What Will it Take for African American Men to Simply be Viewed as Men
While attempting to debate matters related to all races I couldn’t help but notice yesterdays tweet by Minnesota State Rep Pat Garofalo regarding the NBA :
Let's be honest, 70% of teams in NBA could fold tomorrow + nobody would notice a difference w/ possible exception of increase in streetcrime
— Rep. Pat Garofalo (@PatGarofalo)
March 9, 2014
Those who know both the successful business of the NBA, as well as, the character of the players understand how false this statement is and Pat Garofalo, while apologizing, has clearly displayed his feelings towards African American men. What is more concerning are the now 563 people who favorited this tweet.
Granted, while 563 out of roughly one billion users is relatively small it is still massively alarming to see anyone stand in solidarity with such a hate-filled, blasphemous message. These people who agree are actually men and women, some of whom are African-American, and it calls into question how they view men of color and how they view themselves.
So, we can’t peer into the minds of State Rep. Garofalo, and those who felt they agreed with this message, but we can ask what will it take for African American men to simply be viewed as men- as equals. Not intimidating, violent sub-humans preying on society- just men. Men who happen to be descended from somewhere different from you or me who simply want to live, love and make their stamp on the world.
Minnesota Representative Garofalo: “There is not a racist bone in my body.”
Minnesota Representative Garofalo: “There is not a racist bone in my body.”
The short, turbulent life of a tweet.
What we say and do demonstrates who we are. We cannot help but draw conclusions based on the actions we see and the comments we hear. In the end, no one of us can know more than that about each other.
That’s how communication works.
Representative Garofalo’s Sunday Tweetlanded on ESPN Monday morning. Tweeters were quick to jump on the tweet, denouncing Mr.…
No only is Rep. Pat Garofalo's tweet racist, it's mathematically incorrect
For starters, there seems little doubt that his “70%” figure alludes to black Americans’ prevalence in the league. According to USA Today, 76.3% was the official black player count for 2012, a number slightly too close to Garofalo’s tweet figure to be coincidence.
The congressman suggests that if these players were not in the NBA, national street crime would rise. This purports a special link between black NBA players and criminality that frankly doesn’t exist. Since the beginning of 2013, only nine arrests of black NBA players have been made – two of which involved the same player (Ty Lawson), and one of which targeted an inactive free agent (Lamar Odom). Considering there are 445 active NBA players, this figure is approximately half of the most recently documented national arrest rate, which counted 12.2 million arrests out of a 313.8 million-person population – a rate of approximately 4%, compared to the NBA’s 2%. Assuming that black NBA players are any more likely to commit crimes than anyone else is simply inaccurate.
20 Negative Reactions To Minnesota Politician's Racist NBA Tweet [PHOTOS]
20 Negative Reactions To Minnesota Politician’s Racist NBA Tweet [PHOTOS]
Twitter and politics don’t mix like the majority of things and politics and Minnesota State Rep. Pat Garofalo is learning the hard way for a stereotypical tweet aimed at a chunk of the NBA’s player personnel.
During yesterday’s match-ups, which featured five games from around the league, Garofalo distastefully expressed on his Twitter account with a statement that read: “Let’s be honest, 70% of…
Minnesota legislator criticized for racist NBA tweet
Minnesota legislator criticized for racist NBA tweet
In this May 3, 2013 photo, Minnesota Republican Rep. Pat Garofalo is shown at the State Capitol in St. Paul, Minn. (AP Photo/Minneapolis Star-Tribune, Glen Stubbe)
MINNEAPOLIS (AP) — A Minnesota legislator’s tweet about the NBA has prompted hundreds of responses, with many on social media calling it racist.
State Rep. Pat Garofalo sent a tweet Sunday that read: “Let’s be honest, 70% of teams in…