Very sad to see this. Mattison is a good guy
A lot of Minnesotans are “friendly racist“. You know, the “He’s not like most black people” kinda racist.
My chosen name when I lived there was not a traditional Christian name and everyone always told me they thought I was black because my partner was a bigger lady and the name “sounded African”.
A lot of the older folks thought Rick Astley was black because of his voice.
Just really weird living there.
That’s a lot of Wisconsin too which sucks.
Being alienated from family is not a great feeling.
A lot of the older folks thought Rick Astley was black because of his voice.
Did you see him before hearing him? His vocal style is most similar to Black singers of the era before him, so it’s not racist to assume he’s black. If they only listened to him because he was white, then that’s racist.
There is a difference between being overtly racist (I won’t listen unless he’s white) and incidentally racist (There is no way this guy is white). It is still racist to make assumptions on people’s skin color based on how deep their voice is, and it’s frankly weird, like phrenology level weird.
I don’t think those kind of micro-assumptions need to be flagged that way. We make assumptions constantly. It’s how we interact with the world and learn. The problematic part is what we do after making those internal assumptions. It’s innocuous if it’s “oh wow he’s white.” If it’s more common than one guy the assumption won’t happen anymore.
There’s never any reason for racist remarks, but even past that, playing bad in a game of football is never a reason to want to say things to hurt someone. If you get that upset about it that you want to hurt a player on your own team because of a disappointing performance, you should reexamine your relationship with the game and consider taking a step back for your own mental health.
Removed by mod
