Quote Originally Posted by hitmandonny
Bilbo i'm afraid I have to disagree.
Racism is not simply the performance of an oppresive act upon a member of a particular ethnic group or race, it is the generalisation and judgement of a person or group of people of a different ethnicity.

Hopkins' comments were not made completely in a throw away manner. He elaborated on how he would never allow a white man to beat him, classifying Joe Calzaghe as a White and also expressing his belief that he was superior to the White man.

I believe Daxx alluded to the reversal of rolls earlier?
Had Calzaghe publicly stated that he would never let a coloured man beat him, what reaction would that have drawn from the general public?

It is unfortunate that a man of Hopjkins' stature should allow himself to make public such statements that are not only offensive but also unprovoked and unnecessary.
As this is the second such display of racial disrespect I have witnessed from Hokins (the first being before the mTrinidad fight,) i feel that the man (not the fighter) has dropped in my estimation and I may never fully forgive his character this flaw.
But even if he does harbour feelings against white people why is it racist? He's a black youth who grew up with no prospects, running gangs and living a life of crime.
Bilbo, he is a far cry from those mean nstreets now. And in reality how much oppresssion do you feel Bernard Hopkins expierienced. He may have been discriminated sure, but do you feel he was ever kept down by white people?
It's not the same though Donny. White's as a race DID openly feel superior to blacks, we enslaved them, we thought them subhuman, like beasts of burden and cattle. That's what racism is.

Blacks feeling digruntled against whites for hundreds of years of past treatment isn't racism it's just natural behaviour.

Hopkins is from the streets and still speaks like he's from the streets. But at the end of the day he's a boxer not a politician.

As far as I'm concerned he can say what the hell he likes. If Calzaghe were to say the same thing in reverse it would take on a whole different meaning considering the weight of history.

White's have never been racially subjecated by blacks its the other way around.

If a convicted child sex offender repeatedely hugs other people's children it's viewed with suspician, wheras if a little kid hugs another child or an adult it's something completely different.

Anyway all I can say is that Hopkins comment worked. We are all talking about it, which at the end of the day is all he wanted.