Black athletes should boycot West Virginia and Kentucky ...

[Alhena]

I was a little surprised to learn how hostile West Virginia and Kentucky are to black politicians, considering that every time I see their football and basketball teams play on tv, they are filled with black athletes, most of whom come from out of state. It turns out that the good folks there have no problem rooting for a black athlete, but get an African-American in a position to gain some actual power, and it's "hold on just one second."

I'm sure those states are feeling pretty satisfied with themselves and their bigotry, but I've got a sneaking suspicion that all the diehard Mountaineer and Wildcat fans out there would have a heart attack if a serious boycot of their universities by black athletes were started. I can just about guarantee you that coaches from competing schools will remind recruits of the bigotry there when they are recruiting against them.

[ej510]

1. They won't though because of television. It's a great opportunity to play in the big east and

the Sec.

[bowens43]

2. We need to unite the country not further divide it.

boycotting would do nothing to improve things. Perhaps a better idea would be for them to spend more time there getting to the know the people and playing the role of good will ambassador.

[DeaconBlues]

3. Oh, oh, Kentucky. You have now joined the list of pariah states

Welcome to the club. I guess Obama supporters have started thier own list of "states that don't matter."

[iamthebandfanman]

8. dont act like you speek for anybody in state.

k ?

so, unless you live here and hear/encounter the racism i see every day...
id likely just keep my mouth shut.

if you want to live in denile, thats your right..but dont try n look for sympathy from our end of the woods.

[DeaconBlues]

21. Umm, what the fuck are you talking about?

I was making the point that a whole state shouldn't be ostracized because of its voting patterns in one lousy primary.

What the hell you are commenting about I haven't a clue. Incidentally, its "denial."

[moobu2]

4. Yeah, and white athletes could boycott South Carolina and Mississippi

:eyes: :eyes: :eyes:

[Bake]

5. Kentucky had an African American men's head basketball coach

for about ten years, in Tubby Smith. He's now at Minnesota coaching the Golden Gophers, since Kentucky doesn't like to go more than a year or two without a national championship.

Nobody called the UK athletic program racist.

It's foolish to blame the University for a state's voting patterns (and the primary hasn't even happened yet!). I'm no fan of UK, mind you; I graduated from their arch-rival University of Louisville. But a boycott is just a dumb idea. Why not, don't buy any Toyotas since they're made in Georgetown, KY? Of course, that would rule out the Prius.

Bad idea.

Bake

[BlooInBloo]

7. "Nobody called the UK athletic program racist." Wow - THAT'S a DUzy if ever there was one.

[Bake]

10. How so? Are you saying it WAS/IS racist?

If so, back it up with some evidence. If not, STFU.

Is the Bloo in your name perhaps Bloomington, IN? Where Bobby Knight posed for a photo WHIPPING one of his AA players?

I'm all aflutter waiting for your response.

Bake

[BlooInBloo]

12. Easy there frothy-mouthed one.

[Bake]

16. You're the one who said the statement was a DUzy.

Put up or shut up.

And please address the "Bloo" question. Enquiring minds want to know.

Bake

[BlooInBloo]

18. You making up shit out of thin air doesn't constitute an issue that needs to be addressed.

It's hilarious though - nobody but a KY person would even *consider* uttering the sentence ""Nobody called the UK athletic program racist."

Well, except a commedian, perhaps.

[Bake]

23. So it should be easy to come up with specifics. Right?

Right?

Bake

[FredScuttle]

20. Some memorable quotes from the great Adolph Rupp

1) Halftime speech from the 1966 NCAA final against Texas-Western, the first all-black team in the final:

"He said, 'You've got to beat those coons, ' " Deford said. "He turned to (center) Thad Jaracz. 'You go after that big coon.' . . . He talked that way all the time. . . A chill went through me. I was standing in the back of the room, and I looked around at the players. They all kind of ducked their heads. They were embarrassed. This was clearly the type of thing that went over the line."

(Michael MacCambridge, The Franchise, Hyperion, 1997)


2) Rupp's reaction to a meeting with Dr. John Oswald, president of University of Kentucky in the mid-60s:

"Harry, that son of a bitch is ordering me to get some niggers in here. What am I going to do ? He's the boss."

(Harry Lancaster, Adolph Rupp As I Knew Him, Lexington Productions, 1979)


EDIT: posting a picture of Coach Rupp to display his likeness to fellow racist, Bull Connor

[BlooInBloo]

24. I really don't know why the poster bothered keeping that losing convo going.

He may as well have said "Nobody accused Germany of being anti-Semitic," for how stupid it was.

[FredScuttle]

27. "Nobody accused Dracula of being a bloodthirsty creature of the night"

Nobody accused the sun of rising in the East

Nobody accused water of being wet


etc.

[BlooInBloo]

29. hahahaha!

[Bake]

30. I should have added "LATELY."

If you're still stuck in the 60s I can't help you.

Bake

[Bake]

38. I'm still waiting for something more recent than Adolph Rupp ...

But I won't hold my breath. Explain Tubby Smith ... oh, yeah, he's just a token. He did win a championship or two (although he did it with Pitino's players).

C'mon Bloo. You can do it. I'm sure that you can rock the cynics if you try ...

Bake

[FredScuttle]

42. Is Tubby Smith still coaching at Kentucky?

Oh yeah, that's right....he was hired so that racist UK fans could always point to him and say "See? We ain't racist! We had a coon coach!"

Nevermind that he was lambasted by Kentucky fans his entire time there for not making enough Final Fours. I bet he was overjoyed to get out of that hardwood Klavern.

[Bake]

43. They don't do affirmative action in basketball

They hired Tubby to win. He did win, two championships (albeit with Rick Pitino's recruits). When he stopped winning, it was time for him to go.

He stayed at UK for about ten years. Explain that with something SPECIFIC ... your "just so racist UK fans could say they hired a coon" DOESN'T CUT IT.

Bake

[ecstatic]

46. Good one! It's called the Good old boys club.

All white management/ownership, all black players. Oh, don't bother posting the exceptions to the rule.

[Bake]

50. The exceptions are waaaaaay too numerous to post.

So many that one must question whether your "rule" actually exists.

Bake

[Bake]

26. You have to go all the way back to Rupp to find something?

Forty years ago, there were a lot more racists around than today. Bear Bryant had to be coerced to sign black athletes at Alabama.

The Sixties. Yer killin' me. You have to go back to the beginnings of the Civil Rights movement to show me that UK is a racist program? How do you explain Tubby Smith?

Sit there all smug, thinking "Oooooh, I got him with that Adolph Rupp thing!" Yeah, right.

Bake

[FredScuttle]

37. Kentucky basketball has been one of the most criminal of Division I programs for the last 60 years

You brought up the laughable point that "no one accused UK of racism" when, in fact, the program has a long and proud history (centered in their deity Rupp) of racism and bigotry. Rupp refused to recruit black players until he was dragged kicking and screaming to do it when the University realized that coddling their legendary coach's racism was being outweighed by the titanic ass-kickings that were looming on the horizon to the integrated teams of the late 60s

Now, I can go into chapter and verse about what a corrupt and venal program Kentucky has been....from the point-shaving scandal from 1951 to the "hundred-dollar handshakes" under Eddie Sutton to the ACT scandal of 1988 to their long-overdue NCAA sanctions in the Chris Mills scandal, Kentucky is as crooked a college program as there has ever been....their saving grace has been the NCAA's utter refusal until 1989 to discipline the school or its coaches in any meaningful way.

[Bake]

41. Oh, right. More corrupt than Tark the Shark ...

UK's had it's share of NCAA violations, and I won't defend them on those. We're talking institutional RACISM, since that was the term so easily tossed out there. You had to go all the way back to Rupp to find that. Rupp was no different than the majority of white coaches in the 60s, particularly in the South. It's a history that the South is not proud of, and one that we've worked hard to get past.

For all your "progressive" talk, you have no credibility. You just write off entire swaths of the country. You refuse to recognize the progress that has been made. You're stuck in the 60s. Didn't your candidate complain early on that the boomer generation needed to "get over" the 60s?

Unless and until you can find me something a whole lot more recent than Adolph Rupp, I have nothing to say to you.

Bake

[WeDidIt]

6. No, they absolutely should not.

Many athletes come from very poor backgrounds and their only way out is via scholarships offered to them because fo tehir athletic abilities.

No athlete should boycott any institution of higher learning as that may be their only ticket out of poverty.

[atufal1c]

9. Boycott doesn't seem to make sense, but

I can't for the life of me figure out why any black athlete with a choice would go to West Virginia.

Kentucky makes more sense.

[Bake]

28. Go to W.Va. to play football; go to KY to play basketball.

UK hasn't been a football power ... ever.

Better yet, go to Louisville and play either sport!! I'm so relieved the OP didn't call for a boycott of U of L!!

Bake

[TBF]

11. I can understand the feelings behind this post, but I have to disagree.

As an Obama supporter I'd like to see more unity, not boycotts. I'm not sure how to increase diversity in the above-mentioned states, but at least universities try with athletic and academic scholarships. Perhaps the suggestion could be that the colleges should offer full-ride academic scholarships in equal number to the athletic scholarships for qualified minority students. It would be a positive step and help out a few more people. Baby steps, but sometimes that can get the ball rolling (you can tell I live in Texas - always starting with small steps).

[iamthebandfanman]

13. we arent all racist, stop trying to go that route

but ill be the first to admit atleast 1/3 of the people who will vote for hillary here will do so because race is important to them.



some of you, mostly hillary supporters, would have everyone believe that people here on DU keep calling EVERYONE in a state racist or stupid ... but you only go that way to start a fight when in reality we both know thats not true.

im sorry there are racist people. im sorry there are racist people in my state. im sorry there were racist people who voted in WV. thats just how it is....

why some people want to deny that it goes on is beyond me.

so please , no more broad generalisation from either side. you make your case look pathetic.

[woolldog]

14. I'm surprised you're surprised, Alhena. n/t

[locker13]

15. hmmm no

dumb idea

[NorthernSpy]

17. no, we want MORE connections between people, not fewer.

That's what Obama is all about.

[Bake]

34. That's why his followers are so ready to write off everyone else as racist.

Honestly, it's just really gotten fucking OLD. That strategy is gonna be a loser in the fall. Count on it.

Bake

[SCantiGOP]

19. that is absurd

South Carolina is way more racist than those two states, yet we are the heroes for starting the big momentum for Obama's run for the nomination. The only reason that happened is half the voters in SC were AA. I bet he didn't poll as well with white voters here as he did in WV or will in KY. Keep a little perspective.

[FredScuttle]

25. Yes, such an easy victory for Obama in S.C. since he's black and all those blackity-black voters

nevermind that Hillary was the one drawing better than 80% black support in S.C. and elsewhere by the close of last year. S.C. doesn't count! Too many black voters!

It's like a jungle sometimes, makes me wonder how I keep from goin under....

[BlooInBloo]

32. "blackity-black" HAHAHAHA!!!

I don't know why that sounds so funny to me, but it does.

[moobu2]

36. Duh

"nevermind that Hillary was the one drawing better than 80% black support in S.C. and elsewhere by the close of last year."

That was before Obama used race as a wedge.

[FredScuttle]

39. Before OBAMA used race as a wedge?

:wtf:

Do explain...I'm dying to hear.

[SCantiGOP]

44. fredscuttle, are you making sense?

I worked for the Obama campaign here is SC. Exit polling showed that he got around 80% of the black vote, which accounted for 55% of the total vote. Can you do the math? Here's a link if you want proof:
Jan 26, 2008 ... WASHINGTON - Landslide margins among black voters powered Barack Obama to his win Saturday in South Carolina's Democratic presidential ...
www.msnbc.msn.com/id/22859978/ - 48k - Cached - Similar pages - Note this

[FredScuttle]

49. I'm still waiting to hear how Obama used race as a wedge in S.C.

Did he campaign as "Undercover Brother"?

[theHandpuppet]

51. I think it's much more complex than that

Perhaps the poster was referring to something regarding Bill Clinton but for me there was another issue. I felt Obama exploited anti-gay sentiments within a particular demographic among the black community in SC in order to curry votes. From my perspective, he played the homophobia card.

[Texas Hill Country]

22. go ahead and chalk up the whole thing to the entire states and all the people in them are racists

way to go

[redqueen]

31. Does this really belong in GDP?

:shrug:

[DU GrovelBot]

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[Bake]

35. Better yet ... why don't they boycott the SEC entirely?

Oh. Because they'd like to go pro someday. Because a national championship would give them a helluva springboard to turn pro. Because there are actually good universities in the SEC.

But fuck all that! The SEC schools are all in racist states! Hell, some of them are in MISSISSIPPI and ALABAMA!!! They might not vote for Obama, so screw turning pro, screw playing in a championship game ... boycott the SEC!!

Bake

[DemocratSinceBirth]

40. I Think They Should Boycot New York

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yAIfccym200

[Butch350]

45. Black athletes should boycot

It would only make things worse. What we have to do is teach and enlighten our children. The only way to eradicate
bigotry and racism is to start from the bottom and, "teach our children well"!

[theHandpuppet]

47. May I ask, in which state do you live? Or what is your home state?

You haven't stated where you are from, which may be relevant to this discussion.

[jsmirman]

48. I actually was kind of thinking the same thing. The WVU folks sure embrace their black athletes

but I don't think the fanbase is on the up and up about that.

[theHandpuppet]

52. Is this a hit and run thread?

You just dump this and then refuse to engage in any further discussion on the subject?

[Jeff In Milwaukee]

53. Because racism exists only in Kentucky and West Virginia...

Give it a rest, for chrissakes!

[Zynx]

54. I rather doubt that will shame them out of their racism.