A note on Sagaba Konate
- Thread starter Vernon
- Start date
I haven't noticed a single use of this term on the site but I thought it should pass it along anyway in case you see it on social media or at games.
Sounds like fake news to me.
I suspect that Cynthia made this up.
I don’t think that sweatshirt is appropriate for a non-Caucasian child, give the racial connotations, but if a Caucasian child was wearing it, people would think it was “cute”
In event that you're being serious Cynthia is legit and isn't making it up.
I grew up in Morgantown & for the last 30 years lived in small southern town. Stereotypes are still out there. Unfortunately it is nearly impossible to change those in some people. It is good that Cynthia chose to stand up & let us know how it was received. I will respect her wishes & will be careful in the analogies used in my posts. To me, his strength & athleticism are off the charts. I’m glad we don’t have to go against him. Also, hope he feels the love from our fans. He is a special talent and imho, our next NBA draft pick. Can’t wait to see him play vs Baylor tonight.:letsgo:
I was serious. Who would be stupid enough to use that metaphor? To me, Sags is a big, strong, skilled, smart Mountaineer basketball player. I don’t think of him as being black or brown, I just think of him as being a Mountaineer.
I don't think anyone using it meant it in a racial way, it was more about his strength and crushing blocks. That's what I think of when I think of King Kong, certainly not race.
Innocent or not I would find a more appropriate nickname. West Virginia is already wrongly seen as more racist than other parts of the country. Why help people out who are all too eager to smear mountain mamas reputation?
The way I understand it.......King Kong was (is) a fictional character. I guess it's best to imagine that the giant never existed and the world would be better off for it. Yep, I don't believe it either. Warez
Ok, so all the training companies do for offensive behavior focuses on how it is received. We’ve now been informed of that. So no more analogies from me. Only want him to have great experience while in Motown.
Not that I really want to egg this on, and being aware of the request I noticed at one point tonight when Sags had just basically win the game with a beastmode board he approched the bench beating his chest much the way Kong did in the movie. I wonder if that led to people calling him that. Just something I noticed.
From English Oxford Dictionary
Definition of King Kong in English:
King Kong
NOUN
informal
From the name of a huge ape-like monster featuring in the film King Kong (1933).
Definition of King Kong in English:
King Kong
NOUN
informal
- Someone or something of outstanding size or strength.
‘a King Kong of a man’
as modifier ‘a King Kong spider legged it across the floor’
From the name of a huge ape-like monster featuring in the film King Kong (1933).
King Kong represented poor blacks from Virgina and the Carolinas moving North to New York and taking over the city and white women.
At this time Harlem was being overran but blacks arriving everyday from the dirt floor life in the South looking for work and the good life.
Once the 30's came around and the Great Depression set in the good life was no more and people didn't even want white outsiders to come into their town let alone black ones.
This is when the vagrancy laws started in a lot of the country and if someone didn't have a home they would automatically be arrested and put to work on road crews and other chain gain activities all over the South.
A lot of men would travel around the US looking for work and Hoovervilles would be set up.
Let's just say the 1930's was a scary time in the United States.
Very much like how the Planet of the Apes had racial imagery.
Especially the most recent ones. What followed the movies proved the subliminal messaging that was sent to the black communities in this country.
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Wow, people are way too sensitive in today's world. I'm sure most people have been called names they don't like and can't do anything about it. Learn to shrug it off and let it roll off your shoulders. Stop being a snowflake and offended by every little thing.
I'm saying this seriously Vernon...is there any way you can "interview" him and address this?
Maybe a "I've heard you've picked up the nickname King Kong due to your efforts on the court. Is that one you like?" Just tell him off the record that if he doesn't that this would be his way of addressing this personally.
Obviously you would need a few more softball questions to hide this one in the middle of.
I love his play and I don't see the racial undertones, but I'd hate for him to be called something he's not comfortable with. I'm far from PC, but he's still a kid
Maybe a "I've heard you've picked up the nickname King Kong due to your efforts on the court. Is that one you like?" Just tell him off the record that if he doesn't that this would be his way of addressing this personally.
Obviously you would need a few more softball questions to hide this one in the middle of.
I love his play and I don't see the racial undertones, but I'd hate for him to be called something he's not comfortable with. I'm far from PC, but he's still a kid
West Virginia is nowhere near the top of racist places. In fact it is the least racist place I've lived. German (surprise, surprise) was probably the most racist.
I've been called "Horse" and "Horseface" over the years going back to my teenage years. The first metaphor was due to my strength and stamina and the second was a slight on my appearance. I embraced them both. I like horses and have worked with both... admiring them greatly. Any comparison with me to horses is quite flattering, IMO. My firm's name is "SilverBack Solutions"... a reference, I suppose, to a dominant Mountain gorilla. I like gorilla's too.
But, if you knew the term SilverBack offended someone else, would you use it to refer to them. Don’t think so.
It's enough to refer to myself as a "SilverBack" and that should suffice. Here in Atlanta we have a professional soccer team known as the "SilverBacks"! What's your point?
For clarification... I don't ever recall providing a sensitive or provocative nickname to anyone. It just never crosses my mind unless it is truly fitting and I clear it with the person first. I'll violate that now... Freaking "Snowflakes"!
In that case it's a sign of pride and support. Otherwise it's a racist comment intended to isolate and define the individual in a racial category... I think. I don't agree with that, but it is the way of the world today.
Literature, Music, Movies or any type of art form has always been used to convey messages to the masses of people.
I for one do not understand the overt racism in certain places because a lot of you live in places that have low percentage of African Americans.
From experience I have noticed up North there is a different type of racism and that is from the unknown more than anything else.
I grew up in SW Louisiana and SE Texas. Towns and cities with 30-60% black populations. A real power struggle between whites and blacks. Some of these towns like Vidor have always had strict racial laws still in 2017. A city that blacks will travel
20 miles so they do not have to travel through the town.
I am not going to lie what King Kong represented.
I am all for the new South a South that doesn't have racial lines anymore. Where people don't look at skin color.
Hopefully places that don't have our problems don't continue this narrative from the past and when you see something overtly racist call it what it is.
It is probably ok to call yourself something. Even that today could be questionable. It’s not good to refer to someone else with those symbols/analogies. Especially when they ask us not to. Sorry, probably should explain myself better.
Not saying it is right and honestly this post was the first I had heard of the King Kong nickname... but just ran across this post by Sags from yesterday... judging from his emojis he must not feel the same as his family.I haven't noticed a single use of this term on the site but I thought it should pass it along anyway in case you see it on social media or at games.