I think you were right to call me out. Given the background information available to someone neutral reading, the call out was justified, no argument there whatsoever. The state of knowledge at hand can lead to two different viewpoints where both can't be true but somehow the viewpoints are logically valid given different background information. It's like when you say something unexpected to someone and they say 'that is random' to make that statement, but if they knew the full state of your mind at that point, it would no longer be random because they'd see the chain of thought that led to that statement being uttered.
The question of racism here is of the same quality of background knowledge and i hate to say it, 'intent' (which i think is regrettably known to be abused for excusing racism) matters. If the trio of 'old' 'white' 'fat' are qualities being used to diminish the person in question then it would be racism, i agree. However I would not say i meant the 'white' in a pejorative sense here, if whatever race that person was i would have written it the same way and not have it reflect on that person's basketball ability. I have used it in that sense before but it was a positive way (the 14 yo athletic white phenom i described a few weeks ago in a youth league). That's still racism but positive or whatever.
In general, I don't have a problem personally talking about race casually, yeah we're all equal in theory but in practice im probably not afforded that kind of luxury of a viewpoint, which i think is something another Australian might take for granted (and that would be a good thing). I don't want to live with some kind of delusion that race doesn't matter or exist because that would lead to unrealistic situations otherwise. Or rude awakenings. It's nice to believe you're just another person most of the time, maybe even someone 'normal' but then you'll run into a small amount of racism and find it deeply troubling unless you've cultivated a resistance to racism being able to hurt you. I have to keep race in the foreground because otherwise racism is just too crushing when it happens, kind of like maintaining a level of immunity to it is required to function.
If you knew the person i was talking about, the 62 year old, he's a feature of the local pickup scene for years. The man is almost an institution, a playground legend. He's almost loved here. I honestly admire the man and i would even say i find his love for the game infectious. He hasn't got athleticism or even skill but he loves to play basketball and everyone just humours him but not having played with him in a year or two, i was surprised how much better he has got .. or perhaps how bad i have gotten at the same time, and how troubling i found it to be beaten by him .. not beacuse he's white .. but because he was really really bad .. like just terrible and now he was absolutely demolishing me. And having said that, it'snot like he's suddenly now a good player .. he's still bad .. but he beat me bad. But i couldn't have even tried to beat him in a competive sense .. i have a bit too much respect for him as a opponent to humiliate him? i dont know, it wasn't a competitive situation, i played with restraint but i'd expect to beat him easily even without trying. I'd never say he's bad because he's white .. it's not a factor (in this case). If his race was relevant that would be different. I guess if i was to flesh this out fully .. a 62 year old brown man or black man .. that would not make it any different in my eye, the age and fatness would be the main thing here.
Also i'm not good at dealing with racism .. but ive been trying to dispower it .. maybe it's a complex thing that needs way too much nuance to be careless like in this case.
