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Osaka withdraws from W&S Open semifinals in call for racial justice

61 Comments

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61 Comments

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Good on her.

-5 ( +28 / -33 )

Good for Naomi. Great that Black people are taking a stand against the out of control racism and violence against them by police in the US.

0 ( +31 / -31 )

Don't want to get shot by the "racist" police? Then take some advice from Chris Rock: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3mjPc_Fcef4

-4 ( +20 / -24 )

Shameless

-3 ( +22 / -25 )

Why do protesters destroy shops, set fire to cars and loot things in protest? It damages their images very much. That is nothing but riots.

11 ( +33 / -22 )

Don't want to get shot by the "racist" police? Then take some advice from Chris Rock: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3mjPc_Fcef4

I couldn't agree more.

0 ( +22 / -22 )

Osaka tweeted that as a Black woman, she feels compelled to pull out of the tournament to put a focus on police shooting Black people.

Meaning as a high profile black athlete, she is afraid of Twitter Puritans coming after for not boycotting so she will do the safe and easy thing. She's not doing anything but hurting herself.

-3 ( +28 / -31 )

No point at all in ‘debating’ this with any of the usual suspects on this site. Just here to say “Well done Naomi”.

9 ( +28 / -19 )

Why do protesters destroy shops, set fire to cars and loot things in protest? It damages their images very much. That is nothing but riots.

Because the in this status quo, black people are not safe. Your "peace and order" only benefits white people. If black people can't live in peace, then there shouldn't be peace for anybody. That's justice and equality.

-6 ( +16 / -22 )

Meaning as a high profile black athlete, she is afraid of Twitter Puritans coming after for not boycotting so she will do the safe and easy thing. She's not doing anything but hurting herself.

Exactly and then there's this...

https://themilsource.com/2020/08/12/are-professional-sports-in-america-becoming-too-political/

-10 ( +14 / -24 )

Sports fans are more likely to sympathize with her

Survey: Sports fans support social justice stance by athletes, teams

https://www.espn.com/espn/story/_/id/29654147/survey-sports-fans-support-social-justice-stance-athletes-teams

4 ( +10 / -6 )

Your "peace and order" only benefits white people. If black people can't live in peace, then there shouldn't be peace for anybody.

Well, if black people stop killing each other, that would save 90% of black murder victims. There's your peace. How else can I help you?

-5 ( +18 / -23 )

Shameless

That's because her action is nothing to be ashamed of.

13 ( +27 / -14 )

Agree or disagree with her, it's her right as an American, to make her choices. She is the one that has to live with them.

I get the feeling that the guy in the oval office has forgotten that these are "rights" too!

15 ( +25 / -10 )

darknuts: "She's not doing anything but hurting herself."

How so? The only people hating her for this are bigots and racists who hate blacks anyway, and feel like this further justifies it. There's nothing "easy" about what she's decided to do at all.

14 ( +27 / -13 )

The best representation that Japan could ever have.

-3 ( +13 / -16 )

Good on her.

The racists are going after her(surprise , surprise), but Naomi has something none of hem have, character!!!

9 ( +23 / -14 )

America has seen a few revolutions, the end of slavery, end of segregation ...

Now is the time for another revolution, the end of discrimination!!!

Racists and bigots will attack those who stand up for equality, but as we have seen, the racists will lose.

12 ( +23 / -11 )

Japan's best tennis icon just got even better.

9 ( +19 / -10 )

I read the newspaper headlines and how dreadful.... but after watching the Jacob Blake video things are a little different. Being belligerent, arguing and fighting with police, then reaches into his car for “something”.... What was he thinking? I have sympathy for the poor cops who have to now deal with the BS about this case.

-3 ( +14 / -17 )

Good for her! Some of the same people criticizing her would be praising her had she spoke out against racism in Japan.

2 ( +14 / -12 )

@vanityofvanities

Why do protesters destroy shops, set fire to cars and loot things in protest? It damages their images very much. That is nothing but riots.

First destruction and looting are not done by all or even most protest. Those are simply the headline grabbers. Vast majority of protests in the United States have been peaceful. Also, looters are not just the protesters but vultures that are taking advantage of an opportunity.

6 ( +13 / -7 )

@commanteer

Well, if black people stop killing each other, that would save 90% of black murder victims. There's your peace. How else can I help you?

Do you understand that most crime against any race is done by the same race? Most crimes against whites are by other whites. Same for Asians. Irrelevant statistics. Look at most police brutality, shootings, and other statistics and you will see a huge disproportion. Also, when crimes do occur why is it that blacks are afraid to call the police for help. Look into all of that. Not useless information. Most crimes by any race are by the same race because you live around the same race.

5 ( +15 / -10 )

WobotToday 04:49 pm JST

She uses the word 'genocide' but I don't really understand why she thinks that when there were 13 unarmed black men recorded as killed by police last year in a country with 300,000,000 people:

She, like some of us think of the genocide against blacks as the killings of blacks since they first arrived in the US ( and other places too) and the systemic conditions placed to force or encourage the perpetration of the same, and yes, even intra-black violence.

-3 ( +5 / -8 )

Let's see if she withdraws from the US Open as well with so many higher ranked players missing and a chance of snaring another grand slam.

-1 ( +10 / -11 )

Spitfire, it's called a "gesture". "her personal glory" hahaha how dare THOSE people try to excel!

-1 ( +6 / -7 )

I personally wonder, as there is no way to "take it all back", yet would there have been this much protesting and violence, if there was no corona, and a Trump in the White House?

I personally feel that if just about anyone else was president, things would not be getting out of hand as they are today. He has no empathy, nor sympathy, and wants the mayhem, to push his own agenda. He just never imagined the virus happening to threaten his presidency nor his goal of a 2nd term.

If there is any "silver lining" to all of this, is that the virus/pandemic may be the one thing that will get him kicked out of office, and a more gentle and understanding America emerge!

0 ( +7 / -7 )

Pretty much impossible to stop people being racist.

Best thing to do is have a homogeneous society.

-10 ( +3 / -13 )

@Shinjuku,

As the highest paid female athlete in the world by far..........she could make a bigger "gesture" by pulling out of the US Open to protest the so called "genocide" of black people.

6 ( +13 / -7 )

Agree or disagree with her, it's her right as an American, to make her choices. She is the one that has to live with them.

I get the feeling that the guy in the oval office has forgotten that these are "rights" too!

He absolutely didn't forget, but it seems like these athletes did. We can also change the channel or not watch so she can do what she wants and we can turn her off and a lot of people are doing that to sports. So good luck to her and more luck to Netflix for us.

-8 ( +6 / -14 )

Really wish people would wait until all of the details are revealed and a full investigation is completed before making a judgement.

But, it is her right to do as she pleases.

8 ( +10 / -2 )

Saw her post on twitter and felt extremely proud of her. Our young lady is carrying her responsibility well.

-6 ( +9 / -15 )

It is fine to sit out to boycott racism. However, players always seem to pick the battles that don't put much of a dent in their pocketbook. OK, she is sitting out of a low scale tournament but will she sit out the big paying U.S. Open? Did she break the contracts of her Japanese sponsors that made fun of her race? No, in fact she didn't say much.

Same goes with the NBA players that boycotted today's game. They are getting paid regardless. Yet, no one came to Darryl Morey's defense when he tweeted Free Hong Kong. Why? Because they don't want to lose that huge Hong Kong money.

WNBA player Maya Moore took an entire season off to fight for a man she felt was wrongly imprisoned. She didn't get paid a cent that year from anyone. She is a true hero.

4 ( +8 / -4 )

Does it matter if she bails? Really?

There's always another young star coming up.

-2 ( +5 / -7 )

Keep banging on about “Peaceful protests”

Here’s one.

But you still find a way to get all riled up about it and discredit the uppity protester. Losers.

-1 ( +4 / -5 )

Well done, Naomi.

-1 ( +5 / -6 )

Hate to poop on the parade, but it has been pointed out that police shooting rates of whites and blacks (unarmed or not) in US are pretty close and not nearly what folks like Naomi would have us believe.

What is disproportionate is the rates at which blacks are roughed up by cops. Not shootings.

5 ( +8 / -3 )

@sourpuss

Hate to poop on the parade, but it has been pointed out that police shooting rates of whites and blacks

You mean the statistics that say 31 per 1M blacks, 23 per 1M Hispanics, and 13 per 1M white? Those statistics are very close to each other.

-2 ( +0 / -2 )

I wouldn’t count on Lewis Hamilton sitting out any F1 races.

3 ( +4 / -1 )

You mean the statistics that say 31 per 1M blacks, 23 per 1M Hispanics, and 13 per 1M white? Those statistics are very close to each other.

You’re not supposed to check the stats when I say they support me. I don’t. After all, facts and numbers are well known to have a liberal bias.

-4 ( +1 / -5 )

You mean the statistics that say 31 per 1M blacks, 23 per 1M Hispanics, and 13 per 1M white? 

There are many statistics. Others say that, among men who are stopped by police, white men are more likely than black men to be shot. I agree that police in America are too violent. America in general is too violent, and too much of a police state. Black men also commit a very disproportionate number of crimes for their numbers. All of this has to be discussed if one is going to have an honest discussion rather than just preening.

Let's look at a recent Harvard study (assuming you accept Harvard as a valid research source):

*"when using the simple statistical framework that economists have used for more than a half century to analyze racial differences on myriad dimensions – from wages to incarceration to teen pregnancy – *the evidence for bias disappears. The differences in results on police shootings in America seem to be driven by differences in what qualifies for a valid research design and not differences in datasets.

 Of course, black lives matter as much as any other lives. Yet, we do this principle a disservice if we do not adhere to strict standards of evidence and take at face value descriptive statistics that are consistent with our preconceived ideas. ‘Stay Woke’ – but critically so."

3 ( +5 / -2 )

Blacks kill each other more than cops SO where are the protests?

Come on Naomi do something about that!

Something just doesn't add up here, does it?

1 ( +9 / -8 )

The link from Harvard is: https://scholar.harvard.edu/files/fryer/files/fryer_police_aer.pdf

Another from Yale:

https://law.yale.edu/sites/default/files/area/workshop/leo/leo16_fryer.pdf

*The issue of police violence and its racial incidence has become one of the most divisive topics in American discourse. Emotions run the gamut from outrage to indifference. Yet, very little data exists to understand whether racial disparities in police use of force exist or might be explained by situational factors inherent in the complexity of police-civilian interactions... **on the most extreme use of force – officer-involved shootings – we are unable to detect any racial differences in either the raw data or when accounting for controls***.**

5 ( +8 / -3 )

Here is a very worthwhile video by Larry Elder on youtube.

The Systemic Racism and Police Brutality

Narrative is gettig people killed | Larry Elder

2 ( +3 / -1 )

These athletes making choices for themselves have forgetter that making choices for themselves is a right? That’s one big logic failure.

They can and we can also turn the darn channel or boycott their games.

Blacks kill each other more than cops SO where are the protests?

Come on Naomi do something about that!

Something just doesn't add up here, does it?

Bingo, well said.

-1 ( +6 / -7 )

“Those who make peaceful revolution impossible will make violent revolution inevitable."

John F. Kennedy

I don’t think “please try your best to value my life as much as everyone else’s” should count as a revolution but here we are.

-2 ( +1 / -3 )

Blacks kill each other more than cops SO where are the protests?

Cops are paid to serve and protect, not disproportionately kill people based on color.

But you know that. Something doesn't add up.

-1 ( +6 / -7 )

JJ JetplaneToday  08:04 pm JST

@sourpuss

Hate to poop on the parade, but it has been pointed out that police shooting rates of whites and blacks

You mean the statistics that say 31 per 1M blacks, 23 per 1M Hispanics, and 13 per 1M white? Those statistics are very close to each other

Blacks are 2.5 x more likely to be shot, and 2.5 x more likely to be poor. Take away the poverty difference and the racial difference also disappears.

2 ( +4 / -2 )

Poverty is a much larger issue than race, which is still an issue.

4 ( +5 / -1 )

There are far too many police killings in the US, regardless of race.

What, 1,500 per year? That's crazy.

England, Wales, France, Germany, Italy, Spain, Japan, how many? Probably less than 50 total.

Militarized police are a danger to society.

2 ( +6 / -4 )

Blacks kill each other more than cops SO where are the protests?

Come on Naomi do something about that!

She wont - not good optics.

3 ( +9 / -6 )

Okay. You still claimed that athletes making choices for themselves have forgotten that making choices for themselves is their right.

It is as is the viewers right not to watch. Sorry, No one is denying the woman anything, she has the absolute right as well as the viewer.

Blacks are 2.5 x more likely to be shot, and 2.5 x more likely to be poor. Take away the poverty difference and the racial difference also disappears.

Bingo!

-2 ( +5 / -7 )

I wouldn’t count on Lewis Hamilton sitting out any F1 races.

Not in a million years.

4 ( +8 / -4 )

Bravo Naomi

-7 ( +3 / -10 )

I wouldn’t count on Lewis Hamilton sitting out any F1 races.

Not in a million years.

No problem. You said you’d stop watching it.

0 ( +5 / -5 )

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