"...love to play college ball for a free education" "Every kid on the court for the Div. 1 games is on a scholarship, getting an education..." They may be getting educated but they certainly aren't graduating. A minor league system, for both basketball and football would help keep the "student" in these college atheletes.
He didn't make a very good case for it being racist. White students are rooting for the black players even though the black players are a small minority at the campus? Not sure I see how it's racist. Unbalanced perhaps, but not racist. As for the racist comments, I hope we don't get to the point that we try to instill quotas on sports. ....no one wants to see Sven Larson dunk the ball! Okay, not to go on a diatribe here, but in a nutshell y'all are making the arguments for what critical race theorists are calling: "new racism" institutional racism democratic racism Comment #1: consider what being fetishized might feel like. and, consider the perpetuation of long-standing racist ideology when all you do is celebrate blackness when it appears in a form (sport) that you expect it to. Comment #2: when there are institutional barriers to full participation, how can you say that it's not sexist/racist/homophobic/etc.? don't just stick on the fact that it is imbalanced, ask yourself "why" it might be that way. see response to #1 above. Comment #3: why not? what are you afraid of? what if there were "quotas"? would that mean that those in a position of privilege might not be able to realize their assumed entitlements? hmmm? Comment #4: "no one" wants to see a white guy dunk a ball? no one? why not? Ooops ... I guess I kinda got goin' on that diatribe I was trying to avoid. So to close with someone else's words, not mine ... well put, Weedy. As usual, well put. And it is racist. I don't think you have to have a case built for you to see that. Not that this should be some kind of scapegoat for the black community - but I can see why I'd be pissed about it. Absolutely.
There's plenty of racism in this world, but I just don't see it in this case. It's just simply numbers. But first, the whole argument is flawed on several levels, the least of which is, we're talking about a hypothetical college campus. Comment #2: when there are institutional barriers to full participation, how can you say that it's not sexist/racist/homophobic/etc.? don't just stick on the fact that it is imbalanced, ask yourself "why" it might be that way. What are these "institutional barriers"? If an athlete, regardless of color, gets into a college, how is he different than any other student? My answer to why it's imbalanced would be simple. More black people play basketball on a higher level than white people. That's not racist, it's just numbers. I do appreciate your comment #1. That is very true. But I guess my response would be isn't it equally presumptuous (if not worse) to just assume these kids don't belong on campus because they play basketball? Are there exceptions? Of course there are, but I think we're looking at a small sample size and deducing that sky is falling. Quotas in sports? Seriously? Let's get rid of getting the best and take folks by demographics. Umm... bad idea. Comment #4, I have to agree with you and will go one step further to say the original statement was just stupid. We see athletes' graduation rates and cry foul, but we ignore the general populations' rates, which in some cases, when broken down along racial lines are even worse. Maybe we should be starting there.
Keyboard broken, squirrelone? It's fine if you don't care. Stay out of the thread; no one's twisting your arm to participate. But "who cares?" is an idjit question and a waste of electrons. The people participating in the thread care, that's who, and they don't need to justify their interest to you. Move on now, nothing to see here.
It's not always a question of caring, but of enjoying the discussion. Is reforming the NCAA one of the most important things in my life? No. It's the 11th. Usually in the summer it moves to around the fifteenth. Once, in mid-December 2005 it went as low as 29th, but subsequently moved up to 12th after a particularly satisfying Duke loss a week thereafter. So my point is - I really believe that most artificial sweetners are suitable with coffee, and in the right proportion can give an equal amount of enjoyment as the real thing.
Squirrelone, if you ever bring something of value to a conversation, be sure to let me know. Because so far you're batting .000. Read this.
Too late for mr. squirrel. 26 commas maybe, 27 is over the line.
Gary, how many question marks are too many? 137? That's my count, but I might be off by one or 2.
Tommy I got to five and then I gave up.
