[LOCKED] OT: Coach Harbaugh meeting with UM Muslim students today re: American Sniper tweet
This was reported by The College Fix late yesterday, and appears in an Mlive article this morning:
Coach Harbaugh will meet today with a small group of Muslim students who protested the showing of American Sniper on campus, and who were upset by his Twitter post supporting the movie. I take this as further evidence of Harbaugh's character, no matter what your politics. We'll see what comes of it.
MOD EDIT - Locking this because I wouldn't even know where to begin to clean it up to make it politics-free. The search for nice things will continue. Man, you go to one meeting... - LSA
OP EDIT -
For a university that prides itself on diversity, there's a shocking lack of diversity on campus.
Assuming you're talking about diversity in race/ethnicity (because people who claim to want diversity definitely don't want diversity in say, thought or ideology), in the fall of 2014, UM Ann Arbor was 66% white when it came to U.S. and permanent residents. It was 13.2% Asian, 4.6% black and 5.1% Hispanic. Another 3.3% checked two or more races. 7.3% were unknown. And that's before you factor in non-resident aliens, who would definitely bring diversity to an American college campus.
So what about those numbers isn't diverse?
This post gets way too political way too fast. Simply...
Sent from MGoBlog HD for iPhone & iPad
if i lived in a foreign country and there were a prominent movie that depicted the justified killing of a bunch of asshole americans, and those were the only americans depicted, i might be a tad worried as well. especially if in said foreign country there were a growing sentiment against americans in general.
i haven't seen the movie. i like clint eastwood movies a lot. as i understand it, the concern is that there is evidently no significant distinction in the film between "here are some horrible people who happen to be muslim" and "here are some muslims".
that said, i'm glad harbaugh is meeting with them. football should be something to bring the student body together, not divide them, and i think meeting with them only helps to bring them together.
in before delete
As soon as a person or group claims offense, everyone rushes to apologize and change. These claims are not superior to any other input, and shouldn't be treated as such. "I'm sorry you are offended, no offense meant," is the proper respnse, and then move on.
Although you're much more diplomatic about this issue than I am. My response is more like, oh you're offended? That's your problem, not mine.
What a waste of time for all involved.
It's unfortunate this is happening considering the fact that IT'S JUST A FUCKING MOVIE,based on a true story nonetheless.
But unless someone has a mask and a cape, people don't understand the difference.
That's the problem. It's a very controversial movie that may or may not reflect a true story. And it may or may not give an accurate depiction of its protagonist.
I have no firm opinion on the merits of American Sniper or on its protagonist, but the thing about the movie is that it purports to reflect "a true story" where a lot of people seem to believe that the story is not "true" at all, but a glamorization of a dodgy guy in real life. While others maintain that it's a spot-on depiction of an American hero.* That's what makes it controversial.
So it's funny to see people get so self-righteously panty-knotted over there being a dispute in the first place. If you endorse a controversial movie (as Coach Harbaugh plainly did), you can reasonably expect some blowback. For me, I'm glad that Coach Harbaugh is addressing the issue to clear up where he is coming from.
*I don't know where the truth lies. I do know that the controversey itself is real, and if the movie gives a false depiction of who the protagonist is or what he did, I can see why people might be offended by that.
JEEZ PEOPLE!
Stop it. It's fake, period. It's not a biography, it's not a documentary!
SELMA - a movie, fiction, based off real events...but in no way, shape, or form an actual documentary of exaclty what happened, when it happened.
This is the same thing.
That's what's wrong with people these days...in the era of reality TV that is so far from reality, just has real people...we take anything that is on the TV or big screen and act like it's supposed to be the truth. It's not. It's supposed to be entertainment. That's all.
I don't care if it's Argo, Zero Dark Thirty, Lincoln, Wolf of Wall Street, 42, Remember the Titans, Selma, American Sniper, etc. --- it was made to entertain people, not to educate people.
Learn the fucking difference. Get mad over something that claims to be true, something that claims to be a biography or documentary and isn't. Get mad over that.
Don't get mad over a movie being a movie. Just watch the damn thing or don't.
You're comparing apples to Volkswagons.
Oh yeah, well what if the movie was about HITLER?!
Don't you realize how stupid that sounds?
He isn't comparing the two movies to suggest similarities in content. He's refuting the "it's just a motherfucking movie" argument by illustrating that there is at least one movie for which that argument would not be accepted. And he's absolutely correct.
I think this controversy is overblown and generally a waste of time as well, but to claim that movies have no real consequence because they're just movies is ridiculous.
Somehow my brain confused The Birth of a Nation with Triumph of the WIll.
But for the record, I'd be fine with showing either, especially in a classroom setting.
What if the movie was about hitler and glorifying the holocaust in parady fashion?
/s
Obviously, lots of people disagree, but it's still a relevant discussion to have. The fact that it's meant to entertain doesn't mean it can't have a larger cultural impact, or offend certain segments of the population. In fact, art frequently drives larger conversations about society. So I don't get why the fact that it's meant to entertain means nobody should ever be offended by it.
I foresee this thread's becoming locked very soon.
He's a witch - burn him! (Put another way, I can see that happening too.)
People in this country are lucky that these types of things are the issues they're facing on their doorstep. There's certain parts of the world, Middle East and elsewhere, where mass starvation, genocide, total war, and true religious oppression are what rules the day.
Okay. End rant. Off my soapbox.
Sent from MGoBlog HD for iPhone & iPad
Is this post a joke? These people are upset about war in the Middle East.
from one of the leaders and leading spokespeople for the University. Yep, that's what he is now that he's the head football coach and he is speaking (tweeting) publically every day. Which is all great.
All of his other tweets have been upbeat and either about him or the team. But that tweet was the only one that I would have advised against. And I honestly believe that if he could go back and reconsider, he would not have tweeted it. So it got him the response that should have been expected. Now he is doing the right thing by speaking to - not apologizing to - some students who were offended by his tweet and he can put this to rest.
Go Blue!
He needs to remind them that Bo had a kicker named Ali Haji-Sheikh.
If Harbaugh and the AD kept quiet whenever a student was offended by something, they'd be forced to sit in their offices 24/7 with the lights off. Preferrably with no A/C either to appease the environmental crowd too.
Anyway, yeah--lock the thread.
Thanks for writing this out, you saved me the trouble of saying everything you just said.
Exactly right.
Sent from MGoBlog HD for iPhone & iPad
Was just about to say the MGoRacists and MGoPrejudiced were having a blast in this thread, but you summed it up perfectly. Well said.
I don't think I've ever typed the word "Evangelical" before this thread...
Unless my memory fails me, you took the opportunity in a "Jeff Meyer to Liberty?" basketball thread to bash evangelical Christians.
Good point. Though to be fair, I was only bashing the university for being a fake school. I don't really care what the explanation of its being a fake school is. I dislike diploma mills just as much.
Its hard for me to see the upside of this meeting for JH. Didn't Don Canham say that his job was to make sure a one day news story does not become a two day news story? Or something like that?
I would leave it alone...
On the one hand, I'm sure the occasional Christian or Jew or Buddhist or Hindu is doing something equally terrifying somewhere in the world.
On the other hand, feelings matter more than dead people. After all, the dead people can't feel anything so who cares, but the living people can feel sad so we have to save the living people's boo-boos on their feelings.
Wow how has this thread not been locked yet?
Sent from MGoBlog HD for iPhone & iPad
Based on his comment, I'd say he is not at all capable of making that distinction.
Sent from MGoBlog HD for iPhone & iPad