Hopkins comment wasn't racist, get a life folks.

[Wayne]

Sorry Bilbo, but I'm afraid whilst the comment in of itself isn't high on the racist scale, what it does do is suggest something about the man behind the words and the implication that he believes himself to be better than any white man to ever pull on boxing gloves. And in that, he rules out the possibility that any white man could be better than him, which is racist.

In terms of scale of racism, it is close to one one the one to ten scale of severity, but it still is racist.

AS for

Real racism involves the subjection of one group of people by another, treatment of brutality, of slavery, of intimidation and hostility. It involves the taking away the rights of one race by another.

I can't see how it would need to reach such a scale to become racist, surely just a comment about a p**i at the corner store or a n****r is racist, and doesn't involve any of your description.

It's not racist Rhun. The balck man has a long history stretching back hundreds of years of being oppressed by white's. If they have any resentments it's nothing to do with being racist and everything to do with history.

Growing up as a black in America where white's rule you are bound to feel some resentment and general hostility.

Is it any coincidence that virtually all of boxing's most flashy and flamboyant characters are/were black?

They have come from being part of a social underclass to being achievers in a white world.

It may sound hypocritical to say it would have been racist if the other way around but that is defintely the case here because of history.

I've said this before on the forum but past association is everything.

If Santa puts your child on his knee, ruffles there hair and shouts 'Ho ho ho, merry christmas' and gives them a present it's fun and part of what christmas is supposed to be about. If Gary Glitter on the other hand was to attempt to do that to your child you'd have a different mindset entirely.

Black people in general don't have any power to racially subjecate white people so they have little power to actually be racist.

Black gangs certainly can act racially in America but how can Hopkins actually be racist towards Calzaghe?

If you were to tell me you hated your boss and thought he was a c*** that's no crime. If your boss on the other hand tells another senior member of staff that you are a c*** that could be construed as intimidation or prejadicial seeing as your boss and other senior members of your workplace have authority over you.

Does that make sense?

Bilbo. I typically like your offbeat sense of humor and don't take issue with your words, usually. But this...

I am black and I have a question; what the hell are you talking about? One of the "equalities" that we as black people (I'm slightly disgusted with the "we" concept, associating myself with a group of people I don't know on the whole) was to be seen as no different from anyone else. Exactly for what reason do I have to hold resentment and hostility against white people? Simply because there are more of "them" than there are of "us"? If I went to India right now there'd be more of them than me too but I have no reason to resent them. And to reduce "us" to a bubbling cauldron of emotions ready to pour over at any minute simply because of what happened in our ancestral history. Thinking like that ranks along with the minds who think reparations are a good idea and to me that is one of the biggest jokes/insults running. To pay me for something that has nothing to do with me, that I didn't experience personally out of tax money that I and a country full of people who likewise have no direct knowledge is simply idiotic. You paint black people like were liabel to punch whitey at the drop of a dime. I don't want to hit anybody (especially considering people hit back). I do get what you're saying and recognize there are people who are like that who walk around with that chip on their shoulders, but I avoid those people just as much as any white person would. Don't reduce us to any one thing because "we" are no less complex than "you".

By the way, what exactly did Hopkins say anyway?

Nah mate you misunderstand me. What I'm saying is that in these days of political correctness and tolerance it is said that there should be no racism from either side, and I agree.

But what I find irritating is that a black man clearly just trying to hype a fight and put a bit of needle between him and Joe when he says ' I would never lose to a white man', is deemed as racist behaviour as if his comments are as bad as some of the racist outrages that occur on the other side of the fence.

To try and make an analogy here.

Imagine you are a low rung employee in a big firm. The boss is on a power trip and takes advantage of his staff. He denies them proper breaks, he mocks them, he makes them carry out humiliating tasks. He continually finds ways to dock their pay and generally just doesn't treat them very well.

Meanwhile a low end worker is overheard saying the boss is an asshole.

Now eventually the boss is found out and disciplined and fired for discriminating against his staff and a fair employer brought in to run the company.

But imagine the low end worker who was overheard calling the last boss an asshole to another co worker is also accused of discrimination and fired.

It doesn't make sense does it? The low end worker was a victim of discrimination and therefore was just voicing his opinion of the man who was taking advantage of him and his fellow workers. The actuall offenses were being carried out by the boss.


It's the exact same thing here. Nowadays we are all touchy feely about racism and ready to jump on someone when they say anything that our extreme sensibilities can get offended by.

Hopkins says he will never lose to a white man, 'RACISM!' the pc brigade shouts and points at him.

What was his racist behaviousr though? What did he do? How has he acted in a racist way whatesoever? He just said he will never lose to a white man. People say it's racism because he mentioned a colour but what was actually racist about the comment?

It's just the shitty political correctness beige brigade trying to once again show how tuned in they are about anti racism.

So that's what Hopkins said? It's on the lighter side of racist, but it still is. And your analogy only works if you put white people in the position of being in charge of black people and slavery ended over 100 years ago. I get what you mean, of the two races that black people are the more downtrodden, but c'mon, Hopkins is a millionaire. Some douche on a street corner calls Hopkins the n-word all he has to do is reach into his pocket and pat his billfold to put it in perspective. What Hopkins said is pandering to the notion that black people fight with an anger that white people don't possess, that it's more natural to us and thus why you should always 'bet on black'. It's crap, because black people lose to white people all the time. Had Joe been from Nigeria Hopkins would have said something else as to why he couldn't lose to him. I don't take him as being a racist for saying it (even though Nation of Islamers are flaming racists from what I've seen of them) because I know where it comes from, but it is a racist comment. It's just not a big whoop to me.