Keenan Montgomery reflects on being a young black in Wyoming

Mon May 11, 2015 3:20 pm

laxwyo wrote:I'm left handed. I deal with more discrimination on a daily basis than anyone but perhaps an obese person. I demand this world become left handed accessible!

On a serious note, most people deal with their own personal issues based on their physical appearance or physical limitations. Whether you're obese, black, super short, bald, mentally handicapped or speak with an impediment, you've probably felt the same way Keenan did. It's not so much a racial thing as its our inability as humans to empathize with people that are much different from ourselves.

Not to belittle your experiences, but having a noose waved at you in that context is a bit beyond being called fatty, shorty, or even being ridiculed for stuttering.

Mon May 11, 2015 3:21 pm

Amazing how the tone of this thread has changed since #19 has joined. I shutter to think that he would actually go back and see what some had written in this thread prior to his arrival! LOL. At any rate welcome to the board Keenan.

Mon May 11, 2015 4:06 pm

I wonder if any of you guys are actually watching the documentary or just politely welcoming a former football player to the board?

Sure we have heard his poem, which is an awesome piece of poetry, but the other 98% of the documentary is not about that single moment.

It's about something so much bigger.

Mon May 11, 2015 4:12 pm

BeaverPoke wrote:I wonder if any of you guys are actually watching the documentary or just politely welcoming a former football player to the board?

Sure we have heard his poem, which is an awesome piece of poetry, but the other 98% of the documentary is not about that single moment.

It's about something so much bigger.

I watched/listened to the whole thing before I commented. That one single moment was probably the worst that anybody brought up, though.

Mon May 11, 2015 4:34 pm

Asmodeanreborn wrote:
BeaverPoke wrote:I wonder if any of you guys are actually watching the documentary or just politely welcoming a former football player to the board?

Sure we have heard his poem, which is an awesome piece of poetry, but the other 98% of the documentary is not about that single moment.

It's about something so much bigger.
I watched/listened to the whole thing before I commented. That one single moment was probably the worst that anybody brought up, though.

Okay, but I still don't think that's what it's about. It's not a video of black students seeing who has the most outrageous story. It's not about single moments.

It's about the way Wyoming and UW culture is, and the attitudes and ideas that we have towards black students. The way black students get treated.

Mon May 11, 2015 5:05 pm

Asmodeanreborn wrote:
laxwyo wrote:I'm left handed. I deal with more discrimination on a daily basis than anyone but perhaps an obese person. I demand this world become left handed accessible!

On a serious note, most people deal with their own personal issues based on their physical appearance or physical limitations. Whether you're obese, black, super short, bald, mentally handicapped or speak with an impediment, you've probably felt the same way Keenan did. It's not so much a racial thing as its our inability as humans to empathize with people that are much different from ourselves.
Not to belittle your experiences, but having a noose waved at you in that context is a bit beyond being called fatty, shorty, or even being ridiculed for stuttering.

How many black people have committed suicide due to being black as opposed to being fat or outed as gay? I propose that those groups get far worse treatment than a black athlete that some jerkoffs waved a noose at.

Besides, you missed the whole point of my post by taking that sentence out of context without the following sentence being considered

Tue May 12, 2015 8:16 am

laxwyo wrote:How many black people have committed suicide due to being black as opposed to being fat or outed as gay? I propose that those groups get far worse treatment than a black athlete that some jerkoffs waved a noose at.

Besides, you missed the whole point of my post by taking that sentence out of context without the following sentence being considered

You know, this is an interesting point, and maybe a somewhat different issue. I imagine somebody facing persecution for being gay feels targeted on a far more intimate level as they're "on their own," so to say. If you're targeted by racists, it's probably not personal in quite the same way, and you know you have a population group on your side, one that's always been there and always will be.

Not sure if that makes sense.

Tue May 12, 2015 8:25 am

BeaverPoke wrote:
Asmodeanreborn wrote:
BeaverPoke wrote:I wonder if any of you guys are actually watching the documentary or just politely welcoming a former football player to the board?

Sure we have heard his poem, which is an awesome piece of poetry, but the other 98% of the documentary is not about that single moment.

It's about something so much bigger.
I watched/listened to the whole thing before I commented. That one single moment was probably the worst that anybody brought up, though.
Okay, but I still don't think that's what it's about. It's not a video of black students seeing who has the most outrageous story. It's not about single moments.

It's about the way Wyoming and UW culture is, and the attitudes and ideas that we have towards black students. The way black students get treated.

Well yeah. That obviously wasn't my point either, or why I even brought it up. That one moment is still how it grabs attention, though. It is something so ridiculous that certain people here claimed it was made up, yet it's just the tip of the iceberg.

I'd like to think I've never treated (at least as an adult - I was an asshole as a kid) people differently because of how they look, though I definitely come to a snap judgment of people I talk to, which can be just as bad.