Statement on George Floyd

Thanks, all.

tuna55 said:

I am happy you made this statement. I differ a bit than most, I know, but I tell my kids to be as colorblind as they can. Everyone has been through a lot. Judging what that is by the color of their skin is always wrong, and we are to love everyone. I know colorblindness is frowned upon by many in the mainstream but I maintain it's the best way to move past racism forever.

 

FWIW, the media isn't the only one saying that.  The point of the color of skin not determining right or wrong or whatever is right, as is love all.  But minorities I know want to be the difference, as have everyone love and accept the differences too.  

Acceptance and end the end, love, is the path forward.

tuna55 said:

I am happy you made this statement. I differ a bit than most, I know, but I tell my kids to be as colorblind as they can. Everyone has been through a lot. Judging what that is by the color of their skin is always wrong, and we are to love everyone. I know colorblindness is frowned upon by many in the mainstream but I maintain it's the best way to move past racism forever.

 

I'll echo the SPLC being a lousy choice, but it's your money. I can't in good consience feed it via patreon anymore, but I'm not leaving the forum or the magazine just yet.

+1 to all of that.  I love what you guys do for motorsports and I love the community that you've built and I intend to remain a part of it, but I've got to look at myself in the mirror every day and I can't do that knowing that I'm giving away "extra" money that's supporting the SPLC. 

alfadriver (Forum Supporter) said:

tuna55 said:

I am happy you made this statement. I differ a bit than most, I know, but I tell my kids to be as colorblind as they can. Everyone has been through a lot. Judging what that is by the color of their skin is always wrong, and we are to love everyone. I know colorblindness is frowned upon by many in the mainstream but I maintain it's the best way to move past racism forever.

 

FWIW, the media isn't the only one saying that.  The point of the color of skin not determining right or wrong or whatever is right, as is love all.  But minorities I know want to be the difference, as have everyone love and accept the differences too.  

Acceptance and end the end, love, is the path forward.

Hey Eric, I didn't say the word "media" in there.

I want my kids to love everyone as individuals with their own unique backgrounds, goals, and characters. I know that isn't the mainstream viewpoint, but it's mine. 

In reply to tuna55 :

Ok, normally I see "mainstream" and read "mainstream media" lol.  

But the point isn't to be blnd of who people are- but, like you say, love and accept them all.  Anyway.  It's a tough week.

In reply to tuna55 :

I think it's okay to see color. It is a part of who we are physically and it can help us recognize and understand each other and what we've been through. Seeing a person's color is not wrong. I love that every human is different, I appreciate and love the different color of skin we have in our world. 

wae (Forum Supporter) said:

tuna55 said:

I am happy you made this statement. I differ a bit than most, I know, but I tell my kids to be as colorblind as they can. Everyone has been through a lot. Judging what that is by the color of their skin is always wrong, and we are to love everyone. I know colorblindness is frowned upon by many in the mainstream but I maintain it's the best way to move past racism forever.

 

I'll echo the SPLC being a lousy choice, but it's your money. I can't in good consience feed it via patreon anymore, but I'm not leaving the forum or the magazine just yet.

+1 to all of that.  I love what you guys do for motorsports and I love the community that you've built and I intend to remain a part of it, but I've got to look at myself in the mirror every day and I can't do that knowing that I'm giving away "extra" money that's supporting the SPLC. 

I'm not saying you guys are wrong. But I am going to suggest that you are holding GRM to an impossibly difficult standard. Do you check out the public donations of all of the owners of all of the companies that you buy stuff from? 

I did some searching on the SPLC and it seems that the main issue people have with them is that some of the leadership was more interested in making money than actually supporting the causes the SPLC set out to support. Something that a lot of charities end up doing, in fact. A commentary on how our society works, perhaps, but I'll not go into detail on that.

Aside from that, the general message and sentiment from the GRM statement is 100% appreciated and welcomed.

yupididit said:

In reply to tuna55 :

I think it's okay to see color. It is a part of who we are physically and it can help us recognize and understand each other and what we've been through. Seeing a person's color is not wrong. I love that every human is different, I appreciate and love the different color of skin we have in our world. 

I agree, though I will also say it is very difficult for me to verbalize since everything surrounding it is taboo for me as a white male. 

What I do know though, is that in general I hear a lot of "I hardly even notice the color of someone's skin" from the same people who also say things like "I have lots of friends who are black" and "we moved to the suburbs because we think the 'schools are better' out here". (hint: all 3 statements are lies)

Pretending an issue isn't there is not solving it. We have to be able to recognize, and embrace, and value, and talk about differences without being offensive and without getting offended. 

boulder_dweeb said:

Well said, and Thank You!

Very few dissenters, that speaks well of the community.

Rog

I dissent.  SPLC is very bad.  Unless you're in the SPLC at the top (and not a woman, look it up), in which case the SPLC is GREAT.  If you do this again, please find a real charity that is actually looking to help people besides their top management.

Robbie (Forum Supporter) said:

wae (Forum Supporter) said:

tuna55 said:

I am happy you made this statement. I differ a bit than most, I know, but I tell my kids to be as colorblind as they can. Everyone has been through a lot. Judging what that is by the color of their skin is always wrong, and we are to love everyone. I know colorblindness is frowned upon by many in the mainstream but I maintain it's the best way to move past racism forever.

 

I'll echo the SPLC being a lousy choice, but it's your money. I can't in good consience feed it via patreon anymore, but I'm not leaving the forum or the magazine just yet.

+1 to all of that.  I love what you guys do for motorsports and I love the community that you've built and I intend to remain a part of it, but I've got to look at myself in the mirror every day and I can't do that knowing that I'm giving away "extra" money that's supporting the SPLC. 

I'm not saying you guys are wrong. But I am going to suggest that you are holding GRM to an impossibly difficult standard. Do you check out the public donations of all of the owners of all of the companies that you buy stuff from? 

Well, they were the ones nearly begging for us to send them money last month in an effort to keep the lights on. I donated to the cause because I believe in this place and want to support it. I understand that once I donate the money, it is no longer mine and GRM can do what they want with it, but next time the hat is being passed around, don't be surprised if I am not too excited to throw my money in it. I do not want to fund a hate group. SPLC is nothing I want to be affiliated with. I see this as a fool me once, shame on you, fool me twice shame on me situation and I don't plan to be fooled again so to speak.

Agree with not remaining silent and with the message put out in the statement other than the dubious choice of where to send the money.

My first reaction to SPLC is that they are not quite who they claim to be, and their views can be a little skewed, but doesn't that apply to all of us?  Our country has problems; if only perfect people and perfect organizations can be trusted to do good things then we are all doomed.

This country was not formed by people who agreed with each other, it was formed by people who disagreed with each other.  Our system runs on disagreement and protects/preserves the right and expectation to disagree.

After reflecting on this, I believe that SPLC will do far more good than harm, and I am okay with that.  Even though it would not have been my idea, I will stand behind GRM's decision to donate funds.  We need to protect/promote/preserve/encourage/help people who think differently from ourselves because that is actually the right thing to do.  If we don't, we lose everything we have, too.

If anyone has been researching other organizations that would also be of help, post some names (if that is okay with the mods).  This forum seems to be a community of helpful people.  We can probably help a lot of people all over.

Matthew

T.J. said:

Robbie (Forum Supporter) said:

wae (Forum Supporter) said:

tuna55 said:

I am happy you made this statement. I differ a bit than most, I know, but I tell my kids to be as colorblind as they can. Everyone has been through a lot. Judging what that is by the color of their skin is always wrong, and we are to love everyone. I know colorblindness is frowned upon by many in the mainstream but I maintain it's the best way to move past racism forever.

 

I'll echo the SPLC being a lousy choice, but it's your money. I can't in good consience feed it via patreon anymore, but I'm not leaving the forum or the magazine just yet.

+1 to all of that.  I love what you guys do for motorsports and I love the community that you've built and I intend to remain a part of it, but I've got to look at myself in the mirror every day and I can't do that knowing that I'm giving away "extra" money that's supporting the SPLC. 

I'm not saying you guys are wrong. But I am going to suggest that you are holding GRM to an impossibly difficult standard. Do you check out the public donations of all of the owners of all of the companies that you buy stuff from? 

Well, they were the ones nearly begging for us to send them money last month in an effort to keep the lights on. I donated to the cause because I believe in this place and want to support it. I understand that once I donate the money, it is no longer mine and GRM can do what they want with it, but next time the hat is being passed around, don't be surprised if I am not too excited to throw my money in it. I do not want to fund a hate group. SPLC is nothing I want to be affiliated with. I see this as a fool me once, shame on you, fool me twice shame on me situation and I don't plan to be fooled again so to speak.

Agree with not remaining silent and with the message put out in the statement other than the dubious choice of where to send the money.

That's pretty much what I wanted to type but couldn't be that articulate about it.  So, like, what he said.

Thank you, Matthew.

I understand why some may be confused–if we were asking for money, why could we then afford to donate money? For starters your Patreon support doesn't even make it to our bank account before it's mailed to the developers (along with all of the ad revenue from this site and a healthy dose of ad revenue from the print magazine).

In this case it was simple: It's important to back up words with action, even when it would be safer and cheaper to only say the words. And no action is ever perfect, but we needed to do something. We funded the donation by pausing our Facebook marketing for the month of June. We'll feel the hit, but we felt it was necessary so we weren't just another company posting a statement but doing nothing. We felt that a charity with a 90.96, 4/4-star rating on Charity Navigator was an appropriate choice. 

Thanks Margie, Tom, Tim and the rest of the GRM staff..  For the love of God i have no idea how you put up with all of us sometimes, nobody else in the business does what you do.  

GRM's statements are probably offensive to ~20% of the population, possibly even a larger portion of their subscriber/forum base. There's no profit in doing this, it's a statement of conviction. Even if you don't like what they're saying, hopefully you can respect the conviction. I for one am glad for their actions.

Dr. Hess (Forum Supporter) said:

GRM goes to a lot of trouble to keep politics off the board.  Then flounders the entire organization with a hate group named SPLC. 

•    Ignorant
•    Stupid
•    Really believes in the evil promoted by SPLC and desires to support it

Which is it?

 

Don't be a jerk. Discussion is one thing but calling them "ignorant, stupid, or evil" is beyond the pale and not reasonable discussion. You're letting your reactionary show.

Tom Suddard said:

Thank you, Matthew.

I understand why some may be confused–if we were asking for money, why could we then afford to donate money? For starters your donations don't even make it to our bank account before they're mailed to the developers (along with all of the ad revenue from this site and a healthy dose of ad revenue from the print magazine).

In this case it was simple: It's important to back up words with action, even when it would be safer and cheaper to only say the words. And no action is ever perfect, but we needed to do something. We funded the donation by pausing our Facebook marketing for the month of June. We'll feel the hit, but we felt it was necessary so we weren't just another company posting a statement but doing nothing. We felt that a charity with a 90.96, 4/4-star rating on Charity Navigator was an appropriate choice. 

We're happy to encourage people to donate to any charity that they feel is doing the most good, whether it's a national organization or something hyper-local. 

Personally, I'm a monthly donor to the ACLU and have been for quite a while. I also donated to the Minnesota Freedom Fund before things started heating up in my area. Now I'm looking for local organizations to give to so that I can make sure I'm supporting my own community.

I think it's important in times like these when things are moving quickly to listen to the people who are organizing when we can so that we can support them where they most need it, whether it's with bail funds, food and water donations, or even just helpful information for how to stay safe.

I fail to see how the SPLC is a "hate group" as multiple people have called it in this thread.

If you plan to provide proof of such, I think it would be enlightening one way or the other. And probably lead to this thread being locked. So maybe just keep such allegations to yourself.

slowbird said:

I fail to see how the SPLC is a "hate group" as multiple people have called it in this thread.

If you plan to provide proof of such, I think it would be enlightening one way or the other. And probably lead to this thread being locked. So maybe just keep such allegations to yourself.

And if one is going to spew so much vitriol to them, not only provide some data, also provide an alternative.  

The Southern Poverty Law Center is a hate group.

I am Southern, they are not. I abide by the law, they do not. And none of them in the position of administration for their group is impoverished. Not by a long shot.

The Southern Poverty Law Center is accepted as gospel by the media and by any number of other people, and unfortunately, that now includes Grassroots Motorsports. Practically every mainstream conservative organization is listed on that website as a hate group, and the Southern Poverty Law Center has blood on its hands. They called the Family Research Council a hate group, and a guy walked into the lobby of the building where they are and started shooting because he had seen it on the Southern Poverty Law Center.

The Southern Poverty Law Center is as partisan leftist as anything.

The Southern Poverty Law Center is unfortunately supported and amplified by the media, and so is Occupy Wall Street, and so is Antifa. And in your misguided way, is now supported by GRM.

This makes me think about the time that Michael Jordan was asked why he didn't take a political stance when it was fairly well known that he was quite the supporter of the left and their causes. He said he did not want to run off 50% of the people who vote and buy Fruit of the Loom underwear. He was quite smart to remain neutral. Grassroots motorsports should be so smart and should have remained neutral.

Like the old funny car driver said, "Color Me Gone!"

There comes a time when you cannot remain complicit. We chose this moment understanding what was on the line. It's more important than selling, even though we are no Fruit of the Loom and no doubt need it more--but if you haven't wagered something significant on your beliefs, you might as well not bother.

And of this makes me ignorant or evil, giggity. Gonna get myself a supervillian costume.

Margie

I jumped the gun on the dissent remark.....But hey, we got a lively discussion, NO?

Rog