Piana's Punishment? Iron Debate

[davidcua]

Apparently Kali muscle uses twice as much the N word ad Rich. He uses nigga as "friend" , as "folk" in fact as a french I learnt that you could use the N word for all kind of designation, even when you're are happy and calling someone your best friend/loyal etc. It's kinda weird but hey, it's part of a culture in America we won't change, even with an Iron debate.

[davidcua]

Ooh and I finaly heard the tape. Before hearing the tape, I wasn't choked by the use of the term nigga in general cause a lot of people use it in a meaningless or at least harmless way. But in this 10 years old tape, Rich sounded quite racist evn if it was in a "chocked state" (the phone call).
I hope his apology in sincere though, because I wanna believe that people can change of the course of their life and also since Racism is pure nonsense, stupidity and worthless in our world.

[davidcua]

In this video Vegan Gains point out very very good arguments in defense of rich...

[hifrommike65]

Actions are far more important than words.

[supbro!]

So this is the same guy who sucker punched Piana at an expo. Now he digs up some old recording of Piana going ballistic and I'm still trying to figure out what does he gain from this nonsense. Sounds like female bullshit to me. Mac Trucc if you're reading this here's some advice, respectfully....let it go. Leave the nonsense alone. If you feel Piana beat you for money in some way then you have nobody to blame but yourself. And to Rich Piana - no need to apologize for anything. You made your remarks years ago and hopefully you're a better person for it today.

[hifrommike65]

If someone recorded everything I said for a long time, I'm sure that person could later embarrass me by releasing things I said in a moment of anger or confusion. I expect everyone's seen politics in their workplace, where anything positive you do is ignored, but anything you do that can be criticized is immediately pounced on & played up.

Macc Truc needs to figure out how to get some traction in life without hanging onto the rep of someone who's famous for being famous, & who will be last year's model not long from now.

[Mobster]

In this video Vegan Gains point out very very good arguments in defense of rich...

Just watched this. For once he was spot on.

[hifrommike65]

Agreed. I didn't know Vegan Gains but I'll subscribe to him.

[scott.b]

This vegan gains guy was correct about everything in that video.

[Mac]

Actions are far more important than words.

Who held onto this audio tape from 10 years ago? I would worry more about them.

[BILLY GUNS]

Chris Aceto clearly grew up in a sheltered life to make comments about how anger is 100 percent controllable. Someone should put Chris in a poverty stricken area with just his clothing for a month and then see how well he controlled his anger and frustrations.

John is 100 % accurate here in that Rich went off the deep end and went for the nastiest things he could say to inflict harm.

Anyone saying they are not racist is a liar to themselves if not a racist you are still a judgemental prick behind closed doors. I have never met a single person that didn't make a comment about race, religion, or a disability

Not sure why Dave is so hard on Rich here trying to get him banned from expos or have someone slap Rich's hand since none of what Rich said was in Dave's direction

[Mobster]

For the views.

[Big Beat]

Gerald spoke very eloquently and set the tone for the debate. It was more like a university round table discussion that the usual things that get put up on bodybuilding sites. Clearly RX elevated the discussion and in a positive manner that produced a very rounded insight into the issue. Dave played the role of one of us the viewer superbly showing his thoughts evolving as as the debate took place.

It was tough for John as the only person trying to understand why Piana acted the way he did but I thought John did well and his input led to a deeper analysis of what Piana said and emphasized Gerald's point about how misogynistic Piana came across. Romano also showed he could shift the debate when the he was fighting too hard against the current.

Personally I agreed with Gerald and Chris. It was interesting how Gerald was unphased by Piana's rant saying that he personally has learned to deal with racism in a way that limits how it can effect him negatively. Chris on the other hand was straight out indignant about what was said. The contrast in reactions showed how nuanced things can be optically.

I notice that most comments by forum members do not see much of an issue with Piana's racial slurs which is probably a reflection on modern America, among those that lift weights anyway. There is obviously still a long way to go in terms of race relations.

My opinion of Piana was never that high but now he is rolling around in the gutter as far as I am concerned.

RX has some bright people and they really showed that in this Iron Debate.

[Femphysiquefan]

a very good debate... you may not like the content, but it's a lesson in how to have civil discourse.

Each person was given the space and time to articulate their points of view without interruption

Even when it got tense, it NEVER got personal and you left the debate with each one leaving without anger

There doesn't have to be another show on this because this one was done so well... The first two with Priest and Romano..not so much.

Still sad the episode has so many more dislikes than likes... it was a lesson in respect and civility, that gets lost on those who don't want to listen.

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Amen to all of this!!

[hifrommike65]

I do see problems with racial slurs. They reflect discriminatory attitudes. But many on this site post nasty comments about LGBTQ persons, & no one seems to think much of that. I posted on the murder of transgender women & got responses implying they deserved to be killed for violating social norms, or at the very least it was no big deal & reflected no social problems. So it might depend on which category of discrimination individuals are concerned about, or feel implicated in. I am offended by discrimination against bodybuilders & see evidence of it all over the place. That is not an ethnic or sexual issue but a social one. Today the US Supreme Court declared that discriminatory trademarks cannot be banned due to free speech violation. That doesn't mean that discrimination is desirable, but that the government cannot regulate people's attitudes or beliefs. & what is discriminatory to one person may not be to another. It is not an absolute category.

Discrimination is complicated. The context determines what constitutes denigration. That is why Mac Trucc can get away w/ the "N" word but Rich Piana cannot. I was not happy with how Mr. Trucc exposed Piana's diatribe, & felt he had ulterior motives for doing so that had nothing to do with racism & discrimination. It appeared to me he was trying to bring an enemy down, & using the race card to do it. That is why I was not convinced that Piana was anything more than an idiot when he left his nasty rant on a voice recording.