The Dawn of Cyber Racism

Mr. Joel Ward scored the winning goal of a NHL playoff game for the Washington Capitals which ended season for the Boston Bruins.  Immediately afterwards a plethora of hockey fans got on twitter to vent.  They didn't vent about Bruins loosing to the Capitals..they vented about the Bruins loosing to "a nigger."  The funny thing is, chirpstory.com compiled a lot of these tweets and posted the identity of the individuals who posted the racial tweets and made them available to the public.  Since then several of the tweeters either deleted their accounts or hid their tweets.  The other tweeters either negatively reacted to the backlash of their tweets, or proclaimed that they were not racist.

True, using the word Nigger does not make you a racist...it makes you a complete dumbass.  This goes for black people as well.  Yes, there are some black people out there that constantly use the word Nigger, but how many of them are smart?  White people who use the word nigger are either afraid of black people or jealous of them.  It is my honest opinion that 95% of non-black people that use the word nigger would not call a black person a nigger to their face. The majority of the population knows that a non-black person calling a black person a nigger will most likely lead to anger and/or hostility...so it is safe to say that when non-black people use the word nigger, they should not be surprised at what happens next.  

When outward racism slowly became unpopular after the civil rights movement, closet racism became rampant.  It seems like closet racism and the technology boom gave birth to the dawn of Cyber Racism.  It's when you try your best to voice your bigoted opinion about races other than yours while hiding behind the anonymity and security of the Internet.  I've been called a nigger by other players on Xbox Live on many occasions, but I was quick to remind those players that the only reason why they feel comfortable calling me that is because they know I have no way of finding out who they were and locating them. 

Things are changing though.  The anonymity of the Internet is slowly fading.  Divorce lawyers are accessing facebook pages and using the contents as evidence in trials.  Employers are starting to discipline and/or fire employees for the shit they put on the Internet.  Going on the web and spouting out from the mouth has its consequences although most of them will not be immediate.  Of course, in America we all have the freedom of speech, but we are not exempt from the fallout that our speech garners.  Sure, you have the freedom to call your boss a complete asshole, but your right to free speech does not guarantee that you'll keep your job afterwards.

Cyber Racism and Cyber Bullying are pretty much on the same wavelength.  These actions are for the people too scared to confront and criticize their opponents in-person so they use social media instead.  In this day and age, it is now uncool to be prejudice or racist unless you have a small circle of socially inept friends who feel the same way.  I'm sure the racist tweets were sent by people who thought that they were only talking to the people on the Internet felt the same way...their socially inept circle of friends...their "followers."  The Internet is different now.

Joel Ward is a class act that I hope many young men follow one day.  He shrugged off the comments and the tweets.  “It doesn’t faze me at all,” Ward told USA TODAY Sports. “We won, and we are moving on. … People are going to say what they want to say.”

It's much harder not to be prejudice which is not the same as racist.  Racism is action, prejudice is more of a thought process.  A prejudice store owner would watch a black teen very carefully as he enters his place of  business.  A racist store owner would not let the black teen in the store in the first place.  I believe that the majority of the tweets by the disgruntled hockey fans are your typical prejudice people.  I don't think that they are going out and lynching black people and spray painting KKK all over everything...but I do think they are dumbasses for putting it on the Internet and not expecting any backlash at all.

Random Mind Dumplings 22

*Be careful whenever you use the word "never." "Never" is a very long time.

*Ted Nugent is a musical genius, but a political dumbass.  I find it very hard to believe that the Obama Administration has made his life so miserable the past four years, that he feels the need to declare that he will either "be dead or in jail or dead by this time next year" if Obama wins in November.

*When the Secret Service finally saddles up their Colombian Poon-tang bill, perhaps they can come back to the States to keep a close eye on Nugent.

*The Saints were doing what every other football team has been doing for years, they just got caught, that's all.  They had one of their most successful years when they were participating in the Bounty Program. 

*You'll never know who will stumble upon your facebook page one day.  Although most employers cannot legally request passwords, you don't need a facebook password to find out some crazy shit about people.  Everyone has dirt...not everyone has their dirt available online...

*I used to complain about high gas prices...until I realized that my complaints had no impact on the high gas prices.  I then stopped complaining.  Has anyone ever analyzed the success rate of "complaining?"

*I think the Mayans knew that Dick Clark was going to die this year...that could explain why New Years Rockin' Eve 2012-2013 isn't on their calendar.

*Jeremy Lin's 15 minutes of NBA fame maybe over for the season due to his meniscus tear in his knee, but he still has a degree out of Harvard.  The moral of this one-sentence story:  a good education can survive any sports injury.  I'd hate to sound like an "after school special" but damnit, it's the truth.

*To me, Politics is a form of competition entertainment, like a reality show.  Politicians compete for a Title (or position) and after the competition is over, I get to listen to people complain about the outcome until the next season (or election) commences. 

*Definition: Domestic Control Freaks - A parent who uses their "concern" for the well-being of their children to dictate what is allowable and available in modern day pop culture.  I will use this term in my next mind dumpling below.

*The Norway Massacre mastermind Anders Behring Breivik mentioned that he "trained" for this crime of killing 77 people by playing Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2.  I'll be damned of a shitload of Domestic Control Freaks decide to go after the whole gaming franchise because of the actions of one delusional asshole. 

Focus On The Case, Not The Race

Things have been pretty foggy in Florida.  The Race Card has reduced the visibility of the investigation of this case.  Too many people are focused on Zimmerman's intentions when they should really focus on what he did in the first place.  He shot an unarmed man and claimed self defense.

I can't help but wonder where this incident took place?  Where was the actual struggle between Zimmerman and Martin.  When you think about it, the location where the fight and gun shot took place could make or break Zimmerman's claim of self defense.  Did Martin enter Zimmerman's property and instigate a brawl?  Did Zimmerman leave his property to confront a person he deemed "suspicious?"  If this took place on Zimmerman's property, his claim would seem valid because it would indicate that Martin did not do his part in avoiding a conflict and confronted Zimmerman on Zimmerman's property.

We have to also consider if Zimmerman did what he could to avoid a conflict.  Leaving the safety of your own home and confronting someone you had just called 911 on does not help a self defense claim, especially if the suspicious person is unarmed and winds up dead in the end.  No matter what side of the story you believe, if the killing took place in Zimmerman's house, the Self Defense claim would have better credibility.

Who gives a shit of Zimmerman was racist?  If Martin was a 17 year old white kid, how would this case be different?  If Martin was white (or if Zimmerman was black) the important questions would have been asked from the get-go.  People would have focused on the past of the two men. Did Zimmerman previously have a history of aggressiveness? Did Martin have a criminal record and a reputation of causing conflicts? 

I honestly think that the Duke lacrosse case would have been cracked a lot faster if people wouldn't have focused on the fact that the stripper was black and the lacrosse team was white. Once people focused on the history of the "victim" the overcast skies cleared up and the fog was gone.  The case became clear.

There is a large group of people out there that will immediately support you if you pull the race card.  There is also a large group of people out there that will immediately discredit you if you pull the race card.  So when you think about it...what's the point of bringing it up in the first place.  Even if you think that some one's actions against you were racist, let the case prove itself.

"The older I get the less I listen to what people say and the more I watch what they do."