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Tag: Racism

  • Bruins Fans Flood Twitter With Racist Remarks

    Hockey has a lot of great traditions like the handshake after a hard fought playoff series. Unfortunately another of hockey’s traditions is also racism. Several times in the past have racist remarks by players and fans, marred an otherwise awesome and honorable game. In September of 2011 a fan threw a banana peel onto the ice just as Philadelphia Flyers forward Wayne Simmonds was about to attempt a penalty shot. Simmonds is black and has been involved in other racial controversies in the past. The banana incident was solved and the guy who threw the peel was charged.

    Last night during the game 7 overtime, Washington Capitals forward Joel Ward, who is black, scored an overtime goal to eliminate the defending champion Boston Bruins from the playoffs. What followed is nothing short of disgusting. On Twitter the racism started spewing from Boston fans about Ward. Saying things like “Of course it’s the f***ing n***er. White power!” and “that n***er deserves to hang.” This is real unfortunate because it puts hockey into an unfortunate light. These days it seems like the only time the NHL is on the news is when there is a head injury or some talking head is trying to get fighting banned. This is so much worse than that though. This racism came from Boston fans in the US, other times it has happened in Canada.

    I am a huge hockey fan, I have been a New York Rangers fan since 1996, this makes me sad because I want hockey to be the #1 sport.I cannot believe that people still do that! Listening to talk radio it seems that people in boston tend to be a little racist. I don’t really buy into branding an entire town or people as any one certain thing, but I do have to say that this is not the first time that I have heard the racist thing and Boston thing in the same sentence.

    Below are some of the offensive tweets.

    Be warned

    that they are graphic and do contain racial slurs. There is a site called Chirpstory that compiled a lot of the tweets if you want to see about 50 of them. The majority of the offending Tweets have been taken down, but here are some that are still up:

    @mikeanzideo
    Mike Anzideo    Haha that nigger actually did something 13 hours ago via Twitter for iPhone ·  Reply ·  Retweet ·  Favorite · powered by @socialditto

    @zvanasse30
    Zack Vanasse    stupid nigger go play basketball hockey is a white sport 13 hours ago via Mobile Web ·  Reply ·  Retweet ·  Favorite · powered by @socialditto

    @Grizzlymarshall
    Ethan Marshall    Fucking stupid arrogant, smelly, useless, waste of life, sad excuse for a NHL hockey playing NIGGER!!!! 13 hours ago via web ·  Reply ·  Retweet ·  Favorite · powered by @socialditto

    @Mahdawg_Jake
    Mahdawg_Jake    We lost…. To a hockey playing nigger…. What kind of shit is this 13 hours ago via txt ·  Reply ·  Retweet ·  Favorite · powered by @socialditto

    @Mr_filthy
    Daelon Carnelli    That nigger did not just win the game wtf -__- 14 hours ago via Twitter for iPhone ·  Reply ·  Retweet ·  Favorite · powered by @socialditto

  • Student Avoids Jail for Racist Collymore Tweets

    Joshua Cryer, the law student who’d sent UK soccer commentator Stan Collymore a series of a racist tweets, was sentenced to a fine and community service, instead of jail.

    Cryer, 21, a Newcastle University law student, had attempting to get a rise out of the talkSport soccer pundit by bombarding his Twitter account with insults, which included calling the 41-year-old a “c**n.” Collymore, who campaigns against racism and is a supporter of the Depression Alliance charity, was attacked by Cryer in his attempts to “ensnare a celebrity,” a district judge at Newcastle Magistrates’ Court had found.

    Cryer, who wore a spectacular tie to his court date, had initially claimed his Twitter had been hacked, and then tried to say his seven tweets he’d posted were made from a lack of impulse control. He later admitted to a violation of section 127 of the Communications Act of sending grossly offensive messages. District Judge Stephen Earl sentenced Cryer to 2 years of community service, and roughly $275 in court costs.

    While handing down the sentence, Judge Earl stated that it wouldn’t serve society to send Cryer to jail – he called the student “foolish, immature, and pathetic,” adding that “this conviction will have a dramatic effect on your job and career prospects, but you put yourself here and you have to man up to that reality. I don’t doubt you are not an inherently racist person but you did act in an intentionally racist way. You were a legend in your own head in this attention-seeking moment.” Slap.

    Earl aptly described some of the darker aspects of social media in saying that Cryer had succumbed to his own momentous online legend, in the sort of digital solipsism that sites like Facebook can instantaneously afford a user.

    Here are some Twitter reactions to Cryer’s sentence:

    @georgiebingham
    Georgie Bingham    Troll convicted for sending @StanCollymore racists tweets is a LAW STUDENT?! God help this country. What is going on?! 1 hour ago via web ·  Reply ·  Retweet ·  Favorite · powered by @socialditto

    @Janebfc
    Jane Pike    @StanCollymore Just wanted to say – on behalf of all NORMAL Burnley people how appalled I was at that dick-wad’s twitter behaviour. 3 hours ago via web ·  Reply ·  Retweet ·  Favorite · powered by @socialditto

    @StanCollymore
    Stan Collymore    Would like to thank Northumbria & Staffordshire Police for their professionalism in dealing with this case. 4 hours ago via Twitter for iPhone ·  Reply ·  Retweet ·  Favorite · powered by @socialditto

  • Obama Bumper Stickers Get Overtly Racist

    Obama Bumper Stickers Get Overtly Racist

    Stumpy’s Stickers is a classy joint. If you can’t get to them via that link, you’re not alone. Maybe they’ve run to ground after the news about them that has been burning up Facebook and Tumblr the past couple of days.

    Lots of people don’t like President Obama. Lots of people don’t want him re-elected. Some of those people might even say not-nice things about him under their breath or when no one is around that might be offended.

    This guy is not one of those people. This sticker is available at Stumpy’s, as we mentioned above. Another has a picture of a chimp and reads “Obama 2012”.

    (image)

  • Senator Under Fire For Saying “Niggardly”

    Once again, someone is getting in trouble for using the word “niggardly”.

    On Thursday, Senator Sherrod Brown (D-Ohio) used the word in response to a question about spending for veterans. He said, in part:

    “Of course we’re falling short,” he said. “There are people, as you know Matt, in this Congress who will always send a blank check when it comes to spending money on defense or war, but are a little more niggardly, if you will, on spending money on the actual veterans when they come home. And that means we don’t greet them well enough in terms of getting them the right testing when they’re back in Coshocton, Cleveland or Lima, Ohio.”

    What is that word? What does it mean? Where does it come from?

    From Dictionary.com:

    nig·gard·ly [nig-erd-lee] (adjective)
    1. reluctant to give or spend; stingy; miserly.
    2. meanly or ungenerously small or scanty: a niggardly tip to a waiter.

    So, did someone invent this word because they thought black people were tight-fisted? No. It has absolutely nothing to do with race.

    From EtymologyOnline:

    mid-14c., nygart, of uncertain origin. The suffix suggests French origin (cf. -ard), but the root word is probably related to O.N. hnøggr “stingy,” from P.Gmc. *khnauwjaz (cf. Swed. njugg “close, careful,” Ger. genau “precise, exact”), and to O.E. hneaw “stingy, niggardly,” which did not survive in Middle English.

    There have been people who have gotten into trouble for using the word, assailed by people who did not know better. In 1999, David Howard, an aid to Mayor Anthony Williams in Washington, DC resigned after coming under fire for using the word. His resignation was accepted. The mayor was later shown the meaning and etymology of the word and realized he had been misinformed by a bunch of offended sophomores. He rehired Howard and apologized.

    In 2002, A fourth-grade teacher in North Carolina was formally reprimanded by the school when an African-American parent was offended by her use of the word in class. A formal letter was placed in the teachers file, accusing her of not being sensitive to the diverse school population and directing her to not use the word again. The student was moved to another class. The teacher was forced to apologize to the parent for teaching her students a perfectly innocent English word with no racial connotations. Hundreds of people around the country wrote in to her defense.

    Let’s contrast this word with another. What about the slang term “gyp”? As in “to gyp someone out of money”. This term actually does come from the word “gypsy” and would be understandably offensive for a teacher, government worker or U.S. Senator from Ohio to use. “Niggardly” may be an old-sounding word. But, it is not remotely racist.

  • Southern Mississippi’s Band is Kind of Racist

    Earlier in the game when Kansas St.’s freshman point guard Angel Rodriguez went to the line, the crowd began to chant “Where’s your green card?” Check out the video for yourself below, it can be heard at the 2 and 17 second marks. Several reporters at the game identified as the chant coming from Southern Mississippi’s band. Thankfully the chant quickly died out.

    Way to keep it classy Southern Miss.

    (image)@Cole_Manbeck
    Cole Manbeck    Southern Miss band takes thing way too far. Chanting “where’s your green card?” to Angel Rodriguez at foul line(image) 1 hour ago via web ·  Reply ·  Retweet ·  Favorite · powered by @socialditto

  • Heart Disease Drug May Combat Racism

    Researchers have submitted a study suggesting that a heart disease drug may work to combat implicit racial bias.

    The study was conducted at Oxford University and findings were published in the international medical journal of Psychopharmacology. Propranolol, the drug in question, was shown to reduce implicit negative racial bias.

    Dr. Sylvia Terbeck states that “Implicit racial bias can occur even in people with a sincere belief in equality – Given the key role that such implicit attitudes appear to play in discrimination against other ethnic groups, and the widespread use of propranolol for medical purposes, our findings are also of considerable ethical interest.”

    In the experiment, 18 white people were given propranolol, and 18 were given a placebo. Researchers then used a “feeling thermometer” to gauge how warm subjects felt toward particular groups. The results showed that the drug “significantly lowered the heart rate” of racists. It was also discovered that there wasn’t much of a difference between the propranolol and placebo groups toward religious or sexual prejudice.

    “The main finding of our study is that propranolol significantly reduced implicit but not explicit racial bias,” Terbeck concluded. In roughly 18 white people – which makes these results appear to be a bit flimsy.

    Perhaps propranolol could be used to combat job suspensions garnered from posting racist Facebook rants.