Veterans! Please weigh in

[LanderPoke]

How do you feel about standing during the national anthem? I am not a veteran, but I revere those that currently serve and have served in the past. I've talked to a few vets about this, but would love to hear from more.

 

[ItSucksToBeACSURam]

As a current serving service member, I could care less about the players desire to protest when they see an issue in society.

What concerns me about the whole thing is where are these protests during the offseason? Why don't we see these same players taking a knee on the inner streets of Chicago? Why don't we see them calling for change at their local homeless shelters? Why don't we hear their outcries for the rates of gun violence when it's black on black (or black on any other race). I don't believe we have a race problem in this country any more than we did 10 years ago, we have just been conditioned to believe when engaging in conversation that if someone shares a different view, its somehow racist.

EDIT: I know theyre are quite a few NFL players who do a large amount of good in their communities and do what they can to affect change. But when was the last time you saw Kap do anything other than increase his own media exposure?

 

[MrTitleist]

https://www.sbnation.com/2018/1/31/16935356/colin-kaepernick-donate-organizations-million-dollar-pledge-10-for-10

https://www.businessinsider.com/colin-kaepernick-donations-social-justice-charities-2018-9

https://www.aol.com/article/news/2018/09/06/colin-kaepernick-has-already-donated-more-than-dollar1-million-of-his-earnings-to-social-justice-charities/23518873/

https://kaepernick7.com/pages/colin-kaepernicks-10for10-encore-1

 

[Asmodeanreborn]

I don't believe we have a race problem in this country any more than we did 10 years ago

I know this is kind of unrelated to Kaepernick, but do you have any Hispanic friends/acquaintances? If so, I'd recommend talking to them whether they think this country is more or less racist today than a decade ago.

You could also ask this from how Jewish people feel recently as well. There's been a serious surge in anti-antisemitist activity lately, and it's not because of Muslims. My friend's five-year old was evacuated from his school because of another bomb threat just a few months ago.

 

[fromolwyoming]

I don't believe we have a race problem in this country any more than we did 10 years ago

I know this is kind of unrelated to Kaepernick, but do you have any Hispanic friends/acquaintances? If so, I'd recommend talking to them whether they think this country is more or less racist today than a decade ago.

You could also ask this from how Jewish people feel recently as well. There's been a serious surge in anti-antisemitist activity lately, and it's not because of Muslims. My friend's five-year old was evacuated from his school because of another bomb threat just a few months ago.

On that note;

I have a friend that moved to Iowa about 10 years back, but only for a short time. She couldn't find half decent work anywhere while there, and was treated like crap. She moved back to Laramie fed up with how she was treated out there.

She's also Hispanic.

 

[ItSucksToBeACSURam]

I don't believe we have a race problem in this country any more than we did 10 years ago

I know this is kind of unrelated to Kaepernick, but do you have any Hispanic friends/acquaintances? If so, I'd recommend talking to them whether they think this country is more or less racist today than a decade ago.

You could also ask this from how Jewish people feel recently as well. There's been a serious surge in anti-antisemitist activity lately, and it's not because of Muslims. My friend's five-year old was evacuated from his school because of another bomb threat just a few months ago.

What does who I associate have to do with my comment?

And Judaism isn’t a race... it’s religion.... singling them out makes you an asshole not a racist...

 

[Asmodeanreborn]

What does who I associate have to do with my comment?

And Judaism isn’t a race... it’s religion.... singling them out makes you an asshole not a racist...

Who you associate with has nothing to do with it but if you know a few people of Hispanic descent, their take on the issue of if racism is worse now than a decade ago might come from somebody you trust rather than some random yokel on a message board (like myself).

As for Judaism... Jewish can mean both in the religious sense, and in the racial sense. My friend is Jewish by ethnicity, but she's a non-believer from a religious standpoint, and her husband's background is about as white as it gets.


If you want actual numbers, hate crime (as defined by the FBI) is up by quite a bit in the last decade, but hate crime is a pretty wide range of offenses not just related to racism. The definition of a hate crime is a "criminal offense against a person or property motivated in whole or in part by an offender's bias against a race, religion, disability, sexual orientation, ethnicity, gender or gender identity."

https://ucr.fbi.gov/hate-crime
There's the link - rather than interpreting numbers for you, I think it's better to give you the source and let you form your own beliefs. I don't know whether FBI cares about whether people are more likely to report crimes now than in the past, so that could play in. It's also important to note that their last full year of statistics is pre-Trump (aside from election season, obviously).

 

[stymeman]

Interesting takes, I really don't know what to say about this anymore because it does nothing but starts arguments, unfortunately, but I do believe the comment there isn't a race issue anymore than within the last 10 years, it's just that we hear about it more often than before. Maybe there's a bit too much freedom of speech at times, or people just don't think before they talk anymore?

 

[ItSucksToBeACSURam]

What does who I associate have to do with my comment?

And Judaism isn’t a race... it’s religion.... singling them out makes you an asshole not a racist...

Who you associate with has nothing to do with it but if you know a few people of Hispanic descent, their take on the issue of if racism is worse now than a decade ago might come from somebody you trust rather than some random yokel on a message board (like myself).

As for Judaism... Jewish can mean both in the religious sense, and in the racial sense. My friend is Jewish by ethnicity, but she's a non-believer from a religious standpoint, and her husband's background is about as white as it gets.


If you want actual numbers, hate crime (as defined by the FBI) is up by quite a bit in the last decade, but hate crime is a pretty wide range of offenses not just related to racism. The definition of a hate crime is a "criminal offense against a person or property motivated in whole or in part by an offender's bias against a race, religion, disability, sexual orientation, ethnicity, gender or gender identity."

https://ucr.fbi.gov/hate-crime
There's the link - rather than interpreting numbers for you, I think it's better to give you the source and let you form your own beliefs. I don't know whether FBI cares about whether people are more likely to report crimes now than in the past, so that could play in. It's also important to note that their last full year of statistics is pre-Trump (aside from election season, obviously).

I do actually work with quite a few people of Mexican descent. As far as their thoughts on American politics, they really don't care. Being illegal, they love our country. They love our money, our healthcare, and our loopholes that protect them from any real legal repercussions. Have yet to have a conversation where they talk about how hurt their feelings are or how racist they find our culture...

 

[Asmodeanreborn]

So just illegal aliens? The ones I interact with the most are U.S. citizens whose parents were granted citizenship by Reagan back in the day.

 

[fromolwyoming]

And the friend I'm talking about was born in New Mexico, but has lived in Wyoming most of her life. Her family are US citizens as well.

 

[LanderPoke]

I don't believe we have a race problem in this country any more than we did 10 years ago

I know this is kind of unrelated to Kaepernick, but do you have any Hispanic friends/acquaintances? If so, I'd recommend talking to them whether they think this country is more or less racist today than a decade ago.

You could also ask this from how Jewish people feel recently as well. There's been a serious surge in anti-antisemitist activity lately, and it's not because of Muslims. My friend's five-year old was evacuated from his school because of another bomb threat just a few months ago.

On that note;

I have a friend that moved to Iowa about 10 years back, but only for a short time. She couldn't find half decent work anywhere while there, and was treated like crap. She moved back to Laramie fed up with how she was treated out there.

She's also Hispanic.

People are treated well in Laramie. Regardless of color

 

[Asmodeanreborn]

People are treated well in Laramie. Regardless of color

A friend of mine (who works as a property manager) claims it's improved vastly in that regard in Laramie since WyoTech started shrinking.

That's just a claim, though... but considering my interactions with Tech students when I lived there, I wouldn't be surprised.

 

[fromolwyoming]

People are treated well in Laramie. Regardless of color

A friend of mine (who works as a property manager) claims it's improved vastly in that regard in Laramie since WyoTech started shrinking.

That's just a claim, though... but considering my interactions with Tech students when I lived there, I wouldn't be surprised.

WyoTech will be re-opening, but locally owned this time around, if it already hasn't.