UKskins

Lomdon out in the thousands again today. Nationwide campaign here in the UK will see MILLIONS of us taking the knee on our doorsteps at 6pm tonight.

For those of you not sure what's going on here, The Haka is a traditional Maori war dance, used on the battlefield. It's a display of strength, power, pride and unity

Just so you know - you are creating change. You have teachers in the UK talking about what we can do to support the BLM movement moving forwards. I consider myself to be very liberal and have always been activist in terms of flagging up injustice and racism where I see it. My grandfather was in a concentration camp and his family were murdered by the Nazis - I know racism, I have experienced racism and members of my extended family were tortured and murdered by racists so I have always been outspoken on the issue and been actively ANTI-racist. Not because of the colour of my skin, but I spent a couple of years at high school having my head slammed in lockers, due to my (Polish) ethnic background. Every insult was preceded by "You Polish...". I am kinda in a weird place where I know racism but I don't understand black racism because I haven't lived it. I empathise as far as I possibly can, but I'm white, I was born in the UK so speak perfect English and the only thing that gives my genetics away is having a Z in both first name and surname. Now the UK has a lot of Polish migrants so it's no longer a big deal, but even when it was a big deal 20 years ago, it wasn't anything like as bad as y'all have it. Even the most anti-Polish people (believe it or not, that was a thing for about 5 years or so, led by right wing press demonising Poles as job stealing invaders when we opened borders to unlimited Polish migration) couldn't tell from looking at, or speaking to me that I had a Polish background. I've never been ashamed of it, I've never hidden it, in fact the opposite - my experiences pushed me away from feeling "British" and being loud and proud about my heritage but I could hide it if I needed to. It never caused me to fear for my safety although I have had a few beatings because of it. I teach Geography and actively try to involve myself in anti-racism campaigns in school. I did holocaust memorial day assemblies this year, and told the story of my family being murdered and explained the horrors my Grandad faced in the concentration camp.... but I concluded it by pointing out that we don't honour the memory of holocaust victims unless we speak up against racism of all kinds because it is invariably racial lines where genocides occur. I try to make sure I give balanced arguments in lessons, showing more than one perspective in my lessons and actively dispel misconceptions around race. This tweet really hit me though - do i personally do enough to further the cause in my day to day lessons? Probably not. Sure I shoot down stereotypes and deal with some issues around race and poverty/migration etc but am I doing enough to promote positive black role models in my teaching? Am I doing enough to celebrate black culture? Am I showcasing the injustices? I don't think I am doing enough. i've always been an ally but have I always been an advocate? I will be reflecting on this and working out how I can change, advance and progress. I will evolve my lesson content to ensure that I use my platform not just to stop hatred, but to actively support intercultural understanding, empathy and solidarity around black issues. I don't want my students to just not be racist, it's not good enough, they need to be actively Anti-racist. I will do better. I see you, I hear you, and I will stand with you.

Yep I'm in this camp. You can't stop her going, but you can go with her and use your life experience to minimise the risk of harm.

DC looks lit right now. Stay safe y'all.

Was in China last summer - my partner's aunt works out in Shanghai. Went to Beijing, Cheng Du, Juangzhou and Shanghai Never going back - really did not enjoy the culture (spitting everywhere, pushing past people without even looking - one guy barged into and knocked my 3 year old daughter over and didn't even look down to see what he'd hit until I shoved him). You're on the money with the Orwellian dystopia - the CCTV there is nuts, but it's so sophisticated too - The billboards posting mugshots of people who honk their horn etc is insane. My partner's aunt's car got scratched, and within 30mins of her reporting it, the police had identified the culprit through CCTV, tracked him down using the road cameras and arrested him. Insane.

I love Trevor Noah anyway, but this makes so much sense. His autobiography - "Born a Crime" is a brilliant read by the way - appropriate in the context of the protests to recommend it. It documents his childhood, growing up in poverty in South Africa whilst segregation was in full force, and the apartheid laws made sexual relations between blacks and whites illegal, literally making his birth a criminal offence.

Londoners out in numbers again today. https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-london-52868465

Just so you know - the world is standing with you. There are more protests planned in London today, and next weekend too.

Meanwhile in Flint MI, there was no violence.... the cops joined the protest, led by the Sheriff. Moving to see the cops standing with protestors against the violence and brutality dished out by their own. Maybe if the police started doing this nationwide instead of the aggressive, confrontational response seen so far then real change could happen. There's got to be enough good cops willing to stand up and be counted though. This is what should be happening. Police saying "you know what, we don't stand for that, and it won't be done in our name. We also stand against the violence and murders committed by the bad apples, and we will root them out of the police with the full force of the law, instead of being complicit in perpetuating the injustice".

I googled and it said 25 max for minn. Doubt he’ll get max sentence tho.

Can I just put a massive credit out there to the cops that have spoken out about this - there was one police chief in tenn that said any of his officers who don’t have a problem with this murder should turn their badges in immediately.

Just to be transparent from the outset here, I'm a white guy born and raised in the UK. There's a billion things I would criticise in the UK, but our police don't systemically murder a subset of our population due to racism. Really saddened to see what's going on in the US, and frankly I don't understand how it keeps being perpetuated. The closest we have come to a similar incident is Stephen Lawrence who was murdered in 1993, in a racially motivated killing. The murder was committed by citizens but covered up by a corrupt and racist police department. This happened nearly 30 years ago, but everyone who was alive at the time knows his name, it was the biggest news cycle of the 90s in the UK. In fact, it still makes the news cycles here from time to time... simply it's a big deal when something like this happens in the UK, but it seems to happen pretty much 4 or 5 times per year (and that's just the major cases, I'm sure there are others) in the US. The only data I could find suggests that in 2015 unarmed black people were killed once every 3 days by police in the USA. 5 times more often than unarmed white people were killed by police. ( https://mappingpoliceviolence.org/unarmed ). Kaep was forced out of the league because he knelt on the field in a protest against injustice and racist treatment/police brutality, yet the officers who knelt on an unarmed black man's neck until he died are currently sat on their couches and have not been arrested... they will likely get their jobs back in a year or two.... ( https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2020/may/28/us-police-officers-fired-rehired-why ) time and again we have seen white police officers murder unarmed black people without any real justice served. On the George Floyd case, it's unequivocal, CCTV has come out showing his arrest and he didn’t resist... the officer who stood by and let it happen should face jail time... the THREE kneeling on him should get the death penalty (although I don't think Minn has it, so I guess life without parole). I totally understand and empathise with the protesters who burnt down the police building etc. I don't condone it but the rage is totally understandable, and to be honest, should transcend race - every decent human being should be outraged by it.... but George Floyd is just the latest in a long line.... we know some of their names, Freddy Gray, Eric Garner, Philando Castile, Tamir Rice.... there are many I guess we don't. https://newsone.com/playlist/black-men-boy-who-were-killed-by-police/item/4 This is also not limited to the police. Trayvon Martin, Ahmaud Arbrery and thousands of others, literally hunted down and murdered in cold blood for being black and in the wrong place at the wrong time - will justice be served for Ahmaud? It sure wasn't for Trayvon - that scumbag Zimmermann got away with it. Make no mistake, he would absolutely have got sent to prison for life here. I understand I'm an outsider looking in, and I'm also aware that some people don't like outsiders looking in and will take this as criticism of the USA as a whole and possibly kick back against it. It's not intended to be a critique of every American citizen. I've met a bunch of you from on here and also variousothers at points in my life, and I've yet to meet an American I didn't like - the ones I've come across have all been genuinely good people. Which is why I don't understand how this keeps happening. Your police departments are corrupt and have a significant number of violent racists wearing the badge (although the overwhelming majority are not racists I assume) and your justice department is complicit in allowing a two tier justice system based on race. That’s just not right. Will it ever stop? Something has got to change, this can't keep happening.

Smoot: "What do you want to be referred to as, a WR or a RB?" Gibson: "I wanna be referred to as a weapon. Wherever they put me, I'm going to dominate." Love it. https://www.redskins.com/video/antonio-gibson-i-ve-been-waiting-on-this-all-my-life

So cool to see Chase singing HTTR

7:30am here in the UK. Today is the day (although the draft wont start until 1am UK time).

When has he said that? I heard him say we have a couple of veterans in the building already (Colt/Case/Alex) but nothing about bringing one in...

Yeah I'm not really feeling the Commandant title (however I do really like the Oceanic Three)

Snyder clearly has someone else in mind will be the response I suspect you'll get. Make the facts fit the narrative, not the other way round. 😉

Haha sorry - think that's the first time I changed it, mainly because it doesn't sound like KOC will be sticking.

Really interesting interview - thanks for sharing. Confirmation of the 4-3 As you say, Ron is talking about "going after" an OC and liking the guys they're bringing in. Wants to play the run and physical football Reached out to Gibbs who invited him to his house and they spent an afternoon talking Redskins football. Really excited about this new era.

Just to put it out there, this is the first thread I've ever started in here successfully. I started one when I first signed up and it got jumped on by the mods so I've always avoided starting anymore. Who would have thought a thread about a sticky KOC would be the first one I made that doesn't get locked? 👼

Per latest Rivera interview with Larry Michael (below) it sounds like KOC is not going to be OC next season. Says he is "going after" an OC and is really pleased with the people they have coming in to interview.