Quote:
Originally Posted by FlatLandFlamesFan
Such a waste of an opportunity to teach players and society in general .
Pride like BLM is about understanding and acceptance .
As a visible minority I learned from BLM , we need to look at history and the atrocities committed against said groups and learn to be better in our everyday life.
A huge part of that is understanding . Until you are excluded for something out of your control You may never understand how important inclusion is.
These "specialty" night are a miniscule in reality but if it shows one single person they are accepted that is completely worth all the backlash
|
This was well said.
I'm not of a minority per se but grew up experiencing a fair bit of exclusion and knowing intimately the pain of feeling like something about you is faulty or doesn't belong.
Since growing out of that mindset over many years and becoming more competent socially I've made a point of trying to include people that seem to be on the periphery for whatever reason, be it visible/tangible reasons or not. Things as simple as acknowledging them by their name and offering a handshake/nod/fist bump. Just asking how they are and creating rapport and warmth goes so far and the thing is its so easy and not an inconvenience to whatever you need to do each day.
But generally its like people can't be bothered to do these things. And there is this general defensiveness towards strangers but especially those who appear different. A brief conversation can totally alter that initial perception that people get stuck in though. A lot of times it's just a facade created by people's minds based on an irrational fear or a warped perception and engaging is the way to break that illusion.
I guess the point is there are SO few of these simple little gestures day to day being made to welcome people of certain groups or predispositions that something as simple as these theme nights actually counts for a lot and holds a lot of weight in the view of an individual that feels excluded or left out of our every day ####. Like people on the other side of it have no idea what it means to those marginalized in some way.
It's such a small inconvenience to do these things and the impact is so inordinately great that it blows my mind that players were actually bothered by the gesture at all, and the league subsequently catered to the few that had a problem with it, all because they don't want to deal with a week of healthy debate/back and forth around the topic a couple times a year.
It's really rather pathetic. Also senseless to take a PR hit for this right after the least viewed finals in decades.