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- Please no inappropriate usernames (remember that there may be youngsters in the room)
- Personal attacks on other community members are unacceptable, practice the good manners your mama taught you when engaging with fellow Dawg fans
- Use common sense and respect personal differences in the community: sexual and other inappropriate language or imagery, political rants and belittling the opinions of others will get your posts deleted and result in warnings and/ or banning from the forum
- 3/17/19 UPDATE -- We've updated the permissions for our "Football" and "Commit to the G" recruiting message boards. We aim to be the best free board out there and that has not changed. We do now ask that all of you good people register as a member of our forum in order to see the sugar that is falling from our skies, so to speak.
Comments
I’m not making any claim...
"Sounds like he was texting and driving."
Sure pal
I went to VSU (late '90s) but spent a fair amount of time in Athens. Had 2 interactions with the APD...both were IMHO rediculous and were the absolute most aggressive, rude and "guilty until proven innocent" experiences of my life. The only actual citation was a open container ticket that was given to me literally 2 steps outside of a bar; he was standing there waiting for some poor soul to emerge with a drink or worse. I was not intoxicated, showed my driver's license and VSU student ID proving I currently lived in Valdosta and was unaware, poured out the beer and apologized....still ticketed. I am an old white guy now, but I would say if I looked different I might suspect other motives true or not. As far as Kirby fomenting that culture...no way.
Anyone who has partied in Valdosta knows to stay away from Remerton....they have 4 patrol cars for a 3 square mile enclave and act the same way. They pulled me over (for what I had no clue) and 3 patrol cars subsequently showed up. 10 minutes of "how much have you had to drink?" (none) and "Can we search your car?" (no) "We have a dog." (I'm sure you do) he finally accused me of an "illegal lane change" as they claimed my rear tire crossed the last foot of a solid white line separating two parallel lanes after a right turn. This was at about 7:00 at night, not 2 AM. Total BS.
College town cops...Athens just has an abundance of them.
Well he was cited for violation of Georgia’s hands free law and paid the ticket. So yeah, something like that.
I would like to ask that we all stop looking at these issues through one lens or another, from one political perspective or another. Yes, that is where our nation is these days, but we are a Dawgnation and can stand above the divide! And that goes for me as much as pgjackson or any other poster.
As I read through all the posts, I saw two things that were being aruged against each other:
What if both of these statements are true? I'm white. My brother was arrested by the ACC cops and literally while handcuffed and lying on the ground, one cop picked up his head by grabbing his hair and once his face was lifted, sprayed pepper spray in his face. This was back a couple decades ago and there was a huge crowd shouting, "Rodney King, Rodney King!" not because of my brother's race, but because of the police brutality that we all were witnessing (and my friends thankfully were restraining me from making the situation far worse).
We all have stories about the Athens cops regardless of our race. But, what is different for those of us who are white is that we were never told by our parents that when we are pulled over by any police officer, we must keep our hands at 10 and 2 on the steering wheel and ask the police officer's permission to take our hands off the steering wheel even for something as simple as opening the glove compartment to get the insurance card the police officer just asked for. And, then as one is opening the glove box, saying that is what you are doing and doing it very slowly because you know the officer's hand is on his gun handle and so you move very slowly with one hand and the other hand raised up so it can be seen. And everything you say is with a sir in the sentence.
For many of us, it is hard to understand the difference between being treated like sh%t and being treated like sh%t and experiencing racial fear or suspicion. They are both bad. But for all of the white dawg fans on this post, I can assure you that being in the car of a black person when pulled over is different. I have experienced that once. TexDawg may have experienced it as others on here with a lot of cross race interactions may have experienced. I didn't realize how different it felt until I experienced it . Of the 10 or so times I have been in a car pulled over by the police it was the only time I saw an officer's hand sitting on his gun handle among other things that made that experience different. I want to be clear that by saying this it does not take away from or trivialize any of the awful interactions any of us or our friends have had with the ACC cops. Nor does it mean that all cops are bad as I imagine all of us have had incredible interactions with great police officers as well. I personally would have been in jail a couple times if it weren't for community oriented police officers who wanted to help me. I just hope that this post gives some insight to expeirences that not everyone has had and that bad experiences can be even worse with the extra variable of race.
Regarding Reese's other comments, I think there are folks of all races who are overtly racist (like the baseball player who called Fields that word) and unintentionally racist like the whipping scenario Reese described. I imagine that those kids Reese described, if you lower their blood alcohol content and give them a chance to reflect, probably would understand how their actions might affect someone who was black and would not want their actions to have that affect. It is also true that a black student could feel marginalized by seeing this kind of behavior. It's why discussions about race need to be public and not accusational. We need to be able to talk about our feelings in a way in which we are not on the defensive - and that goes for everyone no matter what perspective and experiences one starts with. It has to be ok for a black student to talk about experiences that feel racist to him and for a white person to say that they have been harassed by the ACC and it suc$ed. I do think Reese had folks he could talk to but sometimes it feels like you don't. I also imagine that the racism at Ole Miss is worse than at UGA and frankly that Kiffin is less racially aware than CKS because CKS is must a very aware and humble person compared to Kiffin and general awareness and respect in life helps with awareness of racial issues.
At the end of the day, I think it is OK to validate Reese's experiences and to empathize with how they make him feel. I also think it is fair to point out that none of this has to do with the football program at UGA and that UGA has very clearly and unequivocally shown it does not tolerate racism (the baseball player being expelled for example). My hope is that we find ways to agree amonst our Dawgnation rather than disagree.
Well, he could’ve been eating a cheeseburger, or reading his biology textbook, or playing the flute.
C’mon, @roydawg. Stop speculating on the internet. This isn’t the place for that stuff. 🤦🏻♂️🤦🏻♂️🤦🏻♂️
I get it. So, the fraternity offenders were rightly punished. Shows me that racism is not tolerated at UGA and not a systemic issue. There are ****, ignorant people everywhere, in every university, in every state, in every country. To use these situations as grounds for a NCAA waiver is a bit of a reach.
Yall kill me. The police up there targets football players. They see them go in the bars then arrest them later
Why not close that bar down who serves underage kids?they wont bc there's white underage students in those bars too. But they get to go home not the players.and alot of uga students are racists too bc they learned it at home. His race problem isnt the football team its the University thats full of white supremacy students
Your parents didn’t tell you how to act during a traffic stop?
As a white person I’ve always been acutely aware during interactions with police that I’m dealing with an armed person who will be able to articulate a justifiable reason for ending my life if I act or react in certain ways. I guess don’t assume all white folks are like you.
Anecdotally, I work as a consultant in a company consisting of primarily white male executives, and there have been a lot of discussions lately about what we can do to increase/support diversity as a company. It stemmed from some public reviews by former disgruntled employees about our culture-- and women/POC not always feeling heard. Part of our initiatives include bringing on an HR consultant separate from the leadership (and not an internal stakeholder) so all team members feel they can be heard, and also to shift outside perspective. "Here are the issues we have, we acknowledge them, we're making concerted efforts to make this better."
I bring this up because we've had multiple racial allegations from former players now. I see Kirby, Stafford, Gurley making efforts in terms of social justice initiatives. What about bringing on a respected POC consultant/counselor SEPARATE from the team/university who can 1.) be the intermediary (keeping names confidential in cases where there is sensitivity), 2.) can share trends they're seeing in terms of culture, and ways to improve morale? In cases where the actual coaches may be the ones at fault/insensitive, this person could be a really valuable resource as a bridge, supporting communication between both sides.
In doing this, we could not only better support the team, but this would also be a public demonstration that we're trying to move in the right way... that we hear these players' voices, and we are trying to do what we can support a healthier environment. There's only so much the football program can do with outsiders (people in downtown Athens, cops), but fostering a supportive environment within the team would go a long way to shift both internal and external perception, IMO.
Roy, sadly, my father was very argumentative with police officers on the few times I was in the car when he was pulled over. It was not the best example in my life of how to treat anyone, including a police officer.
Police going overboard? I'm sure it does happen to other students. Can't say I've heard any stories of my white/asian, hispanic, etc friends being told they look suspicious, don't belong at UGA, shouldn't be out this late(8 p.m) and had their entire car searched with no justification.
If I had to guess, UGA already has something like this setup. Maybe not an official consultant, but working with community leaders to be better/more aware.
I’m about as liberal as they come.
Interesting though that none of this is brought up until after his waiver is not approved. If you’re fighting for social justice, when was the right time to broach this subject?
He definitely packed a lot into that letter...
I can’t speak to the racial aspect of Athens, but I do know the cops there are too aggressive.
I know it has been said, but if you are trying to escape racism, if that was a main issue for him, Ole Miss ain’t that.
There is an SEC rule about transferring. There are plenty of other schools that play football.