Posted on 05/23/2014 6:00:37 PM PDT by Hojczyk
For record, I stopped being a Dallas Mavericks fan when their owner, Mark Cuban, bankrolled the movie Redacted. That movie smears American troops fighting the war against jihadists. Mark Cuban chose his side. I chose mine. To the extent that I’m a fan of any NBA team now, I go with the San Antonio Spurs. They have a team ethic and their owner is a veteran. I’m sure Cuban’s heart just aches to hear that the Mavs lost a single fan over his flop of a movie.
That said, Cuban is coming under unfair criticism for being “bigoted.” It’s his own fault, since he misused the word “bigoted” to describe something that is not an example of bigotry. Mark Cuban may be a billionaire, but he isn’t as smart as he thinks he is.
“I know I’m prejudiced, and I know I’m bigoted in a lot of different ways,” Cuban said in an interview shown at the annual GrowCo convention hosted by Inc.magazine, according to The Tennessean.
“If I see a black kid in a hoodie on my side of the street, I’ll move to the other side of the street. If I see a white guy with a shaved head and tattoos (on the side he now is on), I’ll move back to the other side of the street. None of us have pure thoughts; we all live in glass houses.”
That is neither prejudice nor bigotry. Bigotry is hating a whole class of people because of some defining characteristic. If Cuban said that he avoids all black people, that would be bigotry. Every day we see leftists proudly proclaim their hatred for Christians. That is bigotry. Prejudice is pre-judging people based on something other than experience. Cuban isn’t guilty of that. Clothes make the man, so they say,
(Excerpt) Read more at pjmedia.com ...
That is neither prejudice nor bigotry. Bigotry is hating a whole class of people because of some defining characteristic. If Cuban said that he avoids all black people, that would be bigotry. Every day we see leftists proudly proclaim their hatred for Christians. That is bigotry. Prejudice is pre-judging people based on something other than experience. Cuban isn’t guilty of that. Clothes make the man, so they say, and so does a face full of tattoos.
Cuban’s comments betray nothing more than common sense. In his inarticulate way, Cuban said that when he sees someone who gives off the trouble vibe, he avoids them. Who doesn’t do that? A fool, that’s who. Cuban echoes a controversial comment made years ago by none other than Jesse Jackson, when he said, “There is nothing more painful to me … than to walk down the street and hear footsteps and start thinking about robbery, then look around and see somebody white and feel relieved.” Fearing robbery =/= racism. Knowing crime statistics and probabilities =/= racism.
Did I just defend Mark Cuban and Jesse Jackson in the same post? I suppose so.
Mark has common sense, yes. Now, if he could just keep his mouth closed vs open more often, especially when the subject is not sports.
What is it many used to say to Linda Ronstadt before she aged and lost her singing voice? “Just shut up and sing!”.
Jessie Jackson said virtually the same thing.
Mark Cuban does not have a lot of common sense, this instance was an outlier.
True. Stereotypes are just a way to classify things based on probability, real or perceived. The alternative is to treat each event as a random occurrence, unrelated to any previous experience. Only a fool would try to function that way. But you also need to understand there are always exceptions and make allowance for that.
As for the crime element, clothing aside, it’s a simple fact that per capita blacks commit violent crime at rates thousands of percent higher than whites. But that isn’t supposed to be part of the “conversation” liberals claim to want.
I agree with Cuban except I would not have apologized to the Martin family or anyone else.
I wish there was a way to expose and publicize the names of the advocacy persons and organizations who make such a big deal out of these sorts of things.
There’s a huge difference between racism and prejudice. Liberals like to equate prejudice with racism which is like comparing logic with insanity, yet they keep using that word “racism” along with the press because it is more effective with the low infos. When I was insane enough to live in the fascist city of New York, I was robbed 3 times, one time by having a gun pointed at my head, and all of those were done by young black males. My brother had his neck cut by one of them who tried to steal his cellphone, and in a restaurant no less. He survived, but guess what happens? That’s right - prejudice forms. Prejudice is NOT racism. It is pre-judging from past experiences, but the fascists will call that racism anyway. Cuban is expressing prejudice, he is expressing logic, but leave it to the press to make it into racism.
“There is nothing more painful to me at this stage in my life than to walk down the street and hear footsteps and start thinking about robbery. Then look around and see somebody white and feel relieved.... After all we have been through. Just to think we can’t walk down our own streets, how humiliating.”
— Jesse Jackson at a meeting of Operation PUSH in Chicago (27 November 1993).
Mark Cuban financed an anti-American film called Redacted.
Mark Cuban is right on this time but let’s not get carried away here.
In other words, suppress his free speech if it does not go along with the PC world... Shame on you for even saying that!
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.