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It is often implied or sometimes outright stated that there are guys in North Stadium whose views on politics, including sensitive racial issues, have caused rifts with players. The implication is that it's primarily or even exclusively with black players. Duval gets brought up, and it's not hard to make that leap given his image and social media. I believe others have mentioned Davison in this vein, as well. I've also heard Frost and Chin are likely pretty conservative.
There are some very intelligent and informed people here who can discuss matters such as this without it becoming a total shitshow like it invariably would on RSS or even the JV 247 board (there's a thread there right now called "CANCER" that is dealing with this very topic not terribly but also not particularly well).
Some prefatory thoughts from me that I feel might help to frame the discussion:
1) The ubiquity of social media, and particularly the ability to have one's follows and re-tweets/postings viewed by the public, has brought a level of scrutiny to this sort of thing that didn't exist even ten years ago.
2) American civil society is in a worse state and is more polarized politically than it has been in the recent past. There are fewer people in the middle and generally less room for moderate positions and voices in our discourse. This phenomenon appears to be caused by and/or exacerbated by point one above.
3) One can be a conservative without being a bigot. The topic becomes more contentious when you start inserting Trump into the equation, so I'll refrain from making more definitive statements up front, because intelligent people disagree about this point. I will say this: I believe there are Trump supporters who are not subjectively racist and one would have to make structural arguments in order to classify them as such. Whether those appeal to you or not is a separate, very involved discussion.
4) Is there reason to think that Nebraska and its staff is unique in any of this? Do we have more conservatives and/or Trumpers in North Stadium? Isn't coaching generally a somewhat conservative set of men? Do the demographics and political leanings of the state make this more salient for black players who perceive problems? Do the largely white walk-on program and some of the other conservative players (e.g., Chris Walker has been photographed wearing a John Galt t-shirt at lift sessions) contribute at all?
5) One can believe a practice or phenomenon is misguided, wrong, and injurious to society while also recognizing that matters are unlikely to change in the near term. I imagine if this dynamic is, in fact, taking place, it would aggravate many people that players on the team are put off by this and some leave as a consequence. I also imagine that there would be an internal conflict over how this seemingly hinders the ability to produce a competitive football team these days.
I'm coming into this with a completely open mind and just want to hear from people I respect on the matter. So what do you all think? I'll shut up and listen for a while unless people have direct questions for me.
There are some very intelligent and informed people here who can discuss matters such as this without it becoming a total shitshow like it invariably would on RSS or even the JV 247 board (there's a thread there right now called "CANCER" that is dealing with this very topic not terribly but also not particularly well).
Some prefatory thoughts from me that I feel might help to frame the discussion:
1) The ubiquity of social media, and particularly the ability to have one's follows and re-tweets/postings viewed by the public, has brought a level of scrutiny to this sort of thing that didn't exist even ten years ago.
2) American civil society is in a worse state and is more polarized politically than it has been in the recent past. There are fewer people in the middle and generally less room for moderate positions and voices in our discourse. This phenomenon appears to be caused by and/or exacerbated by point one above.
3) One can be a conservative without being a bigot. The topic becomes more contentious when you start inserting Trump into the equation, so I'll refrain from making more definitive statements up front, because intelligent people disagree about this point. I will say this: I believe there are Trump supporters who are not subjectively racist and one would have to make structural arguments in order to classify them as such. Whether those appeal to you or not is a separate, very involved discussion.
4) Is there reason to think that Nebraska and its staff is unique in any of this? Do we have more conservatives and/or Trumpers in North Stadium? Isn't coaching generally a somewhat conservative set of men? Do the demographics and political leanings of the state make this more salient for black players who perceive problems? Do the largely white walk-on program and some of the other conservative players (e.g., Chris Walker has been photographed wearing a John Galt t-shirt at lift sessions) contribute at all?
5) One can believe a practice or phenomenon is misguided, wrong, and injurious to society while also recognizing that matters are unlikely to change in the near term. I imagine if this dynamic is, in fact, taking place, it would aggravate many people that players on the team are put off by this and some leave as a consequence. I also imagine that there would be an internal conflict over how this seemingly hinders the ability to produce a competitive football team these days.
I'm coming into this with a completely open mind and just want to hear from people I respect on the matter. So what do you all think? I'll shut up and listen for a while unless people have direct questions for me.
