Antoine Griezmann

[Leif 6,006]

People really are pathetically sensitive, with little going on in their lives if they get outraged by shit like this. Some people just want an excuse to be mad. And I think it's so short-sighted and small-minded to throw around the word 'racist' when someone is indeed best friends and close friends with more black people than white (which seems the case with Griezmann). (& It's utterly stupid to react like 'lolololololol i bet he'll say he has black friends!!!!! still racist!!!!', which the majority do in this type of situation.)

Racism is a display of your own race being superior to another right? Well literally dressing up as someone of another race is especially in this scenario, communicating: 'They are superior', more than it communicates the opposite - (I mean he's picked what he's picked because he has admiration for a particular, or in general, black basketball players.)

Do we really want to continue being off-limits with eachother, sharing none of our cultures with eachother, and doing everything we can to tip-toe on egg shells? God damn, I wish more people than not were amateur philosophers in their spare time so we could actually move forward with new perspectives. We need to become eachother, in an ideal world where that's possible. 

If i go running once in my life, am i a runner?
If i wear a woman's dress once in my life, am i someone who dresses like a woman?
If i paint my face black once in my life, am i walking around for the rest of my days communicating 'I'm racist!'?
Even calling someone 'Nigger' doesn't automatically make someone racist (which should go without saying). Sure, they may've just did/said something which pretty much everyone considers to be a racist act; but taking into account that person's black friends, their taste for black music, their support for black actors, and love for black footballers, and their lack of any actual malice, are they a damn racist? No. They're usually being a damn troll just using a buzzword to annoy people or tease a best friend (some people really have weird humour); and in that latter case, sometimes even trying to strip away the power that the word use to have, by normalising it (I'm not saying we should normalise it.)

Racism is real, and racism is dangerous. Griezmann is not nor has he just been dangerous.

Idiots, who offer 0 constructive dialogue on actually improving race relations, and instead throw gasoline on a fire the moment they see a flame. 
Victim mentalities are a comfy place to reside. But that's another rant.

The reactions to this make me admire again how far countries like Nigeria, Ghana are coming. Every. Single. Person from those countries who I've seen react, have been telling African-Americans '...You can't be serious? You think that's racist?...He's paying tribute...' etc. They don't yap on about other people creating their problems, or about people offending them. It's always the Americans who've oh-so-suffered and must be oh-so-such-heroes. I'm not saying Nigeria/Ghana are perfect, but they've taken damn strides when it comes to social media, and on another coin, general education & thinking. It's beautiful. I'm so glad they're connected to our game.

They come up with the funniest football pictures too; 'RT if you'd rather Plantain as your midfielder or Like for Bakayoko'etc

[LAM09 7,062]

If only he had one friend who studies humanities or social sciences at a university or who at least watches the news every now and then he wouldn't even dare to try stuff like this lol

Or someone with a brain

[The Skipper 20,609]

2 hours ago, Miki-Liki said:

 

He's received major backlash from this, holy hell, SJWs need to chill.

No. SJW has nothing to do with this. Look up on the history of blackface. What he did was wrong. It’s major ignorance.

Anyway, looks like he’d fit right in with those train lot, sign him up. 

[The Skipper 20,609]

1 hour ago, Leif said:

Idiots, who offer 0 constructive dialogue on actually improving race relations, and instead throw gasoline on a fire the moment they see a flame. 
Victim mentalities are a comfy place to reside. But that's another rant.

This is why it needs to be condemned as strongly as it was. How else will he learn? Victim mentalities? Blackface is wrong, and he got called out for it, end of. 

What do you want people to do, just leave him and not correct him about it?

[Sir Mikel OBE 4,920]

He's from France, not some Eastern European country which probably never had minstrel tours. He has to know better.

[Miki-Liki 405]

1 hour ago, The Skipper said:

No. SJW has nothing to do with this. Look up on the history of blackface. What he did was wrong. It’s major ignorance.

 

I know about it, but this reaction is over the top, calling him a racist. But yes, the SJWs are always on the lookout, waiting for their next target to label and defame.

[Spike 12,049]

3 hours ago, The Skipper said:

This is why it needs to be condemned as strongly as it was. How else will he learn? Victim mentalities? Blackface is wrong, and he got called out for it, end of. 

What do you want people to do, just leave him and not correct him about it?

Why is it wrong?

Historically the only objectively racist thing about blackface isn't the portrayal of culture and stereotypes but the refusal of hiring black performers to fill those roles. If you go back and watch old cartoons you'll find that most of the blackface characters are actually quite endearing or the 'hero'. It was a bizarre admiration of black culture and arts (why were black even portrayed at all, you could ask). I recall watching an old Felix cartoon that portrayed the very stereotypical black man as the hero along with Felix and the white man as the evil oppressor that hated fun. I recall another instance from the British comedy show 'The Goodies', I remember clearly Graeme dresses as 'black boxer' in an attempt to beat up Bill's Lancaster martial art. I thought it was hilarious not because it lampooned black people but because of the out right absurdity of it all. It is a completely blown out of proportion sensitivity that is a complete non-issue. The fact that people even bring this up is pathetic. Oh wow, Antoine Griezmann is fond of some of the greatest and most important black American athletes of all time and wants to dress up as them - emulate them, but oh it resembles something that happened 80 years ago... I can understand the distaste for the exaggerated lips, the blackskin, the nappy hair, I believe everyone dislikes their features represented in such an exaggerated manner, but I don't believe Griezmann's costume has only of those features, correct? Now we have to ask what exactly is 'wrong' with Griezmann's costume? Is it wrong in the context of itself, or is it wrong because it reminds people something distasteful? 

But that is just an American view-point of blackface; nobody wants all their representation in the media to be done in mimicry or farce. Does France or Spain have a history of issues with blackface? I also thought it was a common celebration at Christmas in the Netherlands for the character Zwart Piet? English theatre also has a history of blackface as one of the greatest characters in English literature is portrayed in blackface (a Moorface rather): Othello. 

[DDA 9,941]

Racist??? Phwhaha don't make me laugh. The World has gone barking mad.

[Leif 6,006]

We need a thread for plain old rants.

[El P. 1,354]

First it was Kenedy with the China guy shit - about something he actually never did, THEY translated it wrong, after that Lukaku and a song about his long penis (that's racist? lol), now this.

Also, the censored things you could see on Facebook each day, hilarious. It seems like every word you say actually could be offensive to someone. We are society of a very very weak individual.

[Sir Mikel OBE 4,920]

1 hour ago, Leif said:

The reactions to this make me admire again how far countries like Nigeria, Ghana are coming. Every. Single. Person from those countries who I've seen react, have been telling African-Americans '...You can't be serious? You think that's racist?...He's paying tribute...' etc. They don't yap on about other people creating their problems, or about people offending them. It's always the Americans who've oh-so-suffered and must be oh-so-such-heroes. I'm not saying Nigeria/Ghana are perfect, but they've taken damn strides when it comes to social media, and on another coin, general education & thinking. It's beautiful. I'm so glad they're connected to our game.

They come up with the funniest football pictures too; 'RT if you'd rather Plantain as your midfielder or Like for Bakayoko'etc

 

This is classic divide and conquer. Comparing people with completely different life experiences to other based simply on their color is pretty terrible.

 

If Nigerians and Ghanians are so, kosher, with blackface why didnt minstrels like "All Coons look alike to me" tour those nations while they toured London and Paris?

[Leif 6,006]

Yes, I completed divided and conquered Ghana, Nigeria, the USA & Britain with my comments.

[Sir Mikel OBE 4,920]

2 minutes ago, Leif said:

Yes, I completed divided and conquered Ghana, Nigeria, the USA & Britain with my comments.

You set to create a divide between people to shame one group into acting like the other, which is a classic tactic. The same thing was done with Asian Americans who complained about whitewashed casting in films like Bringing down the house and Ghost in The Shell.

 

To think that each group should react the same based on their same color, while ignoring social/cultural differences, is setting up a divide and conquer narrative. The Nigerians and Ghanians you met most likely does not have the cultural experience of their identity being represented by huge gollywog style Afros and darkened skin. It completely ignores one group's history by trying to shame them based on the behavior of a "Better Child"

[manpe 10,861]

12 hours ago, Miki-Liki said:

 

He's received major backlash from this, holy hell, SJWs need to chill.

Lol, this reminds me how just recently some SJWs started kicking up a fuss over our entertainers being painted black when they parody black artists in our version of "Your Face Sounds Familiar". We even have no black history so I have no idea why some of our people should feel anything about this subject. Ridiculous stuff.

[The Skipper 20,609]

 

20 minutes ago, Sir Mikel OBE said:

This is classic divide and conquer. Comparing people with completely different life experiences to other based simply on their color is pretty terrible.

 

If Nigerians and Ghanians are so, kosher, with blackface why didnt minstrels like "All Coons look alike to me" tour those nations while they toured London and Paris?

Funny he would say Ghanaians and Nigerians are kosher with it. He’s lying. I’m of Ghanaian heritage myself and my family/friends who saw it didn’t think it was cool at all. It’s rubbish. 

[Sir Mikel OBE 4,920]

13 minutes ago, The Skipper said:

 

Funny he would say Ghanaians and Nigerians are kosher with it. He’s lying. I’m of Ghanaian heritage myself and my family/friends who saw it didn’t think it was cool at all. It’s rubbish. 

This is how it works:

 

You can say the feelings of a group are not worthy of acceptance when you are able to frame it against another group which looks like them. Thus you have discredited them using "Their own". Its divide and conquer.

[The Skipper 20,609]

9 hours ago, Spike said:

Why is it wrong?

Historically the only objectively racist thing about blackface isn't the portrayal of culture and stereotypes but the refusal of hiring black performers to fill those roles. If you go back and watch old cartoons you'll find that most of the blackface characters are actually quite endearing or the 'hero'. It was a bizarre admiration of black culture and arts (why were black even portrayed at all, you could ask). I recall watching an old Felix cartoon that portrayed the very stereotypical black man as the hero along with Felix and the white man as the evil oppressor that hated fun. I recall another instance from the British comedy show 'The Goodies', I remember clearly Graeme dresses as 'black boxer' in an attempt to beat up Bill's Lancaster martial art. I thought it was hilarious not because it lampooned black people but because of the out right absurdity of it all. It is a completely blown out of proportion sensitivity that is a complete non-issue. The fact that people even bring this up is pathetic. Oh wow, Antoine Griezmann is fond of some of the greatest and most important black American athletes of all time and wants to dress up as them - emulate them, but oh it resembles something that happened 80 years ago... I can understand the distaste for the exaggerated lips, the blackskin, the nappy hair, I believe everyone dislikes their features represented in such an exaggerated manner, but I don't believe Griezmann's costume has only of those features, correct? Now we have to ask what exactly is 'wrong' with Griezmann's costume? Is it wrong in the context of itself, or is it wrong because it reminds people something distasteful? 

But that is just an American view-point of blackface; nobody wants all their representation in the media to be done in mimicry or farce. Does France or Spain have a history of issues with blackface? I also thought it was a common celebration at Christmas in the Netherlands for the character Zwart Piet? English theatre also has a history of blackface as one of the greatest characters in English literature is portrayed in blackface (a Moorface rather): Othello. 

You shouldn’t be just glossing over the fact that black actors weren’t hired and white actors instead painted themselves black like that’s a small, moot point. That is inherently racist in itself, and is definitely a big, legitimate reason for why it isn’t okay... surely I don’t need to point that out?

Actually, Zwarte Piet is being fiercely debated in Holland, especially in recent years. A lot of people aren’t okay with it and it does spark a lot of racial debate. Read this to get the general gist: 

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/global-opinions/wp/2017/11/28/the-netherlands-holiday-blackface-needs-to-go-once-and-for-all/

Zwarte Piet is just one of the reasons why blackface is troublesome. You’ve come up with some examples of it being used in “harmless” situations but that’s honestly not the point of why it’s derogatory, or bad. Like I said, The reason why blackface is so offensive is because it was used to reinforce negative stereotypes about black people in the past very often and birthed lots of slurs too. Since you brought America into it, I’ll give you some American examples as to how it’s history is shocking. In the 1950s before the civil rights movement you had stuff packaged up like the below for example. Black people were mocked all the time - from not being allowed to sit freely on busses to having their “features” utilised as brands:

This was normal in the 50s. You think there’s nothing wrong with that? This is still happening. 2014 in France - http://www.lefigaro.fr/actualite-france/2014/06/11/01016-20140611ARTFIG00123-la-soiree-des-policiers-deguises-en-noirs-fait-desordre.php - here we have a group of students who decided it’d be funny to have a “Nigger party” - some people still use blackface to mock. Would you say that is okay as well? The history of blackface is not okay, there’s plenty of examples why it’s wrong and I’ve given you a few. 

As a black person myself, who has experienced being mocked because of his skin colour before, for someone to then use this skin colour as an accessory to dress up with, especially given the bad connotations attached to blackface, it’s offensive. There’s nothing wrong with Griezmann’s general costume, it’s fine that he’s a fan of the Globetrotters obviously, however there was no need for the blackface. The costume would’ve been fine without it - why was that needed? Why in the world did he need to colour his skin to complete the outfit? You genuinely think people wouldn’t get that he was a Globetrotter without blackfacing? You don’t just get to use someone’s skin colour like that. He isn’t exactly racist but it’s just massive ignorance. It’s a byproduct of how society is set up right now. He got rightly corrected about it in my opinion. Can’t be a global superstar and be that ignorant.

People that feel offended about it will correct him, and rightly so imo. In general, you guys dismissing it as ok have no right to tell me not to be offended by it when you haven’t physically experienced any of the connotations blackface reminds someone like myself. 

The narrative of “I’m not offended, so why the hell is that other person?”, especially when you genuinely can’t experience the other person’s plight, needs to die. This is why some black people think discussing race relations/problems etc. isn’t worth their time because people aren’t willing to understand. Lots in this thread dismissing it because they can’t comprehend in the slightest why it’s offensive - I hope you read this and begin to understand somewhat.

[The Skipper 20,609]

1 hour ago, manpe said:

Lol, this reminds me how just recently some SJWs started kicking up a fuss over our entertainers being painted black when they parody black artists in our version of "Your Face Sounds Familiar". We even have no black history so I have no idea why some of our people should feel anything about this subject. Ridiculous stuff.

This is almost akin to saying “my country has no Jewish history so why should anyone be offended by [insert something holocaust/nazi related]?”...

Why do people always trivialise something they literally have no true experience or as is clear in here, knowledge about? 

How about you try to learn why it’s offensive to the people that are offended by it, instead of just laughing it off?

[manpe 10,861]

7 minutes ago, The Skipper said:

This is almost akin to saying “my country has no Jewish history so why should anyone be offended by [insert something holocaust/nazi related]?”...

whatever you say. I don't consider a white woman having her face painted brown to impersonate Stevie Wonder a reference to the lynching of African Americans. Whoever tries to convince me of some deep evil meaning behind this, I just laugh at their faces and ignore.

[The Skipper 20,609]

5 minutes ago, manpe said:

whatever you say. I don't consider a white woman having her face painted brown to impersonate Stevie Wonder a reference to the lynching of African Americans.

I edited my post, I would like to hear your response to it fully. Why do you need to paint your skin to impersonate Stevie Wonder...

Again the, “I’m not offended by it so let me bury my head in sand and not try to understand why other people might find it offensive” attitude rears it head. 

Do you seriously think blackface is just an African American issue?