The End of the Race-Norming System in the NFL: Black Players are Watching

[jiminoh]

I'm a white guy that lives in a predominantly white place and have personally witnessed at one of my last places of employment black folks being treated worse than if a white guy had done the same thing. The person in charge was an old, crusty white person.

@bermudasteel and @SteelBuckeye I'm sorry you still have to deal with this - you two seem like really good people.

I do need to share a story where I was abused by a black guy when I worked at Sears in the warehouse. I was 23 and really needed a job because my parents had just lost their house, so I was trying to help out what little bit I could. I needed to keep my nose clean and do my job. I did exactly that and tried to be friendly to everyone - I didn't want fired. This one black guy gave me **** every day....called me cracker and constantly said "Hey, cracker, I've got 8 and a 1/4."

Again, I kept my mouth shut except for saying that's awesome. I didn't want to fuel anything. He kept digging and digging. I had my CDL driver's license and one day we got paired to deliver stuff in the big Sears delivery truck. He wouldn't help me and intentionally turned a refrigerator over on its side as I was pulling it up a grassy hill on a hand truck to the home. Then, he broke out laughing. I never did **** to this guy.

If you live the reverse of this every day, I can't imagine.

 

[SteelBuckeye]

I'm a white guy that lives in a predominantly white place and have personally witnessed at one of my last places of employment black folks being treated worse than if a white guy had done the same thing. The person in charge was an old, crusty white person.

@bermudasteel and @SteelBuckeye I'm sorry you still have to deal with this - you two seem like really good people.

I do need to share a story where I was abused by a black guy when I worked at Sears in the warehouse. I was 23 and really needed a job because my parents had just lost their house, so I was trying to help out what little bit I could. I needed to keep my nose clean and do my job. I did exactly that and tried to be friendly to everyone - I didn't want fired. This one black guy gave me **** every day....called me cracker and constantly said "Hey, cracker, I've got 8 and a 1/4."

Again, I kept my mouth shut except for saying that's awesome. I didn't want to fuel anything. He kept digging and digging. I had my CDL driver's license and one day we got paired to deliver stuff in the big Sears delivery truck. He wouldn't help me and intentionally turned a refrigerator over on its side as I was pulling it up a grassy hill on a hand truck to the home. Then, he broke out laughing. I never did **** to this guy.

If you live the reverse of this every day, I can't imagine.

Wow! Jim, all I can say is that ****** people are ****** people. Regardless of race. And that guy was definitely a ****** person.
I can't honestly say that I live this every day. Most folks are good people and just want to live their lives as peacefully as possible.

 

[slashsteel]

I was adopted by an extreme bipolar manic depressive man. He never met a wall he didn't like to introduce me to. So I left and left often. Most often the police would bring me back. Until the one day the parental posers decided to get the court involved. He told them I was an unruly kid. So they sent me to job corps. I was the youngest they would allow there. The black white ratio was about 98 to 99 percent black to white. There was about 6 to 10 whites in the locked in fenced in compound. I can't count how many times I had to defend myself because I was white. Not someone just calling you a name there was that often very often. But people putting their hands on you. Once three jumped me while I lay sleeping in a bunk bed. Nobody in the room tried to stop the event after it happened. My anger ignited and I followed them to the cafeteria afterwards throwing one guy down some stairs and another threw me against a brick wall, I saw some blood and went off. They all left the scene. My encounters weren't as bad as they were for some. As some didn't fight back, one guy I was always sticking up for for that very reason. I met this one guy eventually about three times bigger than me that would sort of stick up for me. Those were the easier times. Unlike the streets there was no dodging and avoiding confrontation. At the time I didn't have the frame to fair well. It is what it is but my point to even sharing is I have seen a lot of racism pointed in my direction in many of scenerios of the course of my life. So you have both sides hating on each other acting like idiots. Plenty of racists out there in every color. That won't be going away anytime soon. All we can do as men is learn from it and be better than whatever we have encountered. Or be better than what others have encountered. All races have had their causalities that didn't end well. I could have easily been a statistic. I just consider myself lucky. Still I refuse to dislike anyone based on skin tone, or sexual preference, or religious preference. I wouldn't have a problem laying my life down for someone wronged either. You either let your life experiences negatively influence you or you rise above. I choose to rise above.

 

[bermudasteel]

I was adopted by an extreme bipolar manic depressive man. He never met a wall he didn't like to introduce me to. So I left and left often. Most often the police would bring me back. Until the one day the parental posers decided to get the court involved. He told them I was an unruly kid. So they sent me to job corps. I was the youngest they would allow there. The black white ratio was about 98 to 99 percent black to white. There was about 6 to 10 whites in the locked in fenced in compound. I can't count how many times I had to defend myself because I was white. Not someone just calling you a name there was that often very often. But people putting their hands on you. Once three jumped me while I lay sleeping in a bunk bed. Nobody in the room tried to stop the event after it happened. My anger ignited and I followed them to the cafeteria afterwards throwing one guy down some stairs and another threw me against a brick wall, I saw some blood and went off. They all left the scene. My encounters weren't as bad as they were for some. As some didn't fight back, one guy I was always sticking up for for that very reason. I met this one guy eventually about three times bigger than me that would sort of stick up for me. Those were the easier times. Unlike the streets there was no dodging and avoiding confrontation. At the time I didn't have the frame to fair well. It is what it is but my point to even sharing is I have seen a lot of racism pointed in my direction in many of scenerios of the course of my life. So you have both sides hating on each other acting like idiots. Plenty of racists out there in every color. That won't be going away anytime soon. All we can do as men is learn from it and be better than whatever we have encountered. Or be better than what others have encountered. All races have had their causalities that didn't end well. I could have easily been a statistic. I just consider myself lucky. Still I refuse to dislike anyone based on skin tone, or sexual preference, or religious preference. I wouldn't have a problem laying my life down for someone wronged either. You either let your life experiences negatively influence you or you rise above. I choose to rise above.

You, sir, would have made a great soldier.

 

[slashsteel]

You, sir, would have made a great soldier.

I was a soldier. A motivated one at that. I had some unresolved anger issues it helped me with for which I will be forever grateful. I got out right before desert storm so missed out on any real difference making. It was clean and clean often was the theme in Germany.

 

[JMM]

I don't have any interesting life stories.... I was born, I went to school, I went to work, I got married, I got old..

 

[SteelBuckeye]

I don't have any interesting life stories.... I was born, I went to school, I went to work, I got married, I got old..

A "normal" life in a world and time when that is becoming rare IS an interesting story.

 

[slashsteel]

I don't have any interesting life stories.... I was born, I went to school, I went to work, I got married, I got old..

I am sure there is an interesting story in there somewhere!

 

[JMM]

A "normal" life in a world and time when that is becoming rare IS an interesting story.

Thanks...I did leave out some stuff but in the interest of time, that's pretty much it. I was born a poor black child..There is that.

 

[JMM]

I am sure there is an interesting story in there somewhere!

Not really. I did see Foghat back in the early 90s. Also I probably watched a few Steeler games with Guru back in the day at the Oyster Pub when I lived in Daytona Beach