It has nothing to do with your sentiments paralleling mine. It has to do with the fact that you seem to think that the African American community suffers so much more than any other minority. The fact is you or I cannot assign any measurable value to our own suffering or for any others and to do is childish. I cannot possibly understand the pain of slavery, mob lynchings, or segregation. Similarly you might find it hard to understand the pain of thousands of vaporized school children, radiation poisoning, or concentration camps. Human life is "invaluable"
I think our biggest mistake is to make ourselves victims first and combatants second. Opportunity does not come knocking... if you want something you have to knock the "GD" door down and take it for yourself.
Yes fight racism tooth and nail no matter how "insignificant" but don't get so lost in the rhetoric that you stop fighting with the one thing they can't take away from you.


On the other issue, that is hardly the first racial slur even used in this country, I think many of us forget how the United States first took shape. Think of the eradication, estrangement, starvation, torture, and discrimination of the indiginous tribes and peoples of the "New World." Here i'm only speaking of the western hemisphere. What about the Romans, Egyptians, Ottoman Turks, and other empires. Racism is perhaps the oldest social stigma of the human race.


To recapitulate what I said in my first post, what shaq said is offensive, wholly wrong, and repugnant (to me at least). I also find that it was paid so little attention by the media that a public figure can make such an uncensured comment to be equally disgusting. I do not intend to make any comparison here or cry 'unjust' because a different racial comment might have produced a different media response, but that what he did was intrinsicly wrong.

 

[QUOTE]Originally posted by ccarnel
[B]

 

[QUOTE]Originally posted by BlkMagic
[B]Soul_fly,

Uhmm, the figures you reference are wildly in swing. How can the difference between "David Stannard estimates that some 30 to 60 million Africans died being enslaved" and "Seymour Drescher estimates that 21M were enslaved" be so great? And these figures do not pin point the cause of death as a result of "lynching and murdering" which was the comparison I was making. My comparison was intended to illustrate the similarities in the type of sufferings that Blacks and Asians both endured as you seemed to think otherwise. There were obviously more Blacks in America than Asians, so it

 

Blk mgic,
I was thinking that too... you stole my punch line

 

ccarnel,

I just couldn't help it man

Soul_fly,


Let me state that I don't believe that all blacks think alike. Case and point: Mr. Larry Elder whom I respect a great deal is black man and if you ever listen to his show you'll find that he agrees with my point of view.

When did I change my tune?
You Said:

 

Does Soul_Fly have a point? If so I wish he'd spell it out already. From what I've seen he just wants to spread the party line Black racism stance that's become so tired to listen to for the last twenty years or so.

 

Yao - 1 ::: Shaq - 0

 

http://espn.go.com/page2/s/rosen/030117.html

Good article on Yao Ming's game.

 

How much is he getting? I know Yankees just got some famous dude from japan for cool 50 mill. Small price to pay for generating hype and fans.

 

Umm, $21 million for 3 years for Matsui. It's different in the NBA since they have a rookie salary cap. They can only sign him for a certain amount. I believe it was in the 4 year $18 million range.

BTW, I've read every post in this thread (I did start the thread) and it is interesting that people see things in different ways even within the same race, religion, etc. It all goes back to how you were raised I am guessing. I am very glad though that this thread didn't deterioate the way some threads have in this forum and it did provoke a thoughtful response from most people.

I wonder if this thread set the record for the most replies/views in Off-topic without discussing/showing women.