This thread was initially entitled, "Kara Goucher + Boston Marathon Controversy" . 4/20 update The BAA has issueda statement herethat amongst other things "we did not deliver on our promise to make it a great day for everyone".
Convservatives pretending to be liberal? You f**king idiot.
The police aren't doing anything wrong. What? They're police? They're white? What else? Give me a break. Of course, you may consider their white skin, their uniforms, and their posture to be offensive. You are entitled to your fantasty world.
I ran past this crew, they were inspiring.... but they also were spilled entirely onto the road . the only section of the race this was happening in. Cops are just trying to keep people safe. That's all
Exactly....it's a good lesson (not just for me but everyone) to read all sources of news and think critically.
I've done many stupid things--but a cannon on the 10th anniversary--it actually may trigger those who had PTSD (no sarcasm) after that incident.
You are just as bad as the people who have blown this out of proportion. How about researching situations before you take a side.
"After being notified by the B.A.A. three times about spectators traversing the rope barrier and impeding runners, the Newton Police Department responded respectfully and repeatedly requesting that spectators stay behind the rope."
Convservatives pretending to be liberal? You f**king idiot.
The police aren't doing anything wrong. What? They're police? They're white? What else? Give me a break. Of course, you may consider their white skin, their uniforms, and their posture to be offensive. You are entitled to your fantasty world.
Knew you were lying when you claimed to be liberal. F’ing LIAR!
Taken straight from the BAA website- "Spectators are not allowed to enter the course, run alongside athletes, or impede athletes in any manner... Spectators are urged not to throw anything onto the course, including but not limited to confetti or streamers."
After seeing the original video, it took me about 2 minutes to find multiple videos of members of this cheer section ducking under the rope, shooting confetti onto the course, and running alongside runners. This is a total non-story and all of the running personalities who rushed to cry racism and get in their "this is not okay" takes should be embarrassed.
How do you know? How do you know the people in the video are "continually treated this way by police?" How do you NOT know by now that crying racism is just about the standard defense mechanism for certain groups of people when they don't get their way. About a month ago I saw a black woman get nabbed trying to walk out of Walgreen's with a bunch of merchandise stuffed in her jacket and that's exactly what she did, started screaming that the store staff was racist, and also that the whole city we were in was racist, and then also the whole country was racist. It became a whole rant that escalated very quickly. It's a diversionary technique, nothing more or less, and it works sometimes because no one wants to get the reputation of being a racist, and it only takes one viral incident to get that reputation, especially in an era where all it takes is one person to whip out their phone and record the incident once its underway, so you don't get the context that led up to it, and them to post that video on twitter.
More to the point, as another poster said just look at how Ms. Desir is trying to make her money. She was going to find some half-baked racism charge against Boston / the BAA / the city to promote, because after the BAA included her as part of a little pre-race conversation event where she was given a place of equal standing alongside several much more accomplished athletes and authors, she had to keep that momentum going somehow. Notice how in her post retweeting the incident, she tags the other women she appeared at the talk with and asks them to do their bit in promoting the BS video. Ms. Desir didn't want the association of her name with the other more accomplished women to end just because the pre-race talk had already ended. And she doesn't want to have to move on from calling the marathon that included her at a talk racist just because the marathon is over. She's a grifter and she was able to guilt a guilty white liberal mom, Kara Goucher, into doing some work for her. Pretty standard stuff in the 2020s, honestly. We'll have to get over this sort of crap eventually but I suspect it will take us a while - at least as long as it takes for nice liberal moms to not feel so guilty about everything all the time.
I think the bigger issue here is not just race but fame-hoggers. The economy is tough right now so people want to go viral and famous to not only get wealthy but open up connections--and thus, security (and more money/fame). At the risk of sounding obvious this is also why you have so many latching onto social media/writing books/songs/music to try to make it big and get a built-in audience/money/connections for the rest of their life.
Ali on the Run and others are like this. Desir's "racism" rant makes it worse for people who are experiencing true racism too. People don't want to be accused of it...If I am BAA, I don't invite her back regardless of her stance. They helped her out and then she crapped on them a few hours later.
Yeah, I think I agree there. Clout-chasing comes in many forms, and its definitely becoming more common to flavor the clout stew with a bit of social-justice flavoring. Certainly there's a ready-made audience online for anyone who claims to be an advocate for social change and/or claims to have found an exciting new way in which the world is XYZ-ist or ABC-phobic, so its a tempting avenue for clout-chasers to head down. It's also VERY easy to trick people like Kara Goucher, who just want to "do good," to amplify the signal.
To the specific incident here, it looks like the accusations of racism regarding the confetti cannon group are being debunked and that Desir jumped the gun so to speak, and I think maybe Desir sees that because she's gone quiet on twitter for a few days. Of course, the problem still remains, as it does in all such situations, that when people jump straight to discriminatory explanations without gathering the facts, some people will see only the initial false explanation and continue to believe it and perpetuate it in the future. So now because the original tweeter went straight for racist explanations and Desir and Goucher boosted the explanation, some people are gonna believe a false narrative because they don't stick around for the follow-up and investigation. But that's not a problem invented by social media, it's even been a standard line about journalism for decades ("story today on page A1, correction next month on page C24" or variations thereof).
I ran past this crew, they were inspiring.... but they also were spilled entirely onto the road . the only section of the race this was happening in. Cops are just trying to keep people safe. That's all
Exactly....it's a good lesson (not just for me but everyone) to read all sources of news and think critically.
I've done many stupid things--but a cannon on the 10th anniversary--it actually may trigger those who had PTSD (no sarcasm) after that incident.
Again, what are people thinking these cannons look like?
They are just larger party poppers.
If the runner made it through Wellsley without diving into a foxhole, one of these going off wouldn't trigger their PTSD (no sarcasm.)
Did anyone see Kara Goucher share from Twitter yesterday with a group of Black fans being surrounding by officers at the Boston Marathon? A lot of people were outraged, but a few folks have rationally pointed to the need for more context outside a 1-minute clip. Wondering what folks here think about Kara boosting the video.
Virtue signaling at it's best right there. She must feel righteous. A one minute video posted without context is enough proof confidently shout "RACISM" to 150K followers.
The vertically integrated messaging apparatus working seamlessly as designed.
Tell me what the police are doing that is so wrong? Spell it out. How are black people being treated unfairly in this situation?
Or just keep spilling out nonsense. And I'm not lying - I am an ACLU member and a registered Democrat. However, it is people like you that give liberals a bad name. Start thinking.
Based on my experience in major cities I understand her point and good for her being an ally against racism. Because it does treat people of color as less than respected. For those that don't understand its because you're honestly not a racist or you have never continuously been a victim of racist acts. And some like to make excuses for it but excuses doesn't make you an ally against racism you passively allow it rather than speaking up, pretending no one of today would be that blatant. It's a very uncomfortable reality. Good for Kara Goucher because there's no controversy It's racism. No words needed.
You are just as bad as the people who have blown this out of proportion. How about researching situations before you take a side.
"After being notified by the B.A.A. three times about spectators traversing the rope barrier and impeding runners, the Newton Police Department responded respectfully and repeatedly requesting that spectators stay behind the rope."
I thought Lauren Fleshman's IG post provided a good rebuttal to this sentiment. White folks get defensive in these types of conversations and respond quickly with "well they did X, Y, and Z." It's like instead of listening to what communities of color are telling us, we spend all of our time trying to justify police behavior so that we can continue to think that racism doesn't affect everyday life for non-white folks.
Everybody does stuff like this spectating the Boston Marathon. But not everyone gets the same response. The response to this group was more intense than it needed to be. The number of officers called in would have been much lower if this were a white group, if they were even called in at all. Neighbors that called the police on them aren't calling the police on white spectators.
So many on here search for justification of police behavior any time something like this happens. Why are you doing that and who does it serve? Just listen to experiences that are different from your own.
I'm just seeing this, ran on Monday. This group of people ran out on the course a bit as I was approaching...pointed me out...no biggie right, just yelling and cheering...cool. Then I get a confetti canon shot right in my face...not cool...
You are just as bad as the people who have blown this out of proportion. How about researching situations before you take a side.
"After being notified by the B.A.A. three times about spectators traversing the rope barrier and impeding runners, the Newton Police Department responded respectfully and repeatedly requesting that spectators stay behind the rope."
I thought Lauren Fleshman's IG post provided a good rebuttal to this sentiment. White folks get defensive in these types of conversations and respond quickly with "well they did X, Y, and Z." It's like instead of listening to what communities of color are telling us, we spend all of our time trying to justify police behavior so that we can continue to think that racism doesn't affect everyday life for non-white folks.
Everybody does stuff like this spectating the Boston Marathon. But not everyone gets the same response. The response to this group was more intense than it needed to be. The number of officers called in would have been much lower if this were a white group, if they were even called in at all. Neighbors that called the police on them aren't calling the police on white spectators.
So many on here search for justification of police behavior any time something like this happens. Why are you doing that and who does it serve? Just listen to experiences that are different from your own.
I think you're late to the party, sir or madam, and none of what you or Lauren have said adds to the conversation, it's just excuse-making after the fact. It doesn't matter if lots of groups were doing the same thing (prove that, if you don't mind)... was this group doing something it shouldn't have done? If so, enfocement is to be expected. Same as my dad said to me once when I complained about being pulled over when ten other cars were also speeding in the same stretch of road.... "but you were speeding, right?"
It's also standard lefty operating procedure to do exactly what you and Lauren are doing, which is to ignore the fact that the OP misinterpreted the situation as being racist and that there is no proof any response was racially motivated, and instead go off about generalities about racialized police enforcement historically or anecdotally, and how we all need to "listen to lived experience" etc. We did listen to the video maker's "lived experience" and we decided that he was massively misinterpreting what the police did, after we looked at the evidence available. The problem ultimately with "listen to (insert group)" is that it really means "believe (group) uncritically when they talk," and no group deserves that privilege. I'm sure he legitimately believed he had been the subject of racism at the time he posted, but we all misinterpret things and we also can't discount the influence of a heavily racialized national discourse and the constant insistence by the left that everything everywhere all the time is racism, racism, racism. In that environment of course some black dudes are going to misinterpret things. I feel sorry for the guy, honestly I do. I really don't like the police that much, I think the job attracts a lot of people who love power and like to use their position to screw with people just for fun. However, I do not see that this occurred here. They jumped rope barriers on purpose. They HAD to know enforcement of the rules was possible, and it's no excuse to say other people might have done the same thing.
She cant even get Nikki's pronouns right so overcompensates her woke signalling by police responding to loud bangs on the 10th anniversary of a terrorist attack.
