1. A piece at
New York Times which I found extremely depressing. It’s about a white guy who moved from Florida to Brooklyn to sample the outdoor basketball courts that New York City has to offer. I made it through the piece but felt that there could have been more. I got the impression that the author, Isaac Eger, was more charitable towards his peers than he should have been. He defers to them all throughout the piece and admits that he’s pretty much scared of mouthing off to black people. And at the end, after he mentions at least twice that he’s nervous about social interaction including approaching attractive women at bars, the author was basically stood up at a bar by a group of guys who said they were going to watch an NBA playoff game. He reserved a table and they never showed up. Eger’s takeaway was basically that those guys will never be friends with him, which opens up room for an entirely new article.
2. Reihan Salam on the soda ban and the asymmetry between mildly annoyed soda consumers and public health advocates who have a vested interest in demonizing soda.
3. Business Insider carries the story of a pending racial discrimination lawsuit being leveled against clothing retailer Wet Seal. The gist of it is that at least three former store managers are angry that they were told to employee fewer black females. Sort of the complete opposite of my girlfriend’s experience as a manager at Abercrombie and Fitch where she was told *constantly* to hire African Americans. I was even recruited to keep an eye out for potential employees. I’ll cut to the chase here though – I’d guess that the reason that Wet Seal wanted to decrease its percentage of black employees is to cut down on shrink and poor customer service.
4. FBI determines that George Zimmerman’s pursuit of Trayvon Martin was not motivated by racial bias. No shit.
5. News we knew. Shoes make a strong first impression. I’ve noticed that I notice what shoes people are wearing more than I used to. I also make judgments about those people based upon the shoes they are wearing.
Like this:
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Indeed on the shoes. A few years ago I noticed that my respect for any man I meet takes a hit if he’s wearing old chewed-up sneakers.
Heh, I’ve been waiting for while to get a free chance to ask a red-pill audience what my shoes say about me.
So … usually it’s Rockport World Tour Men’s Classics. I have a pair in dark brown and one in black, just wear the one that goes with my clothes for that day.
Go.
Best link I can do on a mobile: http://www.rockport.com/on/demandware.store/Sites-RockportUS-Site/default/Search-Show?q=World%20tour%20mens%20classic
Of course, despite the FBI’s “determination”, the debate has essentially been lost here, since this seems to presume that if you suspect someone of something and race influenced you, even in part, then that person has carte blanche to pound your head into the pavement until he or she is satisfied. Only if the suspected person is black, of course.
That is a depressing article.
Was it Chuck D or KRS-ONE who observed that when a white guy is desperate to be down with blacks, it’s always because he doesn’t fit in with other white people?
It’s easy to form a mental image of this writer — a gawky hipster from suburban Florida (complete with yuppie-chic Old Testament first name and what I assume is a Reed College degree), desperate to prove his masculinity to his disappointed parents and bullying classmates by earning the respect of the streetwise black dudes in big, bad NYC. I bet his secret hope was for wise old Morgan Freeman to show up and give him some fatherly advice.
You have to feel sorry for a kid whose brain has been so hopelessly scrambled by pop culture — until you realize that he moved to NYC on a whim and doesn’t mention anything about having a job. Then it’s nothing but bile.
Hello JIm, you’re shoes tell me you’re no threat to me in anything although I will avoid getting in your way during the early bird special at the K&W.
Seriously, I’m sure you’re a nice guy and all but you’re dull.
Wear your shoes like a boss
http://www.allenedmonds.com/aeonline/producti_SF270_1_40000000001_-1
but when you’re ready to be the man
http://images.thesartorialist.com/photos/62310LR_5245Web.jpg
“There’s this bar in Brooklyn Heights that we all go to. You gonna watch it?” Oh, happy day! I told them I was going to bike home and shower and that I’d be back to watch the game with them. I pedaled home, showered and, embarrassingly, fretted over what to wear. I looked in the mirror, winked at myself and headed to O’Keefe’s Bar & Grill in Brooklyn Heights.”
The proper response to this is, “Oh yeah? I might come by. A friend and I are going out later.” It’s not, “I will bike home (Loser) and shower and see you there!” If you do show up, make sure it’s not in the first period. Grabbing a table is too much and probably scared them off, if they did see him sitting there.
Back in the early 90′s I moved to Huntington Beach, CA and played ball at courts throughout OC. I also made the pilgrimage to the courts made famous in White Men Can’t Jump at Venice. I’ve found that I had a great deal of confidence once I got over the fact that most of the black players were all talk. (Kind of like assuming all asians know Kung Fu).
I more than held my own, much to most black guys chagrin. It wasn’t like I was dunking on people or anything its just that I studied the game, practiced and was a pretty good athlete. So I represented well.
The only time I had a problem with blacks was when I moved back to the Pacific Northwest and me and 2 of my white buddies crushed 3 black dudes at a church open run one night. The homies were talkers and kept calling us John Stockon, Detlef Schrempf, and Jeff Hornaceck (which was kind of funny) but we talked back and beat them pretty soundly three or four times. I got a beer bottle to the head and woke up on the way to the hospital (for 7 stitches)with my friends all bloddy up too for my “talking” to the brothers.
Some of my greatest sports pride and accomplishments comes from beating black guys at basketball. Not all of them, but a lot of them.
I wish I could go back and do it again.
My shoes are of the tennis variety. They also are made for cross-training. They indicate that their wearer may have spent the afternoon at the Club (the Country Club, that is), but that also he may enjoy jaunts off trail, back beyond, for days at a time.
Wait that is not current. Damn it! they are worn with Mud and clay.
I sure hope you guys aren’t doing this.
Two-tone Alfanis and good old Florsheims. Brown for style and black for business.
I like color in my shoes. But good custom leather for work.
I don’t understand why you found the New York Times article depressing. I liked it.
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/07/12/sports/basketball/a-new-arrival-explores-new-york-through-pickup-basketball.html?_r=1&pagewanted=all
‘I Got Next’: Exploring New York Through Pickup Basketball. By Isaac Eger.
This guy is pathetic. Without a job, I guess his parents are financing this grown man’s whim to move to NYC and experience diversity.
Eger says, “I was surprised to find out that I, a shaggy white guy, had access to all games that the five boroughs had to offer, but that most black men were not granted that luxury. Isaiah told me that it was precisely because I was white that I would not be hassled if I were to play ball in the Bronx.” I call bullshit.