The announcement comes the same day a White House official told NBC News that President Donald Trump would be attending the game.
The announcement comes the same day a White House official told NBC News that President Donald Trump would be attending the game.
I mean I am all for ending racism, but if we are being honest with ourselves the little “end racism” banner wasn’t doing shit for race relations lol.
Spending time with people outside your bubble is always good even if it’s uncomfortable at first. There are countless records of racist white guys joining the army and leaving with a different perspective on the different races. People raised by racists who then went and spent time being shot at and laughing next to people they had been told were somehow different than them simply because of their skin pigmentation. Many people came back from military service with friends of all nationalities.
Anyway the whole “End racism” banner feels a lot like the “gun free zone” signs. The people who are going to read the sign and listen to it are probably already following those instructions. The people who are going to ignore it and continue on their way weren’t going to read it in the first place.
No one gesture or action can fix race relations. Just as racism is a societal problem that manifests itself in many ways from tiny things all the way up to awful explicit actions, societal change needs to happen in both large and small ways. Things like having an ‘end racism’ banner by itself doesn’t do much, but it’s part of a collective effort to show that society is changing and to remind people that we need to and are doing the work to tackle the issue.
The only thing racism needs to thrive in society is for it to be quietly tolerated. Removing this banner can be seen as a backslide in that direction.
I’d also argue that by removing it (especially at this time) you’re in fact doing the opposite—you’re now inciting racism because the racists will call it a win and take it as a sign that they’ve “won” or it’s acceptable now.