Why the label?

Wybrook

Wybrook

A. Wheeler
Silver Member
In this press release by Dragon Promotions, Josh Roberts is the only player who's race is identified... Why do people do this????

"South Carolina's Josh Roberts upset a close 9-8 victory over tour veteran Rodney Morris. Morris was up 8-7, broke dry and the young, talented African American player proceeded to run the remaining set out.

Qatar's national coach Israel Rota is turning heads with his stellar wins over Donnie Mills 9-6 and a comeback from behind win over top ABP seed Shawn Putnam 9-8.

The event is supported by Fat Boy Productions Co. and Steve Florentino Billiards...."

If Josh lives In the US and was born here, isn't he really an American-American player?? lol
 
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Wybrook said:
In this press release by Dragon Promotions, Josh Roberts is the only player who's race is identified... Why do people do this????

"South Carolina's Josh Roberts upset a close 9-8 victory over tour veteran Rodney Morris. Morris was up 8-7, broke dry and the young, talented African American player proceeded to run the remaining set out.

Qatar's national coach Israel Rota is turning heads with his stellar wins over Donnie Mills 9-6 and a comeback from behind win over top ABP seed Shawn Putnam 9-8.

The event is supported by Fat Boy Productions Co. and Steve Florentino Billiards...."

If Josh lives In the US and was born here, isn't he really an American-American player?? lol
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In other contexts it aggravates me too, but black pool pros are relatively rare...

pj
chgo
 
Pool tournaments have a LOT to do with 'races'.....
I've won a lot of races...:happydance:
I've lost a lot of races....:crying:

Okay, off the rib, I agree with the OP....
..those remarks tend to be condescending.
 
Pretty lame, I agree.

Consider the source....public relations isn't exactly a strong suit.
 
I say this all the time. If you are born here you are American. America is the only country that breaks us into groups i.e. African American, Latino American, etc. People don't call Tony Parker, African French or Charlize Theron, French South African. They're French and South African. My dad was born in Korea to a Black American soldier and a Korean woman during the Korean war, so am I supposed to be called Korean American, African Korean American? No, I'm American. Bugs me to see it too. Wish we, as a country, could change but I doubt that happens anytime soon. Sad really.
 
LucasBilliards said:
I say this all the time. If you are born here you are American. America is the only country that breaks us into groups i.e. African American, Latino American, etc. People don't call Tony Parker, African French or Charlize Theron, French South African. They're French and South African. My dad was born in Korea to a Black American soldier and a Korean woman during the Korean war, so am I supposed to be called Korean American, African Korean American? No, I'm American. Bugs me to see it too. Wish we, as a country, could change but I doubt that happens anytime soon. Sad really.
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And its really difficult to fill in the forms properly, too.

I mean, how the heck do I enter "English-Irish-Danish-American" in the forms?
 
we could start a grass roots petition & send it to every congressmen. We (AZB'rs) are a lot of citizens.

From now on, we want all citizens of America to be labeled as an American. All others would carry different labels, so we could immediately know they are not citizens of our country.
 
RShellhouse said:
I just write Mutt...
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I prefer the more literate 'mongrel'....my background is English, Irish, Scottish,
and Spanish, with, I'm sure, a lot of Viking genes which my ancestors had
accepted quite unwillingly.:cool:
 
I work with a couple Koreans -- who are in fairly high office-level positions, no less -- who do the same thing. They'll refer to someone by his/her race, and it rolls right off their tongue with no inhibitions or "thought" as to whether this is the right thing to do.

One even put in a company-wide memo, "When checking in for the event, please make sure you see so-and-so. For those of you that don't know so-and-so, he/she is the African-American person at the counter." This went out to a company of about 10,000 employees, mind you.

Needless to say, there was a huge uproar about this, and "so-and-so" was thinking of filing legal action.

Another thing is lack of any kind of consideration for someone's person/social life outside of work. Again, in working with a couple Korean men, there is this "air" that they expect of you, the male, to "live" for his job, and any social/family responsibilities are the responsibility of your wife or girlfriend at home, since "she is your domestic partner." They don't want to hear that you, the male, has domestic responsibilities at home -- "things that should be taken care of by your wife, because that is what she's for -- your responsibility is to your job, and if you need to work the weekend to get done what I just assigned you 5 mins before close-of-business on Friday afternoon, then that's that." (One actually said that to me -- I had to pick my lower jaw up off the floor.)

Not to say they all are like that -- it could just be my inherent bad luck that I ran into such "old school" types like this. Or, it could be a cultural thing -- who knows.

Either way, it's tasteless, l-o-n-g outmoded, and illegal.

-Sean
 
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I think it's important to note whether or not the writer's intent was malicious. Having lived in a city that's experienced quite a bit of race-related issues, I've learned that knowing the person's intent is important. Personally, I think it's a good idea to avoid the topic for fear of a reaction but I don't think it's necessarily bad to mention race.

With that said, if there's one thing I've always enjoyed about pool is that I have yet to be witness to anything terribly race-related. People are often far more concerned with how well you play.
 
LucasBilliards said:
I say this all the time. If you are born here you are American. America is the only country that breaks us into groups i.e. African American, Latino American, etc. People don't call Tony Parker, African French or Charlize Theron, French South African. They're French and South African. My dad was born in Korea to a Black American soldier and a Korean woman during the Korean war, so am I supposed to be called Korean American, African Korean American? No, I'm American. Bugs me to see it too. Wish we, as a country, could change but I doubt that happens anytime soon. Sad really.
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If everyone here would be American, where would all the racists go? I always thought this had little to do with heritage and more to do with ensuring devisiveness for political purposes. Nobody would be able to blame anyone for their own failure.
 
In that quote it's a little on the nose...

But to be honest, if I see an outstanding black (yeah I use that term) pool player, I can't help but notice their race because it's uncommon for whatever reason. I see strong asian players every day, a few strong females, but a strong black player just doesn't seem to cross my radar much. So I might be more likely to follow this player just to see how he fares. Which is probably the point of mentioning it.

I think if you look at this logically, there's no reason "young african-american player Josh Roberts" should offend more than "korean female pro Ga Young Kim".

Ultimately none of this stuff matters on paper, but we still make a point of rooting for certain countries and talking about how a female compares to the males, etc.

Why should we manufacture indignation when clearly this was written with no offense intended?
 
No offense intended...

CreeDo said:
In that quote it's a little on the nose...

But to be honest, if I see an outstanding black (yeah I use that term) pool player, I can't help but notice their race because it's uncommon for whatever reason. I see strong asian players every day, a few strong females, but a strong black player just doesn't seem to cross my radar much. So I might be more likely to follow this player just to see how he fares. Which is probably the point of mentioning it.

I think if you look at this logically, there's no reason "young african-american player Josh Roberts" should offend more than "korean female pro Ga Young Kim".

Ultimately none of this stuff matters on paper, but we still make a point of rooting for certain countries and talking about how a female compares to the males, etc.

Why should we manufacture indignation when clearly this was written with no offense intended?
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I once saw a sign on a business place door that informed me, "No offense intended, but no BLACKS allowed".
"No offense intended" is a convenient escape from reality. What matters is not whether someone "intends" to be offensive, it's whether anyone IS offended.
 
Donny Lutz said:
I once saw a sign on a business place door that informed me, "No offense intended, but no BLACKS allowed".
"No offense intended" is a convenient escape from reality. What matters is not whether someone "intends" to be offensive, it's whether anyone IS offended.
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I agree and disagree. I don't think it's entirely fair to compare your example to the original post here and I'll explain why. In your example, admittedly limited information, there's a call to action. The sign creates segregation and prevents a group from patronizing his business and receiving his services. In the original post, there is no call to action. The writer is simply providing background information on the person. One could argue that this causes segregation and to a certain extent, I might agree with that but I can't say with any certainty that by simply acknowledging race, the writer is inherently being malicious. In your example, the owner of the business is clearly denying service based on race which will undoubtedly be regarded as malicious.

Like I said though, I agree and disagree. I think in some instances, acknowledging race can be sticky and how it's perceived is very important. What is most important though is the writer's intent.
 
I'm not offended by it but merely wondering what is the thought behind it??
There had to have been some intent to purposely include that description as it stands out a bit.

I really don't think race has anything to do in article about a pool tournament, and even so, just because Josh is black, does that mean his ancestry is African?? In reality, we all have ancestors in Africa so there needs to be no distinction...
 
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