Sigh.
So this happened. In a dance as old as time, sportsball fans got liquored up, set fires and broke shit because their sportsball team out-sportsballed the other sportsball team in The Big Game. It's not the outcome of the game that makes me sigh, though -- as I've stated before, I have fallen out of love with college football (if not football in general) and the damage to the relationship appears irreparable.
No, this is altogether more sociological. Look at the headline in that first link:
"Get a little rowdy"? Setting 89 fires, vandalizing property and causing police to use tear gas and pepper spray to disperse crowds is "rowdy"? It seems more than a bit curious that when white people riot -- for whatever the reason, great or small -- they're described as "rowdy", "overexuberant" or "disruptive" and that things just got out of hand. Yet when African Americans protest in the name of social justice, they're derided as "savages", dismissed as "hoodlums" and written off as lawless "thugs" who are destroying their own community.
Whether the fault lies with the media, the American public or a bit of both, there are some massive double standards being thrown around here.
Maybe I'm the one who's mistaken. Maybe America really has changed in the years I've been gone. Is college football a more acceptable reason to act up than civil rights? Or is the former accepted as so trifling a concern that behavior such as that in Columbus isn't "real" riots, but people fighting back against oppression are a threat because they might actually want something to change?
If I've seriously misread the mood of the country, I wish someone would fill me in because, from where I'm sitting, all I can see is people shrugging their shoulders at (mostly) white college kids misbehaving while cowering in fear and demanding protection from scary black people.
So this happened. In a dance as old as time, sportsball fans got liquored up, set fires and broke shit because their sportsball team out-sportsballed the other sportsball team in The Big Game. It's not the outcome of the game that makes me sigh, though -- as I've stated before, I have fallen out of love with college football (if not football in general) and the damage to the relationship appears irreparable.
No, this is altogether more sociological. Look at the headline in that first link:
Fans get a little rowdy over Ohio State national championship win
"Get a little rowdy"? Setting 89 fires, vandalizing property and causing police to use tear gas and pepper spray to disperse crowds is "rowdy"? It seems more than a bit curious that when white people riot -- for whatever the reason, great or small -- they're described as "rowdy", "overexuberant" or "disruptive" and that things just got out of hand. Yet when African Americans protest in the name of social justice, they're derided as "savages", dismissed as "hoodlums" and written off as lawless "thugs" who are destroying their own community.
Whether the fault lies with the media, the American public or a bit of both, there are some massive double standards being thrown around here.
Maybe I'm the one who's mistaken. Maybe America really has changed in the years I've been gone. Is college football a more acceptable reason to act up than civil rights? Or is the former accepted as so trifling a concern that behavior such as that in Columbus isn't "real" riots, but people fighting back against oppression are a threat because they might actually want something to change?
If I've seriously misread the mood of the country, I wish someone would fill me in because, from where I'm sitting, all I can see is people shrugging their shoulders at (mostly) white college kids misbehaving while cowering in fear and demanding protection from scary black people.
Arson. B&E. Destruction of private property. IT’S ALL OK. IT’S JUST WHITE PEOPLE CELEBRATING A SPORTS CHAMPIONSHIP. NOTHING TO SEE HERE.
— Zach Woosley (@GingeFC) January 13, 2015these animals are destroying their own neighborhood pic.twitter.com/4T3BAWdYNi
— #1 Nice Guy Here (@dogboner) January 13, 201530-40 fires, tear gas needed to disperse crowds. Just imagine #FoxNews outrage if they were saying #BlackLivesMatter instead of #GoBuckeyes.
— Dave Zirin (@EdgeofSports) January 13, 2015#CallItARiot
Nothing N headline about white thugs rioting, despite fire in pic. You're so damn predictable, @CNN. <_< pic.twitter.com/9h8QBx3yMq
— Heather (@MissJupiter1957) January 13, 2015"Revelers" smh “@AP: Revelers breach Ohio football stadium, tear down goal post after football championship”
— Travon Free (@Travon) January 13, 2015
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