The oddly uncomfortable thing is, they encourage you to be an "ally" and spread the word. I can tweet out "Hey, the Rose Room Collective is a great project - go be a part of it! Unless you're not a POC, then... just retweet this?" I get it. If the RRC threw open membership to everyone, they'd be in danger of losing control of the direction and focus of the group. The point is to create a comfortable and safe community that's different from what's available in other supporters' groups, which are by their nature supposed to be poly-everything - even if they fall short of that goal. Makes total sense. But, as an old white dude, I'm not welcome. That matters not a whit, in the grand scheme. I'm not aggrieved, but some may be. And this may just be a stepping stone to better things, but I'd rather nobody had to feel that way along the journey, because Lord knows there's been enough of that, and it almost always leads to conflict. So, just purely as an observer, it gives me pause - no more - the drawing of these lines, and I think not without reason. Worse ends have been ruined by better means. In any case, I hope they're successful - it's a phenomenal outreach project. I'll be watching with interest.
So as someone who would project as an old white dude it's still a bit offensive to get lumped in like that, because just like Sarah Kallesy being of Arabic descent (she's Lebanese), you'd never guess from my appearance or surname that I'm Jewish. It's been an interesting year because it's quite clear that no one wants your minority input at the time theirs is front and center. It's funny, I wonder about it, the times I've filled out a job application and wondered if being a white male on the EOE form would hold me back. There is no checkbox for Jews who have often been a persecuted people throughout history. There's no way to know and the odds are understandably improbable. It only seems to be an issue when someone shoots up a community center or synagogue that falls off the front page in a week. The elementary school in my neighborhood was vandalized with swastikas late last year and I don't think the police even tried to find the perpetrators, The school is deep in a residential community, so you kind of had to know it was there, which leaves me thinking it was local kids. There are dozens of doorbell cams in the neighborhood and surveillance cams at the school, it shouldn't have been hard to trace the perps back to a car or a house in the neighborhood. And worse yet, my neighbors, someone at my pool, someone whose kids play in my kid's soccer league has probably let their kids grow up thinking this is ok or worse encouraged this kind of bias and hate. I'm 50 and this is the first time in my life that I have felt this kind of insecurity.
We comment, er, whine, about just about everything related to the team - it's the reason we are here, right? My point is not about the SG but rather the hypocrisy/duplicity/myopicness (is that a word?) of the FO. I am not bothered at all by the group, per se. The more the merrier when it comes to getting more people to join me in supporting the team. And I applaud the intention of their efforts to make all fans find the environment surrounding the team more welcoming, inclusive, respectful and safe - that actually makes my life better in admittedly a quite small but, at least on game days, meaningful ways (come loud and proud - puns intended). My heritage includes several groups that have historically experienced discrimination and I have personally been subjugated to race-, sex-, religion-, ethnicity- and national origin-based bigotry (although as far as I aware, not sexual preference-based bigotry). But this particular thread is about the front office (or lack thereof), so I find it pertinent that the FO, in some Kafka-esque effort to promote inclusiveness, is giving its imprimatur to a group that explicitly and intentionally engages in the very exclusionary behavior both of them claim to be against. Would folks be similarly nonplussed if the team proudly heralded its partnership with the new Pale, Stale and Male Association which says, "no yellow brown or black folks are allowed to be members but hey, we welcome you as allies and you must celebrate us and share our messages as much as you can"? I listened to the podcast (thanks for the link! Sarah sounds very pleasant and I think I would like to meet her - I may seek her out at a game). She leads off with, "...the club needs to have zero tolerance for any sort of discriminatory behavior..." And then follows that up by unabashedly stating several times how her SG intentionally discriminates. So proving Orwell's 7th commandment.... I think the FO should say, "Hey, it's regrettable the world contains humans of troglodyte-like mentality and that some of them support our team. We continue to work to provide an environment where all fans feel welcome and have an enjoyable entertainment experience. We love that your group that caters to specific communities supports us. We will be happy to sell you tickets at group prices just like we will for any other group. We appreciate and are sensitive to your concerns about wanting your supporter experience to be more enjoyable. When we become aware of staff or customer behavior that is not in keeping with our corporate values we will take action. But if you want to be an "officially" recognized SG and receive all the special perks and treatment (and limitations) that go with that, then just like all the other SGs ,you will have to espouse and practice the values we embrace and therefore you must publicly disavow your bigoted, exclusionary discriminatory practices." I have a problem with the FO bouncing a customer for bigotry while enthusiastically embracing another who is equally bigoted.
Understand I personally have no issue with the group. They want to hangout with each other more power to them. I will however call them out for their hypocrisy. I have friends who could join their group. I have lots of LGBT friends who what they do on their time is their business. We are all still friends. I am a straight old white guy, because that is what I choose to be. Again like them, my choice. I do agree however with @Section 107 when he points out that if you want SG privileges you cannot discriminate. The furthest I would come to giving them a SG privilege is I would let them sit together.
https://twitter.com/202Unique Well, another Supporters Group. I think this is the fourth (fifth?) group?
As I said before, the SGs splinter like Marxist-Leninist parties. Maybe time to start a "Cranky Old Men's Supporter Group" all colors and sexual preferences welcome.
I have a hard time figuring out how a POC supporters group who is already welcoming towards people of LGBTQ+ and now another offspring Queer-focused supporter group is inclusive. (Granted, I'm a cis straight middle-eastern male, btw)
When we can reproduce Dallas' youth development level, I'll respect the FO. From http://www.americansoccernow.com/ar...pswing-acosta-seeking-to-cement-spot-on-usmnt "Following the win over Mexico, FC Dallas alums Acosta, McKennie, Reggie Cannon, and Bryan Reynolds all posed for a picture with the Nations League trophy. The list continues to grow as well as Justin Che is a top prospect who recently went on loan to Bayern Munich. Chris Richards would have made the team if not for an injury. Paxton Pomykal, Tanner Tessmann, and Jesus Ferreira are also on the Gold Cup provisional roster... Justin Che was involved in the first half of camp. Chris Richards as well. There is a ton of FC Dallas talent in and around the national team."
Similar to other SGs: a limited number of stadium entry credentials; special security arrangements inside the stadium; ability to bring in items prohibited to mere "regular" fans (musical instruments, flags, tifo, etc. who knows what else); special access to players, staff, and manglement; special access to back of house areas (locker room, family room, front and back office areas); early access and special discounts on tickets, merch and food and condom mints; special access to advertising materials and promotional opportunities; coordination of SG events; special access to away game tickets and activities; special events just for the group; their name in lights.... Although, I expect that some groups would say they have not enjoyed some of those privileges for quite a while and, in the case of BB, they would have said they have rejected many of those privileges to as to maintain some sense of "independence" (see the thread about UnitedMania).
One of the few things that does distinguish humans from the rest of the animals is that while we might not "choose" our sexual predispositions, we are absolutely in control of our sexual behavior. One such example would be mistaking poison ivy for mint.....
plume, tear, spoon, shelf, key, rubber, band, lift, sand See I can throw random words together as well................that mean nothing.