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posted by martyb on Thursday June 11 2020, @01:27PM   Printer-friendly
from the A-See-Change dept.

Many sources are reporting what we can read at ABC News,

NASCAR banned the Confederate flag from its races and properties on Wednesday, formally distancing itself from what for many is a symbol of slavery and racism that had been a familiar sight at stock car events for more than 70 years.

The move comes amid social unrest around the globe following the death in police custody of George Floyd, an unarmed black man in Minneapolis. Protests have roiled the nation for days and Confederate monuments are being taken down across the South — the tradtiional fan base for NASCAR.

[...] The issue was pushed to the fore this week as Bubba Wallace, NASCAR's lone black driver, called for the banishment of the Confederate flag and said there was "no place" for them in the sport. At long last, NASCAR obliged.

"The presence of the confederate flag at NASCAR events runs contrary to our commitment to providing a welcoming and inclusive environment for all fans, our competitors and our industry," NASCAR said. "Bringing people together around a love for racing and the community that it creates is what makes our fans and sport special. The display of the confederate flag will be prohibited from all NASCAR events and properties."

[...] The move was announced before Wednesday night's race at Martinsville Speedway where Wallace, an Alabama native, was driving a Chevrolet with a #BlackLivesMatter paint scheme. Wallace got a shoutout on Twitter from several athletes, including NBA star LeBron James, for using the paint scheme in the race.


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  • (Score: 4, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday June 11 2020, @02:51PM (5 children)

    by Anonymous Coward on Thursday June 11 2020, @02:51PM (#1006309)

    People feel a squeeze and cannot identify the source (late capitalism) so gravitate to blame someone, anyone, just like Germany after WWI blamed the Jews

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  • (Score: 2) by DannyB on Thursday June 11 2020, @03:28PM (3 children)

    by DannyB (5839) Subscriber Badge on Thursday June 11 2020, @03:28PM (#1006320) Journal

    People feel a squeeze and cannot identify the source

    Before you blame "late capitalism" look around to see if Trump, TSA agent, or priest is nearby.

    --
    A 'midden heap' is a reserved area of memory that the Java GC simply refuses to service.
    • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday June 11 2020, @03:57PM (2 children)

      by Anonymous Coward on Thursday June 11 2020, @03:57PM (#1006345)

      Asshole, this has gone on long long before Trump.

      TSA and everything about it and the "Patriot Act" has made things much worse.

      Sure, all priests are bad. Asshole.

      • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday June 11 2020, @06:16PM

        by Anonymous Coward on Thursday June 11 2020, @06:16PM (#1006470)

        Grow a sense of humor. Douche bag

        Oh right, it is only amusing when liberals are being made fun of.

      • (Score: 2) by DannyB on Thursday June 11 2020, @07:11PM

        by DannyB (5839) Subscriber Badge on Thursday June 11 2020, @07:11PM (#1006529) Journal

        this has gone on long long before Trump.

        I did mention priests, didn't I? I probably should mention Hollywood or Boy Scouts.

        all priests are bad

        I would agree.

        Although I would mention that some clergy in other denominations, ones that don't require celibacy, have had these problems too.

        --
        A 'midden heap' is a reserved area of memory that the Java GC simply refuses to service.
  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday June 11 2020, @05:39PM

    by Anonymous Coward on Thursday June 11 2020, @05:39PM (#1006443)

    I think there's something pretty simple happening here that explains most things. Right now all of America shares one thing in common - we're not too fond of our government and big business isn't too far behind. Now of course we all have different ideas about how to fix this. Some think we need to shrink the government, others just want to get rid of people of differing ideology in government, and some just think we need some fresh blood. But everybody pretty much thinks the government sucks, and that's kind of scary if you're a part of that establishment or one of the increasingly many corporations now living off the government directly or indirectly. Think about things like a $10 billion contract to *lease access* to servers worth maybe $20 million, at most. Those sort of contracts only exist in the world of people spending other people's money.

    Anyhow, now when you look at many of the organizations and institutions sparking various social tensions, including racial. It's specifically those in power, both political and corporate. This runs the gamut of topics. Many are aimed at triggering minority-majority conflicts. For instance with the trope that you can't be racist against whites. That is obviously going to irk whites and that's obviously intentional. Other efforts include things such as white privilege. The plurality of folks on foodstamps are white. Obviously whites make up a larger chunk of the population and, per capita, have less on food stamps but obviously somebody talking about white privilege when lots of people can't even afford to feed themselves isn't going to do much except stoke some pretty hostile reactions. And more pragmatically, 'white privilege' almost invariably refers to 'wealth privilege' and that is very much a thing. If your parents were rich you're going to have a big heads up on the world, regardless of whether they were black, white, or green. And similarly if your parents were trailer trash then you're pretty much fucked (at least relatively speaking) regardless of their color. Why white privilege instead of wealth privilege? The former divides, the latter unites - as even the wealthy would generally acknowledge they have some privilege. See e.g.: Jamie Johnson. [wikipedia.org]

    So what gives? That's pretty simple. People uniting in their dissatisfaction could result in change. By dividing people we need not worry about that happening: divide and conquer. So long as people can't get along, we'll all divide even on things we agree on because 'fuck the other side'. And this helps perpetuate both political and economic control by the establishment and their cronies. Similar in effect to something like a late stage capitalism hypothesis, but completely inorganic.