Final comment
I would like to make a few comments here and then hopefully we can all put the issues in this and in the "Asian Badminton Players" posting to rest for good and just focus on badminton.
First and foremost, I recognize that there is a line between taking a reasonable stand to promote racial equality, fighting racism or perceived racism, etc... and turning into a PC (political correctness) Gestapo agent, seeking to suppress all thought or expression that might be remotely construed by a hyper-sensitive individual to be related to racism. I do not think I am in the latter category. As an individual who has, in the distant past, been the subject of prejudice and discrimination, I am sensitive (but not unreasonably so) to the issue of discrimination; this sensitivity is not because I have problems dealing with my own past but because my own experiences have been a factor causing me to have concern for other individuals and our society in general.
A number of the postings in this and the related topic have attacked me and drawn analogies that they have attributed to me that are totally groundless and altogether unrelated to any point that I mentioned in this forum. If you read my prior postings, it should be clear that my opionions on race, as it applies to badminton, boil down to essentially the following two points:
1. The explanation for why certain countries or areas of the world produce more top level badminton players is properly based upon popularity of the sport in those countries, not upon the racial characteristics of the people playing badminton;
2. Unless there is direct relevance to the story in mentioning a person's race, why bring up the issue? Let's simply focus on people as equal individuals, rather than try unneccessarily to classify them into categories based upon their ancestory and think of a person, and/or treat that person differently because of that classification.
There was a long argument made implying that I was ridiculous for claiming that one should never mention a person's race at all, asserting that under my viewpoint, it would be wrong for a witness to mention a criminal suspect's race to the police, as that distinction would be "racist." I believe the author thought he/she was clever in making this argument, which asserted an absurd point, falsely attributed that opinion to me and then condemned me for being equally absurd. Those sorts of arguments are known as "strawman" arguments and, as in this case, are made by individuals in a debate who lack either the factual basis, the patience and/or the intellectual ability to make an intelligent argument.
Race is not irrelevant to all situations and Ihave never asserted that point. My point is, that if race has no genuine bearing on a particular situation, then don't mention it or otherwise make it an issue. Under free speach principles in America and other democratic countries, people have, within certain reasonable limits ( i.e. they are not permitted to advocate violence against minority groups of people), the right to state their opinions, even if they are racist opinions, and I do not seek to eliminate that right to free speach. However, if a person has a right to make a statement that is offensive to a majority of other individuals, then certainly other people have the right to state their own opinions condemning the offensive comments, and a bigot should not whine about being criticized for his blatantly atagonistic and illogical opinions.
I am not blind to the distinctions between the various racial and ethnic peoples throughout the world. There are a few distinctions, such as height and stature, that might have a bearing on athletic ability in particular sports (e.g., most Innuit [Eskimo] people would have a difficult time becoming an NBA player because of height characteristics). However most other distinctions between various peoples just aren't relevant, in sports or in any other area. Hitler devoted tremendous and horrific attention and resources to obtain "scientific" proof of the superiority of the so-called Arian race and the inferiority of other races, all of which was found to be nonsense. This is why I am critical of several of the non-scientific conclusions that were raised by various individuals in this forum, that seemed based solely on stereotypes and hearsay.
I do not pretend to think that racism and bigotry will be eliminated in our lifetimes. However, if open-minded individuals take an active role in condeming bigotry then we will gradually see less public racism, which will cause it to decline and is certainly a worthy goal that we should all embrace.
I have not directly accused any individual who has contributed to this forum of being a racist. Without question, Vince and his friends treated the teenager in a prejudicial fashion, based on at least a prejudice against less skilled players. Again, I want to emphasize that Vince did at least play a bit with the kid, which places him in better light, in my eyes, than his friends. The facts as presented suggested that there may have been prejudice based upon the teenager's race, but those facts may also have been simply portrayed in that fashion unintentionally. I hope that my comments apply to a situation in which there were inadvertant suggestions of a racism that does not actually exist with those individuals. It is entirely possible (and certainly preferable) to express oneself fully and descriptively without either implying implying a racist motivation or feeling paranoid about being sufficiently PC.
To conclude, I propose we should all be helpful to badminton newcomers and avoid communicating in a fashion that suggests bigoted beliefs. Let's return to real badminton discussions on this forum.
