Football Star Hires Security After Wedding Threats (Racial Threats)

Source: ABC News

For the biggest day of his life, Fiesta Bowl star Ian Johnson isn't taking any chances.

Since receiving more than two dozen verbal and written personal threats, the Boise State running back, who is African-American, has retained several off-duty police officers and security guards to watch over his wedding tomorrow to a white cheerleader.

Johnson, who scored the winning points in the Fiesta Bowl, made headlines when he proposed to girlfriend Chrissy Popadics on national television.

Soon after the Jan. 1 proposal, he started receiving hateful phone calls and letters mailed to the school's football office from people angry at his interracial relationship.



Read more: http://abcnews.go.com/US/story?id=3422740&page=1

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Good luck to this couple. Hope the pieces of crap who threaten them go back in to their caves!

it's disgusting that people who call themselves Americans think that two people in love should not marry.

Goes for interracial couples and same sex couples as far as I'm concerned.

...

but after reading this, it is clearly 1957. x(

but this IS idaho, lots of white separatists there. didn't the po from the oj trial move there? bet they don't stay there...

This shit has to stop...

We will lose to a Repugnican if either Obama or Clinton run as Democratic candidate for the presidency. We need a few years of Dems in office to change the sick sexist, racist, Bible-banging, oligarchist personality this nation currently has.

Clinton and Obama shouldn't run, because if they do, Dems will lose the election?

Please.

And I'm not saying this as a drum-banger for either one of them in particular. I'm just saying, in the most polite way I can, that I think the idea that "a few years of Dems in office" (read: a white male Dem president) will turn these sick f***s around, and then the country will be ready for a black or woman president, is naive and, dare I say it, highly likely untrue.

There are plenty of sexist and racist @$$holes running around this country, just as there are plenty of Bible-banging fascists. Enough, in fact, to re-elect the administration we currently have. I'm sure you'd rather close your eyes and imagine a better U.S. exists when in fact, that it not the case.

Not the mainstream.

Even people who judge by groups can sometimes like an individual of that group and make a sort of "exception."

Idaho doesn't strike me as a state that would go Dem in an election anyway. So I don't see these wingnuts as numerous enough to prevent the election of Hillary or Barack from nothing other than gender or racial animosity.

So why are there some out there who don't want them to be married? Fucking ignorant racist bastards (yeah I know it's redundant). I remember that scene after the game, and thought it was pretty neat. Good luck to them. You know, I may just send an email or letter to Boise State in support of these two people in hopes that the University can forward it to them.

Being in an interracial marriage is tough work. My wife and I get looks all the time, mostly from the older generations. Only had one comment said about us that was meant to be overheard, the guy backed down pretty quick when I went after him in the middle of a public mall.

I love to hear about bigots being confronted. Pretty please!!!!

I'm in an interracial marriage, and I rarely get funny looks (I'm white and my wife is black). We live in Florida and used to live in Northern Virginia. Interracial couples are very common in both places.

when the man is white and the woman is black. but you knew that....

i'm a ww and was married interracially also, but we live(d) in california, so no problems.

of what race you were. You're right though; it is different. America is still very oppresive when it comes to black males. They're unfortunately still America's boogie man.

So if he married a black woman there are probably some that would not like that either.

These racist assholes would consider anyone "black" who had any African heritage, at all. Sorry, but this racism crap always gets to me...

but black people have a very different opinion. Nether of the groups accept my siblings and I.

When it comes to inter-racial marriages there are haters on both sides of the racial line.

the disparity in numbers, it's not the type of hate born of a belief in innate superiority

I would challenge anyone to find the infrastructure (web sites, record companies) or membership and activities (leafletting driveways) of a corresponding black supremacy movement in this country.

cite Al Sharpton and Jessie Jackson - what they base it on, I don't know, but Al has said some things that they can latch onto, apparently.

They also have a Hispanic group they cite for the proposition that the Hispanics want to take over Amurka and put an end to the white race.

I'm deaf. I'm late deafened, so I don't sign as of yet. With my aids and lip reading I do pretty well communicating with the hearing, but many still place me in the "she's deaf, not like me, I don't have the time or patience to try to communicate with her" category and make no effort into getting to know me. With the Deaf community to many I'm "not deaf enough". Luckily though this helps me to quickly identify those who are worth my time, and luckily this helps me meet pretty amazing people in both worlds

I know it's not entirely the same, people can't look at me and know I can't hear (which at times can be a trial in itself), but I can understand the isolation from those who should understand what I go through.

Don't they all accept you? Do your white relatives stand up for you against racist whites? Have you even run across African Americans who realize you have a white side and aren't good with it?

I have a black cousin (by adoption) - he doesn't live nearby but he is at family functions - he has great uncles who are big racists, but of the type who might make exceptions for their own. In fact, they are homophobes, except the one that had a gay stepson for a while - strangely enough, that made him very liberal on gay issues while he remains freepish on everything else.

"White Man, White Woman, White Baby
Black Man, Black Woman, Black Baby
White Man, Black Woman, Black Baby
Black Man, White Woman, Black Baby"

Scaring the shit out of the bigots!

eom

What small, boring, shriveled, little lives they must have.

I can't understand people like that. :shrug:

While the rest of the civilized world adopts marriage rights for gays, and has lived for quite some time with interracial marriage, the US seems to be on a path of retrenchment.

Best wishes to Ian and Chrissy on their upcoming nuptials.

Umm...no.

but, unfortunately, I'm not . . .

IT BUUURRRNS!!

While I'm sure we can all agree Bush is an evil, shell of a man it would be a difficult task for anyone to blame him for the racist tendencies of the human animal. Racism predates Bush by a few million years.

... to make DU folks appear unreasonable and idiotic. As though we were equivalent to those on the Right who automatically blame Bill Clinton for all that is wrong with this country/world/universe. Have you ever noticed that?

:think:

And it's not the first such we've heard out of you, either.


Look, we're not stupid. We know that George Bush isn't the motivating force behind all this.

Why isn't Boise State helping out with the extra security.

"Miles said that the National Collegiate Athletic Association has allowed the university to pay for some off-duty police officers and security guards to be present at the wedding ceremony, where 400 guests are expected, and at the reception, at which 150 guests are expected."
Sounds to me that Boise state is going to pay, otherwise, why would they ask permission from NCAA?

And there is so much hatred coming from strangers. Hatred based on color, gender, sexual orientation, are all things that will contribute to the downfall of a country, not secular education, abortion, gambling, homosexuality, gay parenting, etc.

This story about how their wedding day must be protected makes me so sad. There should never be a second thought about safety on your wedding day.

until the picture perfect scene in the OP happened, and Ian one-upped himself and the rest of the Boise State team with the proposal. Better than a Disney film, and the talk of the town for weeks. If you didn't have tears of joy in your eyes by then, you weren't watching.

I hate to see any ugliness attach itself to this couple for any reason. They deserve the best that this community, Boise State, and the world have to offer them.

Jesse Jackson apparently gave Ian and Chrissy his cellphone number and asked them to invite him to the wedding (but not to perform the ceremony). I don't know if that happened or not, but I'm sure the press would be all over him for a comment after this if he were to appear.

That will have a large impact on whether the marriage is successful. That, and of course a good church helps.

He said there were too many white people at the office he'd be working in - not enough minorities.

Every now and then, he gets something right.

time warp caught in the 1st part of the last century or is it freakin' Idaho?

to rise above all the lunatics and have a good life together. Life is hard enough without assholes butting in.

I can't stand racists. :grr:

A talented, good looking, and successful black boy! How dare he love a woman that just happens to be of another color!!!

God knows she'd be much better off with their nose pickin, drunk, ignorant asses in a trailer in the woods :sarcasm:


I with them well, and I hope they move the hell out of Idaho quick.

It sucks that this happens

it doesn't matter if it is black/white, white/asian, black/asian, etc...

I think people are fooling themselves into believing we have made great strides forward...there is still a lot of bigotry out there.

Personally I think that as long the person you love is good to you...who cares but there are folks out there who are still stuck back in the 1800's...

I have a cousin who married a black man...her father and her uncle disowned her...meanwhile I hear she has a beautiful little girl...that will never know her family...

I had another cousin back in the 60's that married a Jewish fellow...both her parents disowned her...

In my family it used to be considered a sin to marry outside your own ethnic background and religion...let alone your race...

I know a Greek woman who is still unmarried because she hasn't found the right Greek man...no joke.

Lucky for me...my branch of our family tree is far more liberal and openminded.

:eyes:

I'm glad they can afford protection. How many other couples (gay and straight) suffer, who don't have money for body guards?

It all boils down to penis envy. Pure and simple. And, eventhough, the science may not support the myth, it is the fear of the myth that perpetuates hatred for interracial relations.

J