Stokes no longer a Gator

He was recruited over and once that became a fact, Cancel Culture > 3rd string quarterback. Just call it for what it is.

 

I view this as a form of mass hysteria. There is no proportionality to the offense with the response.

What gets in the heads of people to put stuff on video still amazes me, but young and dumb gonna young and dumb.

 

I just watched the clip in question. It's very short.
I have no idea what song it came from.

He literally mouthed the lyrics....

"Welcome back n***a"

It was as tame as it gets.

Liberal white folks getting their panties all tied up

 

Anybody still think “Cancel Culture” is a conservative hoax?

 

This is comparing apples to orange t-shirts.

 

I am not desperate to do anything. If anyone is desperate it is you. I made a statement of fact and you want to turn it into something that fits your narrative. Instead of just accepting the fact that Eminem was given a pass for using the word you just want to justify it however you can and disparage my original point which seems to have been lost on you. And yes there is a whole video where the black community comes out in support of Eminem. Look it up.

 

This was a good excuse to dump the kid. Napier is cold.

 

Corporate, sports and social media warriors are well aware of the use of such language and go to extremes at times to show their displeasure and alienation of those who use such language.

My question is when will the entertainment industry follow suit? In this day and age no one should get a pass with exception of historical purpose. Here we are in 2022 and for some reason the entertainment industry still hasn't caught on. No doubt it is all about the money. All one need do is go to amazon dot com and type in <the word> followed by album and get page after page of albums and various artists for sale. With such prevalence is it any wonder that kids are singing along to such music?

 

1. It was a really stupid thing to do, but it goes beyond a simple mistake by a kid. It displays a colossal dearth of judgement. The kind of lack of proper judgement that could easily be catastrophic if he made it as a member of the football team. Because keep in mind: this wasn’t just one spur-of-the-moment word blurted out under duress or at a point of weakness, and it happened to be caught on camera…the guy conceived the whole thing before he even turned on the song. Then he decided to play the song; he decided to sing the song; he decided to push ‘record’ and capture video of him singing it; he watched it and edited it and decided to upload it to social media; and he decided not to take it down until after it blew up against him and he heard UF was pissed. It was a LOT of bad, deliberate choices. It’s the kind of bad judgement and bad decision making that aligns with credit card fraud, illegal firearm possession and discharging, threatening domestic violence, etc. The kind of stuff that could derail a season or torpedo a coaching regime. We don’t need any risk like that at UF right now, especially at this precarious point of program transition.

2. I sympathize and empathize with the kid. I am 90% sure it was not meant as any kind of racial slur. All the kids listen to this music that is saturated in racist lyrics, and as always misogynistic lyrics. The majority of the fans of the music are simply enjoying the music, and its larger themes, not the minutia of the lyrics (much the same way that the millions of fans of Tarantino films don’t love his films because of the nonstop racist dialogue). So listening to it, singing it at the top of his lungs, etc., is a giant nothing burger. BUT…he has to be aware that he can’t video record it and post it on the internet and expect to be admitted to UF. That’s just morbidly stupid. And it isn’t some “liberal BS” or “cancel culture”. It’s the way it’s always been. I was a kid in the ‘70s, when, to borrow from a Louis CK bit, was hyperbolically the most racist decade ever. And you still couldn’t say those things in school where your teacher could hear you, or you’d get detention, suspension or worse. My formative years were in the 1980s, when rap music became the musical and social force that it is today. One of my favorite songs for a little while was “Me So Horny” by The 2 Live Crew. I would sing both versions of that song at the top of my lungs in my dorm room, in my car, amongst friends of both genders and multiple races. But if I ever breathed a word of it in front of my mom, even as a college student, I would have had my ass tanned in half a second. And I never would have uttered a lyric in front of my RA, one of my professors, or the dean. Because I wasn’t a freaking idiot (though opinions vary on that), and I didn’t want to be thrown out of my dorm or expelled from a class, or from my college program. What Stokes did was freaking idiotic in the same way that it would have been, 40+ years ago.

3. There is no such thing as cancel culture. That’s a made-up term, created by people who want to be able to act badly (to put it nicely) without facing consequences. What they scapegoat as cancel culture, is what the rest of the world calls accountability. Nobody cancelled this kid. He was merely held to standards that he knew – or darn well should have known – existed at UF and most institutions of higher learning. He will get to play college football on a scholarship somewhere else. His ability to play college ball and/or impress NFL scuts and play pro ball – none of that was canceled. He was held accountable for his bad actions. As it should be.

4. Why do we hold people accountable? To prevent future “mistakes” and to prevent future intentional transgressions. For this kid’s personal growth and maturity, sure we could have just wagged a finger at him and let him come to UF anyway, but that’s not how you teach a lesson to young people (or to old people). That only teaches them that there are no real consequences to bad behavior and bad decisions. That only ensures that he will do it again, and maybe worse next time. By pulling his scholly, he was taught a lesson. Because he feels the loss; he feels the consequences of his bad behavior and dumb choices. And the next time he is faced with a similar choice, he will know what will happen of he chooses poorly. Imagine all the future bad choices, and all the future troubles and pain UF just saved him from by making this move. It would be very extreme, but it could ultimately save his life. Rap entourages have literally murdered people for doing less. Aaron Hernandez murdered people for doing less.

5. He was not going to be in this class anyway, so it was a no-brainer for UF. However, if you think UF would not have cut him lose if he wasn’t already recruited over, think again. UF has been fighting for its reputation ever since the assault started from Squinty McBeeSting, Herr Dear Leader of DeSantistan, and they can’t afford any more bad press right now. Even without the recent hell storm from Tallahassee, anyone who thought the kid was going to be admitted to UF has a very short memory of how UF Admissions deals with student athlete recruits. They are virtually antagonistic, especially towards the football and hoops teams. No way this kid was ever going to set foot on UF campus as a student athlete.

6. All of you talking about “In MY DAY…” and stomping your feet over American culture not still being mired in the norms and mores of the 1940s or 50s, I would gently suggest you look at a recent calendar and see that it is not, in fact, “your day” anymore. The world always changes; society always changes. Whether or not you like the progress in the direction of inclusion and human decency is irrelevant. It’s 2022, and we’re not going back to the 50s, nor the 70s nor even the 2010s. Judgement aside, to keep complaining about social progress is just a waste of energy. I’d suggest spending that energy on things that bring you joy and happiness, instead. Because if you're alive, this - 2022 - is also "your day", and it would be a tragedy to waste any of your days complaining about how some things have changed to your displeasure.

 

In fact it may have been a deliberate attempt to get his scholarship offer withdrawn, rather than having to decommit and look like he was afraid of the competition. Just a theory, but could he be that smart?

 

Assuming the best case scenario, it was a bad decision and reasonable people can disagree about the severity of the consequences. But (understandably), few White people would get away with saying that. I was shocked the last time Bill Maher said it on air. I hate the word anyway, but really cringe when White people use it even if they thinks they should get a pass. That said, it wouldn’t surprise me if there is more to this as well given the context of him just singing along.

 

Great post by PD. Couldn’t be said better.

 

Not even a theory. It's the new "political correctness".

Both are made-up terms created by people who want to continue to behave badly, without facing any consequences.

The extreme example was in the era where the "N" word was still acceptable in the white community. When we finally as a society got to the point where the light came on and the majority of the white folks joined the minority of white folks in recognizing how awful it was to dehumanize an entire race of individuals like that, it quickly became universally unacceptable. However, there were still a lot of people who thought it was acceptable to use the word, especially if it was used in a joke (usually with other racial slurs for other races or nationalities), just among white folks. Their excuse was that nobody was there to be offended, so it was okay. What they didn't get is that you didn't have to be a member of the marginalized group to be offended at the insults. From that point on, any white person who told them to stop using the "N" word was just being "politically correct", as if that was a bad thing.

Using the term tried to tie it to political differences, which is more powerful than religion in terms of manipulating people. But it isn't political correctness; it is social appropriateness; simple human decency.

They've been using the boogey-word tactic for generations to politicize things they don't like. Here are some of the big ones off the top of my head:

Political Correctness
Cancel Culture
Wokeness
The criminalization of politics
Covid/Science/Fauci

All of them are just a dodge. The first 3 are the exact same thing: people who want to be able to keep on acting terrible and saying terrible things, without anyone shaming them for the shameful behavior by telling them they're wrong, or asking them to stop. The 4th one is literally criminals in politics wanting to get away with any crime they want without consequences: the lie is that they're being prosecuted for their politics; the truth is they committed freaking crimes.

And #5...I mean, when you can politicize a virus; when you can politicize trying to save millions of lives from a disease; you have a very powerful BS weapon in your hands. And it might be the worst one yet, because it didn't actually serve any selfish purpose, like being able to say racist or sexist things without consequence...it was literally only to give them an excuse to demonize and attack people who are not on their side of the political aisle. Which was crazy, because data show that there was not much difference overall between how democrats and republicans felt about, agreed with, or responded to covid lockdowns, mandates and precautions. It was (and is still) only the loud lunatic fringe attacking science and people who embrace science. And the craziest thing is the majority of republicans have had to live double lives with respect to covid. Most of them got vaccinated, and most of them who did had to lie to their MAGA family and friends about it, to avoid persecution, and to avoid having to listen to their conspiracy theory crap 24/7. It was a mirror image of all the establishment republicans in Congress who went along with everything MAGA, because they were afraid of a mean tweet from Trump, or just didn't want to deal with the insane MAGAs like Marjorie 3-Toes or Rapey McForehead.

 

That was my gut reaction too. Not worth the headache it could potentially cause and the scholly is more valuable used elsewhere now with Rashada on board. Is what it is.

 

Well, if so, I don't think he thought it through very well. He passed up a lot of other more palatable offenses.

 

If virtue signaling was a sport, you'd be in the running for the gold medal.

 

No doubt they looked at it as a convenience, but I also don't think coaches at this level are really bothered by telling a kid he has to leave the class. I mean, they all do it to multiple kids each year, so they know it's just business, and they've got their spiel set up to break it to them gently. Often they also quietly recommend them to other schools where they have an "in", to soften the blow and to maintain good standing with the kid and his high school.

So, they didn't need an excuse. Yes, they no doubt used this opportunity to do it now rather than later, and likely believe it is best for the kid to be cut loose as soon as possible. And no, this doesn't make Napier cold. Not even sure if you meant that as an insult or a compliment, but it doesn't apply. There isn't a single P5 coach who hasn't done it a LOT. Either they're all cold, or none of them are.

Now HOW they cut a guy loose who was recruited over can be cold, but coaches who do it wrong get blackballed from high schools regularly.

 

You said Eminem uses (aka still presently does) the word in his music, that’s a lie.

You said he used the word in one of his music videos, that’s a lie.

You haven’t given any facts in this thread, just lies to try to justify this kid making a mistake and facing the consequences of said mistake. Learn to hold people accountable for their actions and stop blaming the black community and rap music.

 

Thats not the issue at hand though. The issue is the same word that was used as an insult is, for some reason, used all the time by the ones who have supposedly been insulted so much by its use. So now, the ones who don't mean it as an insult are being told they have insulted people because they did it on camera. No one around him takes it as an insult, and I'm sure they would vouch for that.

 

Who else uses the word isn’t the issue at hand, though. I don’t think he’s racist or a bad kid, but there are repercussions to actions. Sad that it came to this but as many others have speculated, he was expendable due to Machada.