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McPeachy wrote:Everyone has a story. I have plenty - but what is the point in sharing? I have seen both sides, and often. I honestly cringe and binge for the future of this great country.

Right now? To prove to Dino that racism is still alive and well, despite his insistent and willing ignorance to the contrary, particularly, and unfortunately in the state of Wyoming.

fromolwyoming wrote:

McPeachy wrote:Everyone has a story. I have plenty - but what is the point in sharing? I have seen both sides, and often. I honestly cringe and binge for the future of this great country.

Right now? To prove to Dino that racism is still alive and well, despite his insistent and willing ignorance to the contrary, particularly, and unfortunately in the state of Wyoming.

In all honesty, I don't think Wyoming is worse than any other place. In fact, it's probably better than most... but there are plenty of idiots everywhere.

As for the future of this country, though. Things are a lot better than they have been. Despite all the stories in media, actual violent crime levels have been trending down steadily (with a few small spikes in between) for the past 30 or so years.

From FBI data: "In 2011, the UCR violent crime rate had dropped to 386.3 cases per 100,000 persons, compared to 729.6 per 100,000 in 1990."

This poem was originally released in April of 2014 for a student led documentary titled "The Black West," in which I am merely one of many voices. A group of students approached me with a vision, and through that vision, this poem was born.

Please take the time to listen to your own students, your athletes, your inhabitants.

https://vimeo.com/95309934" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Welcome, Keenan. Thanks for posting up the link.

Just watched the whole thing, and that was a great documentary.

It's stuff that happens, stuff that, as someone with a lot of pride in my home state I don't want to acknowledge or admit happened/happens, but I think that is the whole point of it right?

Very eye opening, very real, and makes you think. I think an issue a lot of people from Wyoming have is that we all grew up in small towns with mostly white people. We may not be outwardly racist, or we may strive to NOT be racist, but when you move to Laramie, there are people of different skin color in your life in some way for the first time, and we just don't know what to do or how to deal with it, so our own ignorance comes out as we go out of our way to be color-blind and pretend we don't see any differences.

Anyways, like I said, a lot of stuff to think about in that documentary.

As far as a production and editing stand point, great job! That looked very professional. I wish the people who were in charge of Wyo athletics gameday video production were as talented as the people who made this video.

Welcome to the board, Keenan, and thank you for representing the brown & gold. I think I speak for the majority when I say that we are ashamed of the unfortunate experiences you encountered in Laramie due to the color of your skin. I hope that those experiences were few and far between, and that your time there was more enjoyable than not.

Keenan Montgomery wrote:This poem was originally released in April of 2014 for a student led documentary titled "The Black West," in which I am merely one of many voices. A group of students approached me with a vision, and through that vision, this poem was born.

Please take the time to listen to your own students, your athletes, your inhabitants.

https://vimeo.com/95309934" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Thanks for sharing, and thanks for being a good guy on and off the field. I hope you had a lot of positives from Laramie and the state of Wyoming to at least somewhat balance out the bad. It takes a lot of good people working hard to change these types of attitudes, and the people deliberately turning a blind eye claiming it's not a problem may as well be acting out the bigotry as well, whether it's racism, misogynism, homophobia, or who knows what else?

My experience as a foreign white dude in Wyoming was awesome, but it probably helps a lot to "look" the same rather than "sound" the same.

Maybe I'm wrong for doing so, but I generally categorize, in my mind, racism into tiers. The worst is racist driven violence. The second is racism that actively suppresses another person's opportunity to succeed or racism by someone in power. Luckily, I do think we are making progress on these and we need to eliminate any hint of these.

The last tier is comments or racist actions from people or a group of people and the direct impact is disgusting and hurtful but doesn't slow another person's chance at progress. This cuts a lot of ways not just white racism towards another race. Ideally, this would not exist but you can't fix stupid. I'm not sure that in a diverse and free country that it will ever go away 100%. I hope it does but it seems there is always a lunatic fringe.
Not saying we shouldn't try; just I wonder if it can be done.

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.

Welcome to the board Keenan. Its a shame you had any experience in our great state other than a fantastic one. There isnt a place in the world insulated from behaviour like this, I am sorry you had to experience it here.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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

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.

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.