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NikeTalk began as a community service and it has evolved into a social business whose primary function is to give back.Saw this, and the parodies (some funny) and i just knew meth wasn't gonna be having this when it hit NT.
Our community has character. It is enabled by diversity and it deeply values diversity. One of the driving motives for creating this community was in response to the uninhibited racism that made it so unpleasant to visit existing sneaker communities. It's not just a generic forum and, the day it sinks to that level is the day I'll quit. We're not about to let a bunch of spoiled teenaged nihilists whose lone concern in life is their own selfish amusement run roughshod over everyone and everything else.
For once, I'd like to see a NikeTalk thread take a turn for the better.
We should be better than this stupid, lowest common denominator garbage that circulates around the rest of the web, "viral" in terms of both its spread and its and effects. NikeTalk has standards, and chief among them is respect. Not everything has to be a big joke. "ha ha ha rape!" "ha ha ha pedophilia!" "ha ha ha slavery!" "ha ha ha racism!" If you don't care about anything other than yourself, then it's hard to imagine that you're leading a life worth living.
We can use the Internet to do great and honorable things, too, you know. If nothing else, the infantile meme factory represents a failure of imagination. It's fine to use forums like ours to relax and let loose, but are you really so uncreative that you can't figure out a way to amuse yourself without abusing others?
Great humor often challenges deeply held values and assumptions, but as a prompt to pause and reconsider, as independent thinkers, what we believe. This is just a bland, hackneyed, and boring reassertion of racist stereotype.
It's funny how people show you who they really are on the Internet.
Often times, you have adults sharing forums with 14 year olds - and what happens? Think about somebody you respect, someone successful, coming back to the elementary school where they attended classes as a child and interacting with the students there. What does she or he do? We've all seen the "NBA Cares" promos, we see athletes giving kids advice, running basketball drills with them, trying to inspire them to be their best (and, often, receiving plenty of inspiration themselves in the process.) We don't see Ray Allen in the corner with the 8 year olds saying, "oh man, wait 'til Timmy finds out I put boogers on his backpack!" You don't see Cornel West beating up the new kid to prove he's tough. And yet, here are all these "grown" men and women on Internet forums with teenagers.... acting like children, drawing crude pictures, staring at boobies, making racist/sexist jokes, ganging up on someone different and bullying them.
"C'mon, son" indeed.