancelling” him (https://twitter.com/hashtag/DrewBreesIsCancelled)… Let’s assume for a moment he fully meant his original comments and the apology was just spin. How does calling for his cancellation open his eyes, educate him, or convert him to the cause? I don’t know that it does. Even worse, *someone* has already been using the situation as a beacon to rally his followers. =/
As for my BIL, yea, it’s been a 4 year reclamation project. Some days it feels like we’re making progress, others it feels like we’re moving backwards, but I can’t pretend to support equality if I’m letting his ridiculousness slide.
I grew up in the poor parts of the greater Atlanta area throughout the 90’s. I grew up seeing the everyday racism but I never understood it. As a white boy growing up I always thought we were dealt the same hand being poor and that my family were just nicer people than the people who were getting in trouble with cops. I vividly remember riding with my family through Hampton in the mid 90’s, middle of the night coming back from visiting family. My dad was driving and we were in a grey 80’s Buick, you know the kind. My dad got pulled over, he wasn’t speeding, good headlights, good brake lights, he did nothing wrong. The cop came up behind us after my dad pulled off. He sat in his car for several minutes before slowly approaching. He was obviously trying to find something to start questioning my dad and the cop was very apprehensive. That is until he came to the window and saw who was inside. He then became the friendliest cop, never asked for license or registration, he only asked if we needed directions somewhere, wished us a good night, then left. At the time it was just a weird experience but now looking back I understand what was happening. That is the closest I can relate to the everyday life of someone of color in America.
When I joined the Marines I was introduced to so many people from all walks of life. That is when I really started to open my eyes to the way the world is for people different than me. I traveled the globe spending time in 9 different countries. Each one had their own culture, all of which I was the minority in. As a white man if you really want to open your eyes to life for minorities go spend time as one, it will humble you very quickly. WE ALL have a responsibility to help each other up. The black community is hurting and has been ignored for far too long. I urge all of us to look for local events to show solidarity with our fellow humans. My cousin took part in the peaceful protest in Atlanta this past weekend her group obeyed all instructions and marched within the boundaries that were given, they were tear gassed for their efforts. My wish is that we can all peacefully act and make change but where peace fails I understand people must do what they have within their power to create necessary change. Things can be replaced life cannot.
Dave, Thank you for posting this. You put words to a feeling many of us have had for awhile and are using you platform as best you can.
I’m down with this.
I was going to leave this alone, but I decided not to.
“Stick to sports is absolute horseshit.”
No, no it is not. That statement is. But saying “stick to sports” is absolutely a valid complaint, for two main reasons.
The first is that the idea that sports figures and celebrities in general ought to be listened to is straight garbage. These people have no qualification to tell anyone else what to think. By all means, they should voice their opinions, and everyone else should react the same way they do when Joey two cubicles down says theirs. The fact that as a society we don’t do this is a major failing and we should be trying to rectify that, not encouraging this behaviour.
Secondly, the world sucks. This year in particular has sucked, from threats of world war and Australia going up in flames at the beginning of the year, then Covid hitting the whole world in the nuts, then murder hornets having crossed the Pacific, and now this and we don’t even have sports to distract us. And that’s the role of sports. They’re a distraction from the general suckage of life. So when I turn on the sports channel, I want a silly conversation about whether this human wearing a particular uniform is better at an arbitrary physical task than this other other human wearing a different uniform. I don’t want to hear about real world problems. If I wanted that, I would’ve turned on the news.
The parody statement was great, though.
I get your point here but I do not agree, to some extent.
We all want distraction and escapism from the real world, and it’s honestly good to have it. But escapism from the real world is a good and bad thing. It becomes very easy to just fall into a tunnel and ignore the real world. On top of that, athletes are celebrities and many of them are dumb or just not well informed enough to offer meaningful commentary. On the other hand, they also wield intense power to lead and do good, and some of the genuine greatness in this regard (like Ali) have been athletes.
It’s gotta be a balance imo. I’ll probably go back to doing mostly silly jokes after this week because I need that escapism too, but being reminded what really matters is important.
said escapism is a privilege unto itself many blacks in this country cannot afford
for that reason alone its worthwhile to contemplate the blessing of said privilege and take some time to advocate on behalf of those without that luxury
How would you know? You’ve admitted to being a white guy. I’m not black, and I’ve never been a young black inner-city kid, but being a Latino, I do know what racism feels like. To have strangers look down on you with at most barely-concealed superiority, sometimes even undisguised hate. Taking verbal abuse from these people. Not feeling safe around these people because there’s nothing you can do to defend yourself if something happens and knowing the police is more than useless.
I’m not going to deny that I have some privilege. The fact that I can comment on this comic is proof of it. I’ve seen people in extreme poverty – though thankfully, I’ve never lived it. I did grow up in a poor neighbourhood with gang violence and a couple of drug dealerships within the block I lived in when I was a teenager. And lemme tell you something, for us, it was baseball and the FIFA world cup, but absolutely, sports were a distraction everyone could partake in if they so desired.
i wouldnt know, youre absolutely correct
which is why i [try to] listen when people who dont look like me speak about their experiences, including athletes who would otherwise “have no qualification to tell anyone else what to think”
theyre not *just* athletes, especially if theyre nonwhite–their competitive sports do not happen in a vacuum, but they also have huge platforms from which to talk about their non-sporting experiences. of course that means shattering said escapism, at least for a bit now and then
“they also have huge platforms”
Yes, and to me, that’s a problem. I’m sure you agree with me that Drew Brees having that huge platform and saying a stupid – which is his right – was very destructive in the sense that now that DREW BREES said it, everyone who thought that is validated in their opinion.
Again, not saying celebrities in general and athletes in particular should stay quiet, it’s that society should not give such undue weight to their voices.
yeah drew brees can fuck right off
thats also a fair point about the kind of platform athletes get and that we should take what they—and anyone else—say with a massive shed of salt
but remember that requires understanding things like nuance, and having strong critical thinking skills ( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)
Considering Drew Brees is getting (rightfully) called out by his OWN TEAMMATES, maybe he *should* stick to sports…
Lol. He’s a dummy for not getting it.
The question is, how do you get it if you’ve never had it passionately but correctly explained to you. Drew wouldn’t know what his black teammates went through. Do we hold that against him because he didn’t know their struggles? Or do we explain it to him in a caring way so that he can better understand. Those who are not taught can never learn. THAT is something everyone needs to understand.
” If this post makes you mad, just leave and don’t come back. I don’t want you here.”
If this post doesn’t make you mad, you have something wrong with you. Mad at the way America IS, mad at the way that change moves at glacial pace, mad at the way that you shouldn’t have to say that PEOPLE ARE FUCKING PEOPLE, REGARDLESS OF WHAT FUCKING COLOR THEY ARE.
This country would be a better place if we did get mad at things that actually matter, from time to time. Thank you Dave.
Their current protest mea culpa is an interesting shift. They must be looking at some fascinating polling results. Maybe the arc of history is finally bending towards justice again.
It really is time for the NFL to fire Roger Goodell. He keeps screwing things up and yet still gets to keep his job. My fear in all this is that people will not address the real problems. Big City Machine Politics is literally the knee on the neck of the Black community. Want to get rid of a bad cop? Sorry – the Police Union that helped us get elected says no. Want to fire a bad teacher? Sorry the Teachers Union that helped us get elected says no. Want to get your kid out of a failing school? Sorry the Mayor, City Council, and Teachers Union say that charter schools are bad – because…ummm… “the kids are what’s important.” Lather-rinse-repeat for another decade (or more.) Without local grass-roots political change and accountability we might as well bang our collective heads against a wall.
As far as the NFL is concerned, Roger Goodell has done a wonderful job running things. The NFL makes more money than ever before and that’s all that matters to them.
thats the fucking crux of it, right there
until the nfl as an organization starts hurting financially theyll take the bad PR and cry all the way to the fuckin bank
Its a good comic. Its the right message. You should leave it up longer. The NFL’s admission this week that they got it wrong is really just a PR extension of this exact message so that people arent reminded what utter shits they have been about this whole thing since Kaep originally took a knee.
Its the hardest thing in the world to love a sport, but hate everything about the way its run.
Also, as I described this to friends of mine discussing the statement.
“Its the equivalent of acknowledging there was a problem, announcing they will create a focus group to identify where we went wrong and what lessons can be learned, and that the findings of this group will be closely studied to identify whether there are any marketing opportunities to be learned, and how many Sponsors we can retain”