Moxie, you and Broken are both clueless when it comes to historical and political issues generally, why is why he liked your inane post. Also, neither of you know a damn thing about football or basketball or the culture that has shaped it. On top of that, Broken is a complete pseudo-intellectual who does not know jackshit about America but thinks he does because he reads sources like the New York Times and BBC, two perpetual conduits of misinformation that are guaranteed to make someone a completely misinformed dolt.
I didn't put Kobe up as any "typical representation" of anything.
Yes you did. You put him up as an example of a mainstream American athlete - in his case, as a player from the NBA (a league which has been well over 80% black for a very long time) - who likes tennis. Everyone knows the NBA is a black league and what you were trying to say is "look Cali, Kobe likes tennis too. See?"
You want to know who has described the NBA as a "black league"? Among others, Charles Barkley and your hero Barack Obama. During the Donald Sterling controversy Barkley said point blank on TNT that "we are a black league."
And then there was this gem from Obama, in which he said that the NBA was "steeped in African-American culture" (that's an exact quote). Go to 0:48 of this video:
Your thing, though, is that you put people in narrow boxes based on race and ethnicity.
No, I put them into boxes that are accurate the vast majority of the time while fully acknowledging the reality of individual variability. Occasional exceptions don't disprove a general rule. The population of the United States is about 15% black, yet 80% of NBA players are black. What can we deduce from this? Not necessarily that every black person is great at basketball or even likes basketball, but that on average, black basketball players are much better and that black communities in general set the tone for basketball culture. Hence, the comments of Barkley and Obama quoted above.
As far as thinking in terms of generalities, it is hilarious to see you and Broken of all fucking people speak that way. Broken is the same moron who on another thread characterized Trump supporters as "white uncultured Americans" or something to that effect, completely ignoring the massive numbers of well-educated (in the cliche sense of having college degrees and professional careers) and highly successful people who support Trump. So why didn't you call Broken out for "putting people in narrow boxes based on ethnicity and race"? You weren't so quick to condemn those generalities or have a problem with "putting people in narrow boxes based on ethnicity and race" when it jibed with your prejudices.
You completely ignore that there is a huge African-American middle class in this country
Moxie, if Broken ever wants to have any chance of understanding the United States of America, he has to stop reading anything written by New York Times-influenced sapheads like yourself. This is a perfect example of why. There is somewhat of an "African-American middle class" in the United States, but it does not even compare in size to the black lower class in urban areas that is the product, primarily, of the ideas and agenda of moronic WHITE leftists like yourself. Cities like Baltimore, Detroit, and Camden are a total disaster. Everything Trump said about Baltimore was accurate (if it was a country, it would have the 4th highest murder rate in the world). And, ironically enough, in 2015 Bernie Sanders described Baltimore as "third world" when he visited it:
White leftists like yourself are the main culprits in how degraded so many black areas are. You should be ashamed at how horribly your ideas have worked out.
That said, I completely understand why you tell yourself "that there is a huge African-American middle class." You need to tell yourself that myth in order to justify your entire worldview about equality (you want to believe that your ideas have worked and will work in the future) and also to deflect from the depressing reality that exists in most black areas in America.
The irony here too is that many of the "middle-class blacks" you speak of subscribe to the conservative "family values" of the right that the left scorns with its silly and irrational LGBT agenda, which is why those middle-class blacks enjoy the success that they do.
not to mention how you proscribe a very narrow set of likes/dislikes/preferences on black people based on your white notion of who "they" are.
Lol.....no Moxie, it's based on who they consider themselves to be. I take people on their own terms and listen to what they say and watch what they do. Unlike a presumptuous white leftist, I don't put words in people's mouths and define them as what I want them to be.
As I said earlier, general patterns are valid as just that - general patterns. That doesn't mean they are 100% foolproof, but it does mean they are completely rational and based in reality. Yes, black people on average like rap and hip hop and R&B more than people from other races. But yes, there are some black people who don't like rap. And there are some white people who love it. Country music is mostly a white rural Southern genre, but yes, occasionally there are some black people who like it and white rural people who don't. No one is saying that these general patterns are right 100% of the time - just that they are right most of the time.
Leftists like yourself talk out of both sides of your mouth when it comes to "diversity." On the one hand, "diversity" brings cultural enrichment such as Latin music or Asian cuisine. So when complimenting non-white or non-Christian cultures, we can generalize to our heart's content. We can talk about how awesome Mexican and Indian food are or how we love Mexican music. That is fine. But if we point out any negative generalities such as violent crime rates in Mexico, then we have to shut up and "stop generalizing." In other words, certain generalities (the ones you find pleasant) can be stated but others (the ones you find unpleasant) cannot.
I also hope you understand that when you take a stand against "putting people in boxes" - if we are to take what you are saying seriously as a general principle - what you are ultimately taking a stand against is studying human culture itself. That is because what you are essentially saying is that we can't ascribe any pattern to a particular culture. No matter how many times Italians cook spaghetti or lasagna or eat it, we can't say it is an Italian food because not every cook at an Italian restaurant has a last name that ends in "ini" and not every Italian likes spaghetti. Therefore, it would be ignorant to put a certain "they" in the box of "Italian culture" because not everyone who prepares or eats Italian food is Italian and therefore Italian culture is an illusion.
Do you see how stupid that is? It makes no sense at all. But it is the reigning orthodoxy of our politically moronic age. And it is totally hypocritical and inconsistent.
Let me recommend the play "Fairview" to you, when it comes to your town. It won the Pulitzer this year. You can look it up.
The fact that it won a Pulitzer tells me right off the bat that it is completely stupid. The New York Times just got a Pulitzer for its coverage of the Russia hoax - a completely irrational, fact-free, pointless frenzy that was ginned up in large part by the New York Times itself. The Pulitzer is not a reward I respect at all. All it amounts to now is a self-congratulatory recognition for flattering left-wing political sensibilities, even if one's arguments were factually incorrect.
As for any of the themes of Fairview, I assure you it's not anything I haven't heard a million times before. I grew up around Democrats in one of the most left-wing high schools you could imagine. I have heard these little lies from the time I was a kid and they don't impress me. As for the realities of a place like Baltimore (the creation of white leftist stupidity), you can look them up.
