*Let’s get off of this social-inequitude infused time-bomb and maybe show the kids actually having fun riding adventures instead. How about they raise some money for impoverished area or some other wishfully-flowery idea instead?
True – still bad in parts of the UK!
I work at a bike shop that helps a charity whose goal is to break-down prejudice and stuff by education.
We get some harrowing stories and our news channels often have tales of racial violence etc.
One of our Political parties is close to Nazi Germany in it’s policies too, so the government is not clear of the stuff either. One of our best comedians, Lenny Henry, has told tales of it when he was at school and it would be nice to believe that it has abated. Sadly the news items suggest there is still a problem. Not as bad as when Lenny was at school though!
It is mostly ignorance caused by lack of knowledge that makes people believe stuff that isn’t true, causing them to form attitudes that stay with them throughout their life. I think it is great that the USA has finally broken the mould and started the whole world thinking along more helpful lines. So I think this strip today is good as it has allowed us to talk about the stuff and maybe come closer in our opinions and friendships. Good for you R&B
Stokeley is so right. But I don’t think he should want to find out …. that some people might not just stop, but take immediate action (before realising they have been fooled)
This is the United States in 2010. No one would ever jump to conclusions and take immediate action after watching someone for 30 seconds. We would positively wait until all of the facts are sorted out. What kind of country do you think this is?
the kind of country that takes wacko performers seriously (I will not call them journalists) who manipulate old video and cause a decent woman to get fired, who keep up this charade about a birth certificate, and who arrest and detain a Harvard professor for trying to get into his own house. that is ths kind of country we live in. Do you seriously believe no one jumps to conclusions? Okay, this is just a comic strip.
Stoker, your own biases are apparent in your post. FWIW, I could tell even from the snippet that the decent woman of which you speak was going to eventually make a point against racism. As for the firing, it was done by an individual who should be held accountable, and not by “journalists” or “bloggers.” That individual was part of an administration that is hypersensitive to being labelled as “racist” because of assumptions made by President Obama just prior to “beergate.”
What I’m really sick of is being labelled racist because I’m conservative, or because I’m white. I’m sick of the fact that no intelligent discussion can take place because everyone is so afraid of honest discourse.
Actually, that administration is hypersensitive to such accusations because its in its opposition party’s (and that party’s media machine’s) best interest to smear the administration as racist against white people. Did the administration act rashly? Yes, obviously. But they did so after the conservative wing of the media machine intentionally took her speech out of it’s proper context to brand her, and the administration by association, as racist. You can pretend that Fox News etc were not culpable to the entire debacle all you want. The hornets nest was awoken by politically motivated propaganda trying to paint her and the administration as racist.
gest, the irony here is that the speech in question was one where Sherrod was giving a heartfelt and honest acknowledgment of how she had overcome her societal racism twenty years earlier, which is precisely the sort of honest dialogue Roger claims to want America to be free to engage in without being accused of racism. It was that honest discourse that the conservative propaganda machine took, parsed, manipulated and spread to smear and paint her as a racist. I guess ‘honest discourse’ is only desirable when people who agree with you are allowed to engage in it.
So I guess you’re okay with the voter intimidation in Philadelphia in ’08, since it was the “new black panther” party threatening white voters with their clubs and their paramilitatry gear. Or King Shlameel Shlamozzle (or whatever he calls himself) going on a rant about “killing cracker babies”. And what about Obama’s “justice” department giving them a pass? “Barack Hussein Obama, mmm, mmm, mmm”, indeed.
And I’m sorry, Ms. Charade’s comments WERE racist. God help a white man making such remarks, and context be damned. We both know he’d be crucified by the liberal lamestream media.
SDMSS, you treat me unfairly, I think, by assuming I agree with “Fox News” on this one. Also note that I did not see this story first on Fox, but on my local CBS affiliate.
I don’t care who covered it. I believe strongly in the power and responsibility of individuals to make up their own minds.
When “beergate” took place, it seemed the white cop was unfairly maligned by the President, who had no business getting involved. In this case, I sensed early on that Sherrod was being treated unfairly by so-called conservatives and by her own management. I’m not sure how this jibes with your final statement, unless your final statement is intended as a generality directed at “all conservatives.” In which case, you’re really missing the point.
Stoker.
With no intention to get stuck into this argument… or any great care about the situation at all…
…the “performers” you refer to only get to keep up the bit about the birth certificate because, though it’s by far and away the easiest possible criticism to kill dead in the water with the words “Here it is. Now, shut up.” they haven’t done it.
That they’ve not bothered only fuels the fire.
Seriously, if he’s legit, where’s the cert?
Responding wouldn’t give credence to the birthers – it’s shoot them down IN AN INSTANT and make every one of them look like flat-earthers if they kept it up.
For an outsider it’s INCREDIBLY strange that the whole affair hsa gone on this long… like, seriously and utterly weird.
My best friend and I totally used to hang out on the corner pretending to be beating each other up when cars came by. I wish I could be that irresponsible now! It was great fun, but clearly very VERY naughty! We lived in Guernsey, there wasn’t much to do…
Now my question is – is Stockley being slightly smug that he’ll win this game? He seems to be smiling, do you think it’s a grim smile or a warped childish humour? Kids can be like this! Chunkbait seems to be a bit depressed by it; again it could either be a frown about the state of the world re: racism or a frown that Stockley is going to whip them in their game! I like this one, it shows great depth and a number of possible interpretations! Is this Art?
Where I live (West Drayton) no one would stop for any of them – even if they really were stealing bikes! Although I guess that means we can be glad that his colour wouldn’t make any difference!
The bad thing is that Stokely knows that people would stop if he pretends to steal, but not stop if the other two do. The good thing is that his friends don’t know this – they only see Stokely as their friend.
What are you talking about? You think the Stokeleys of this world should just exist with their head in the clouds and pretend realities that could put them in danger don’t exist?
pretty topical for rick to bring up race considering the hullabaloo over that dept. of agriculture bureaucrat who ran into a hornet’s nest the other week.
I’ve been watching BMX freestyle on the Dew Tour a bit while I workout. Most TV is just garbage, and this is something enjoyable that I don’t have to devote all my attention to enjoy.
I personally like how the white kids did not even think about that. If we could all still have that little bit of innocense of childhood and just see people and not color.
Well, I have to admit I didn’t get it until I read through all the comments and then went back and reread the comic itself. Oh, “sweep” as in “take it all”. As opposed to “sweep” as in I’ll bring a broom along and clean up the mess. Guess my age is showing not to mention I seem to be somewhat colourblind. There, now you even know my nationality which may be partially why I’m colourblind. Or it may be because I never saw a Black Person until I was at least 7 or 8 and then only one (he was a preacher I think). Living in a small town I was quite amazed at this guy with black skin and pink palms and it wasn’t till years later than I saw more but by then I understood more and they were just “people” and always have been to me as I think they are in this cartoon.
For hopefully helpful context “sweep” is an North American sports metaphor applied to sports played in series, such as baseball, basketball and hockey. You sweep a series by winning all the games, which can involve the team mascot running onto the field or court and sweeping with a broom the ground behind the exiting losing team. It might be in Britain too for all I know, but just in case it didn’t I thought I’d add that.
What they need to do is to take a long ride across the neighborhood(s) to an ice cream place, and get something nice for a treat, instead of this ill-advised game of dumb and dumber.
I know this is late, but I really have to put my two cents in on this one. Racism sucks an emu egg. The US. (my place of residence) seems to be worse than most places in world. What the hell. It’s time that we, as a culture, fix this.
This can’t be good…
^Agreed.
*Let’s get off of this social-inequitude infused time-bomb and maybe show the kids actually having fun riding adventures instead. How about they raise some money for impoverished area or some other wishfully-flowery idea instead?
I need this explaining to me…
: P
just a comment on racism in america……..
not restricted to america ..
America is improving and better than some places. Everyone has work to do though.
True – still bad in parts of the UK!
I work at a bike shop that helps a charity whose goal is to break-down prejudice and stuff by education.
We get some harrowing stories and our news channels often have tales of racial violence etc.
One of our Political parties is close to Nazi Germany in it’s policies too, so the government is not clear of the stuff either. One of our best comedians, Lenny Henry, has told tales of it when he was at school and it would be nice to believe that it has abated. Sadly the news items suggest there is still a problem. Not as bad as when Lenny was at school though!
It is mostly ignorance caused by lack of knowledge that makes people believe stuff that isn’t true, causing them to form attitudes that stay with them throughout their life. I think it is great that the USA has finally broken the mould and started the whole world thinking along more helpful lines. So I think this strip today is good as it has allowed us to talk about the stuff and maybe come closer in our opinions and friendships. Good for you R&B
So, Tencon, do you still have trouble ovwer there with Roderick Spode and the Black Shorts?
Stokeley is so right. But I don’t think he should want to find out …. that some people might not just stop, but take immediate action (before realising they have been fooled)
This is the United States in 2010. No one would ever jump to conclusions and take immediate action after watching someone for 30 seconds. We would positively wait until all of the facts are sorted out. What kind of country do you think this is?
Erm… the United States in 2010
the kind of country that takes wacko performers seriously (I will not call them journalists) who manipulate old video and cause a decent woman to get fired, who keep up this charade about a birth certificate, and who arrest and detain a Harvard professor for trying to get into his own house. that is ths kind of country we live in. Do you seriously believe no one jumps to conclusions? Okay, this is just a comic strip.
@Andy, see what happens when you forget to close your sarcasm tag?
That’s okay, I’ve got your back, </sarcasm>
Stoker, your own biases are apparent in your post. FWIW, I could tell even from the snippet that the decent woman of which you speak was going to eventually make a point against racism. As for the firing, it was done by an individual who should be held accountable, and not by “journalists” or “bloggers.” That individual was part of an administration that is hypersensitive to being labelled as “racist” because of assumptions made by President Obama just prior to “beergate.”
What I’m really sick of is being labelled racist because I’m conservative, or because I’m white. I’m sick of the fact that no intelligent discussion can take place because everyone is so afraid of honest discourse.
Actually, that administration is hypersensitive to such accusations because its in its opposition party’s (and that party’s media machine’s) best interest to smear the administration as racist against white people. Did the administration act rashly? Yes, obviously. But they did so after the conservative wing of the media machine intentionally took her speech out of it’s proper context to brand her, and the administration by association, as racist. You can pretend that Fox News etc were not culpable to the entire debacle all you want. The hornets nest was awoken by politically motivated propaganda trying to paint her and the administration as racist.
Roger, you’re showing your bias too.
gest, the irony here is that the speech in question was one where Sherrod was giving a heartfelt and honest acknowledgment of how she had overcome her societal racism twenty years earlier, which is precisely the sort of honest dialogue Roger claims to want America to be free to engage in without being accused of racism. It was that honest discourse that the conservative propaganda machine took, parsed, manipulated and spread to smear and paint her as a racist. I guess ‘honest discourse’ is only desirable when people who agree with you are allowed to engage in it.
So I guess you’re okay with the voter intimidation in Philadelphia in ’08, since it was the “new black panther” party threatening white voters with their clubs and their paramilitatry gear. Or King Shlameel Shlamozzle (or whatever he calls himself) going on a rant about “killing cracker babies”. And what about Obama’s “justice” department giving them a pass? “Barack Hussein Obama, mmm, mmm, mmm”, indeed.
And I’m sorry, Ms. Charade’s comments WERE racist. God help a white man making such remarks, and context be damned. We both know he’d be crucified by the liberal lamestream media.
SDMSS, you treat me unfairly, I think, by assuming I agree with “Fox News” on this one. Also note that I did not see this story first on Fox, but on my local CBS affiliate.
I don’t care who covered it. I believe strongly in the power and responsibility of individuals to make up their own minds.
When “beergate” took place, it seemed the white cop was unfairly maligned by the President, who had no business getting involved. In this case, I sensed early on that Sherrod was being treated unfairly by so-called conservatives and by her own management. I’m not sure how this jibes with your final statement, unless your final statement is intended as a generality directed at “all conservatives.” In which case, you’re really missing the point.
Stoker.
With no intention to get stuck into this argument… or any great care about the situation at all…
…the “performers” you refer to only get to keep up the bit about the birth certificate because, though it’s by far and away the easiest possible criticism to kill dead in the water with the words “Here it is. Now, shut up.” they haven’t done it.
That they’ve not bothered only fuels the fire.
Seriously, if he’s legit, where’s the cert?
Responding wouldn’t give credence to the birthers – it’s shoot them down IN AN INSTANT and make every one of them look like flat-earthers if they kept it up.
For an outsider it’s INCREDIBLY strange that the whole affair hsa gone on this long… like, seriously and utterly weird.
Beautiful. The simplest observations say so much…
That didn’t occur at all to the white kids.
Some things never change.
One of them can’t see Stokely.
Someone wil end up getting shot
the black one will end up getting shot, most probably.
Just like in the movies. The black guy’s always the first one to die…
Or the ensign in the red shirt.
damn I nearly spilled my drink on the keyboard……..
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tCebRe46ThU
Red Shirt Boogie.
My best friend and I totally used to hang out on the corner pretending to be beating each other up when cars came by. I wish I could be that irresponsible now! It was great fun, but clearly very VERY naughty! We lived in Guernsey, there wasn’t much to do…
Now my question is – is Stockley being slightly smug that he’ll win this game? He seems to be smiling, do you think it’s a grim smile or a warped childish humour? Kids can be like this! Chunkbait seems to be a bit depressed by it; again it could either be a frown about the state of the world re: racism or a frown that Stockley is going to whip them in their game! I like this one, it shows great depth and a number of possible interpretations! Is this Art?
Where I live (West Drayton) no one would stop for any of them – even if they really were stealing bikes! Although I guess that means we can be glad that his colour wouldn’t make any difference!
Sorry…can’t hear you for all that sand you’ve got your head in!
Thanks Rick. It isn’t just about the bike.
Stokeley knows
Knows?
The bad thing is that Stokely knows that people would stop if he pretends to steal, but not stop if the other two do. The good thing is that his friends don’t know this – they only see Stokely as their friend.
Kind of a recist thing to think. If I don’t care what color you are, you shouldn’t either.
What are you talking about? You think the Stokeleys of this world should just exist with their head in the clouds and pretend realities that could put them in danger don’t exist?
This is making me nervous. I know it’s just kids ina comic, but what they are doing is a very bad idea.
Whats a childhood without some “really bad ideas?”
exactly….of course these days most kids are overprotected from bad ideas
bike power!
(cf. stokely’s namesake…)
pretty topical for rick to bring up race considering the hullabaloo over that dept. of agriculture bureaucrat who ran into a hornet’s nest the other week.
Some internet meme on this topic!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wd63P7mYXzo
This comic is achieving greatness.
This one is so subtle, it is awesome!!
P.S.
Any one else excited about the summer x games starting in a few days?
I don’t ride BMX but I respect what those guys can do on two wheels.
I’ve been watching BMX freestyle on the Dew Tour a bit while I workout. Most TV is just garbage, and this is something enjoyable that I don’t have to devote all my attention to enjoy.
lol
Well Done!
Sad, but true
I personally like how the white kids did not even think about that. If we could all still have that little bit of innocense of childhood and just see people and not color.
so far, my boys are growing up this way.
Wow…. thats funny
What’s funny?
Sad truths… sad truths are funny.
Well, I have to admit I didn’t get it until I read through all the comments and then went back and reread the comic itself. Oh, “sweep” as in “take it all”. As opposed to “sweep” as in I’ll bring a broom along and clean up the mess. Guess my age is showing not to mention I seem to be somewhat colourblind. There, now you even know my nationality which may be partially why I’m colourblind. Or it may be because I never saw a Black Person until I was at least 7 or 8 and then only one (he was a preacher I think). Living in a small town I was quite amazed at this guy with black skin and pink palms and it wasn’t till years later than I saw more but by then I understood more and they were just “people” and always have been to me as I think they are in this cartoon.
For hopefully helpful context “sweep” is an North American sports metaphor applied to sports played in series, such as baseball, basketball and hockey. You sweep a series by winning all the games, which can involve the team mascot running onto the field or court and sweeping with a broom the ground behind the exiting losing team. It might be in Britain too for all I know, but just in case it didn’t I thought I’d add that.
I feel ya Stoke, just walk away Brutha, just walk away…
What they need to do is to take a long ride across the neighborhood(s) to an ice cream place, and get something nice for a treat, instead of this ill-advised game of dumb and dumber.
I know this is late, but I really have to put my two cents in on this one. Racism sucks an emu egg. The US. (my place of residence) seems to be worse than most places in world. What the hell. It’s time that we, as a culture, fix this.