Kobe Bryant dead from Helicopter crash

[Mr.wizard]

Just a quick question/observation here. Imagine you're white, living your life completely uncaring of race. You're not racist in any sense of the word. You support a future that includes, not reparations, but a restructuring of many things to correct the economic and educational disadvantages caused by past laws. Imagine someone treats you like you personally fucked over their whole family every time you speak to them. Do you think it's fair to feel racially profiled at the very least? Maybe it's not fair to make assumptions based on people's race, no matter what their race is.

Well, I am white, and I do say so. But that's not really the point. It's more incidental than anything. I mean, any of you, regardless of race, lol, can just look up Kobe's quote where he admitted that he understood that the interaction was not consensual on the girl's part. Meaning, in short, it wasn't consensual. All parties have to consent when it comes to sex. End of story. That's just sort of how that whole thing works, believe it or not. You being a victim of sexual assault in the past, if I'm not mistaken, I figured you'd be on the other side of this here, if there are even sides. This has nothing to do with me being white, or you being Puerto Rican, or someone else being a Danish transgender power lifter who collects stamps and really enjoys the band System of a Down.

So, while it's cute to just call me an entitled white asshole and not actually respond to any of my points with logical, well-thought out ideas, it doesn't actually lead to any sort of interesting or meaningful discussion. In fact, it totally leaves me to believe that the poster who put that image up (also, how are you seeing the pic and I'm not?) simply wanted to play the race card to shut me up. Trying to silence someone by saying "you're white and privileged so your opinion doesn't count" is just silly and a bit bully-ish. Granted, let me stop anyone before they try it, I'm not claiming to be a victim here, because I know everyone in the race to be woke loves to use that line any time a straight white male points out that someone else isn't fighting fair. It usually sounds like something like, "Oh, look at the poor white guy crying for being bullied! Boohoo!" No. I'm just pointing out that it's silly to play the race card and then no actually care enough to make  valid points about the topic at that hand.

It's akin to saying, you're white so your opinion doesn't count. Well, sorry to break it to ya: that's racist.

So, all of that being said... No, I cannot imagine, and never will be able to imagine, what it's like to be black in America. 90% of my friends are black. Three of my cousins are black. And I've dated more black girls than I can count on both hands. I've heard plenty of terrible stories. Horror stories. But I think it's simply so foreign to me that my brain cannot imagine what it would be like to be treated that way. At the end of the day, I simply do not wake up in the morning and think about the color of my skin. And I admit, I'm privileged enough that I don't have to think about the color of my skin. That's not a luxury that lots of people of color get. But you know what? That's not really my problem. It must suck, seriously. My sympathy is with anyone who has to deal with that shit. It must be terrible, and certainly wouldn't help your self-esteem... constantly being told you're less than  because you're not white, in so many words. Yeah, that's shitty.

But shell b, just relax there hun. I'm from the hood. I grew up blocks away from East Cleveland. The nickname for that neighborhood was Baghdad. I know black people far more than you ever have or will. And don't get me wrong, the ghetto doesn't encapsulate what being black is, but I very much grew up around and surrounded by African-American culture. So your little self-righteous crusade for the black folks comes off as a little cringey.

I don't pretend to know what it's like to be black in America, and I never will. But I do get black culture in that I grew up in it. And I'd sort of happy for that because growing up in a neighborhood like that allowed me to meet people from all different races and walks of life at a very young age. I tried lots of different types of foods growing up, heard different languages being spoken around me. Very interesting stuff. My childhood was actually pretty eventful in a lot of ways.

So yeah, the suburban white girl trying to tell me about "imagine what it's like to be black" is a little funny, to say the least.


But that's not really the issue at hand here. You can look up Kobe's words for yourself... Here ya' go:

https://www.duckduckGo.com

Search for yourself.

And look, I get it.

"The poor little white man is so blinded by his privilege that he doesn't see the point"

No, I get it. And I'm simply telling you that in this case, that's not what we're talking about. What we're talking about is a man who had a sexual encounter with a woman who did not consent to sex. Very easy. Very simple. And listen, if it all was a set up, and Kobe truly was just a victim of some scheme by some psycho bitch who wanted a quick dollar and her little fifteen minutes of fame, then that is horrible. That's fucking terrifying. But given Bryant's own words, I simply do not think that's the case here.

My main point however, was that I'm not demonizing Bryant, and I hope you guys get that. Once again, a man is more than just a terrible mistake he made, or a terrible choice he made, once upon a time.

I simply think that the sexual assault thing was a part of his history, and I'm confused by the backlash people are getting for bringing it up.

I mean for christs fucking sake he admitted to having a non-consensual sexual encounter with a woman... holy fuck people come on.

I don't think ShellB was crusading for anyone nor did she tell anyone to "imagine they are black", her point was about racial profiling people rather than addressing what they actually think as an individual, which is also a point you were making.

---

After he made that statement he signed a contract worth $136 million, I guarantee that apology was a requirement of that contract.

Probably. Though I also assumed that Bryant later discovering that his accuser was taking anti-psychotic medication used to treat schizophrenia at the time in question may have played a role in compelling him to say that he could understand how she felt she had been assaulted. Compulsive behavior, disorientation, hallucinations and delusions are common to the disorder. Her perception of the events that transpired could have changed at some point.

In his "confession" he still maintained that believed that the encounter was consensual.

The apology didn't have anything to do with his contract, The apology was probably part of the settlement in exchange for not pursuing the criminal charges. This is evident because Bryant doesn't issue this apology until after the case is dropped, his team did everything they could to smear the girl but when they found out prosecutors had enough evidence to go to trial they cut a deal. 

The NBA is not going to have you make statements that could affect you legally in order to sign a contract, i'm not sure if that's even legal but most of all the players union would never allow it.