Permalink for Comment #1379069738 by negev79

, comment by negev79
negev79 @disco_stu1973 said:


As soon as you declare a scene 'predominately white' you start to build walls..
From the Guardian:
Link
"Hamilton led F1 into adopting a diversity initiative and holding a pre-race anti-racism gesture on the grid. He wore T-shirts promoting Black Lives Matter, equality and diversity and bringing attention to the shooting of Breonna Taylor by police in the US. He used his position as a globally recognised star to speak out repeatedly on the topics."

From Obama's speech on the 50th anniversary of the Selma Montgomery marches:
Link
"Of course, a more common mistake is to suggest that Ferguson is an isolated incident; that racism is banished; that the work that drew men and women to Selma is now complete, and that whatever racial tensions remain are a consequence of those seeking to play the “race card” for their own purposes. We don’t need the Ferguson report to know that’s not true. We just need to open our eyes, and our ears, and our hearts to know that this nation’s racial history still casts its long shadow upon us. We know the march is not yet over. We know the race is not yet won. We know that reaching that blessed destination where we are judged, all of us, by the content of our character requires admitting as much, facing up to the truth. “We are capable of bearing a great burden,” James Baldwin once wrote, “once we discover that the burden is reality and arrive where reality is.”

On Jimi Hendrix:
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"And yet I think the topic of race was layered into everything Jimi Hendrix did. Even in England, which was a more progressive place, he was harassed occasionally by police for having a white girlfriend. Here was a guy who felt music was not about race, he didn’t write"'black” music; he wrote music. And he didn’t play only to one kind of fans. Primarily his audiences were white unfortunately, but to Hendrix, race was something he was always trying to escape from, and yet could never actually escape from."

The idea that because there are examples of black excellence in sports, politics or music that means we live in a society free of racism is I think only something that someone who doesn't regularly experience racism themselves can suggest. This isn't an attack on you @disco_stu1973. Having these discussions, analyzing and investigating our implicit biases may be uncomfortable for white fans (and I absolutely include myself in this group of course) but it's necessary because it's not about us. It's about acknowledging reality and working to make society better for everyone. It's only divisive if we make it so.

And the article clearly and in detail addresses exactly why Juneteenth has relevance to our scene, despite the majority white fanbase. I hope everyone actually reads it all the way through and sincerely considers the message.


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