Racism - It's a real thing.

Enhance said:
This tweet irritated me quite a bit yesterday. I didn't think GU was the type of person to generalize an entire city of people based off of the actions of one idiot, particularly when a lot of people in the city (and state) have been very supportive of her and her career.

I lived in Lincoln from 2008 to 2016. I found the city to be quite progressive and was genuinely surprised to see something like this happen there. That said, this dude apparently isn't from Lincoln, and is even facing marijuana related charges in Fillmore County.
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I had the same reaction Enhance. I did not think this was an appropriate response given the stupid act of one individual that was obviously not even from Lincoln. I also did not like the characterization/generalization of Husker Fans in her tweet. 

 
knapplc said:
I got from her tweet that she's referring to the racists who think these kinds of things, not to Lincolnites in general. 

And she's not wrong - there are a lot of Husker fans with a plantation mentality. If you're not working for me on the field, you're a target for racism. 
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SOOOOOO many Husker fans that are like this.  Like, a shocking amount.  

 
knapplc said:
I got from her tweet that she's referring to the racists who think these kinds of things, not to Lincolnites in general. 

And she's not wrong - there are a lot of Husker fans with a plantation mentality. If you're not working for me on the field, you're a target for racism. 
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I also didn't think Union's tweet was a slam against Lincoln or the majority of the residents there.  And the truck belongs to a person who lives outside of Lincoln.  She was disgusted by the site of that truck in the city where NU plays.

There are plenty of Nebraskans who will cheer for black kids when they play football for NU, but still have racist views against black people and other minorities.  There are also plenty of Nebraskans who have racially-veiled opinions on wanting more Nebraska-bred walk-ons playing, and too many scholarships going to minorities.

 
I'd rather actually spend time making this piece of s#!t's life miserable by making him even more famous than dealing with GU's comments.  I cringed heavily when I read her tweet.  I also believe she was meaning it along the lines of what Knapp said.  But....it still makes me mad that this ever happened in Lincoln.

 
I very much agree about what she may have been trying to say, but would still position her word choice was poor. She says "this is in Lincoln" and then uses the pronoun 'them' without any additional context or clarification. There were several people who saw her tweet and responded to it by making disparaging remarks about Lincoln as a whole i.e. 'wow I'll never go to that city.'

I think people need to be better about that kind of stuff. It's almost always wrong to generalize an entire group of people even if that's not the intention.

 
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Enhance said:
I very much agree about what she may have been trying to say, but would still position her word choice was poor. She says "this is in Lincoln" and then uses the pronoun 'them' without any additional context or clarification. There were several people who saw her tweet and responded to it by making disparaging remarks about Lincoln as a whole i.e. 'wow I'll never go to that city.'

I think people need to be better about that kind of stuff. It's almost always wrong to generalize an entire group of people even if that's not the intention.
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I think her word choice should have been much more precise so there was no question she didn't mean all Nebraskans/Lincolnites. 

One of the guys from Todd & Tyler put out a tweet just like hers over the weekend, and even after explaining it he still caught so much grief he deleted it.

People are pissed off about this. Ambiguity doesn't help anyone in this situation.

 
Danny Bateman said:
It's amazing how not having the boot of racism on the neck of your people for centuries allows you to dissect nuances of a discussion that people that have lived under said boot don't care about all that much.
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"I am so offended for being lumped into a Tweet about racism in Nebraska.  Darn that Gabrielle Union for being so hurt and upset about that racist a-hole driving through Lincoln."

 
ColoradoHusk said:
"I am so offended for being lumped into a Tweet about racism in Nebraska.  Darn that Gabrielle Union for being so hurt and upset about that racist a-hole driving through Lincoln."
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I find it perplexing.

I don't think anyone ITT raised bad points or anything - rather they've acquitted themselves quite well.

But from what I've seen from people drawing attention to that track on social media and in response to Union's tweet in particular, it seems like a lot (most?) people who bother to have a take on it are more offended at how it reflects on Lincoln and them by extension than the fact we still have people like this young man in 2020 comfortable expressing that view in public.

Presumably he's comfortable doing so because that mindset is permissible, if not supported, within his social circle and he feels it has tepid, if silent, support among the broader population.

That realization presumably makes black Americans incredibly uncomfortable, if not outright pissed off.

 
Danny Bateman said:
I find it perplexing.

I don't think anyone ITT raised bad points or anything - rather they've acquitted themselves quite well.

But from what I've seen from people drawing attention to that track on social media and in response to Union's tweet in particular, it seems like a lot (most?) people who bother to have a take on it are more offended at how it reflects on Lincoln and them by extension than the fact we still have people like this young man in 2020 comfortable expressing that view in public.

Presumably he's comfortable doing so because that mindset is permissible, if not supported, within his social circle and he feels it has tepid, if silent, support among the broader population.

That realization presumably makes black Americans incredibly uncomfortable, if not outright pissed off.
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The greater issue here is the racist d-bag, no doubt. But on that there's very little to discuss. No one here is pushing back on the idea that he's a racist liar, and we all unequivocally denounce him and what he did. So... what kind of conversation should we have on that track?

There's nuance to the Gabrielle Union tweet, and nuance is always going to generate discussion. Maybe there's a bit of privilege going on with that discussion, or maybe it's just the fact that we can walk & chew gum at the same time.

 
Danny Bateman said:
But from what I've seen from people drawing attention to that track on social media and in response to Union's tweet in particular, it seems like a lot (most?) people who bother to have a take on it are more offended at how it reflects on Lincoln and them by extension than the fact we still have people like this young man in 2020 comfortable expressing that view in public.
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This hasn't been my experience, personally. By far and away, most of the reaction and feedback I've seen is in relation to the racist remarks, how disappointing they are, whether or not he's lying about how it got on his truck, etc. But as knapplc said, there's no way to misinterpret that element of the discussion - it was incredibly, and inherently, racist.

I guess my question (for discussion purposes) would be... why do we allow these discussions to delve into absolutes, as GU's tweet intentionally/unintentionally did? This racist d-hole with the truck is making a racist statement in absolute terms. GU's tweet was stating an absolute in relation to the people of Nebraska/Lincoln. Is that a fair way to respond to something like this?

 
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BlitzFirst said:
Plenty of privilege with the discussion.  Instead of taking ownership of the racism that's in society which we are a part of, we're attempting to discuss why her tweet doesn't apply to us as individuals.

I own and acknowledge that she's right and that if I lived in Lincoln, I'd be one of the ones she is talking about. Even though I'm in Florida, I accept her blame and I vow to move forward to help fix the problem.  Pretty easy to admit I'm wrong and try to move forward...not sure why everyone tries to fight against it.

Now, if only everyone in this thread and the outside world would do that, we'd have a solution to problems.

What does it really do to everyone here if you're guilty of having a white privilege in a systemically racist society?  The answer is nothing...acknowledging a problem and and pledging yourself to fix it is part of moving forward.
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I don't feel the need to feel guilty that I'm a part of this piece of s#!t being so racist that he writes this on his truck and drives around Lincoln just because I live in Nebraska.  

 
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