So keep hearing rumours and seeing screenshots
Many are mentioning the national yoyo league post made on there storys about an attendee at this weekends national competion
And a member of yoyo factorys name keeps coming up
Is anyone able to 100% what was said and by who?
Is there audio/video evidence along with multiple witnesses collaborating the same thing? Or is all of this hearsay?
Hearsay? Nah lol Ben McPhee said some pretty sad and wicked stuff to a prominent figure in the Yoyo community and angel of a person. Ben has done this multiple times before. He was barred from the event. What other evidence do you need?
Ah gotcha, kinda what I had thought the issue may be about given his previous record. When saw the title and read the first post I assumed he did something again. He just keeps proving what kind of person he is I guess. Turns me off yyf for sure
Not defending anyone here, but why didn’t they mention his name? They went out of their way to make a post about it, and if it’s true they don’t have anything to worry about. They worried about a defamation suit?
I’m only speculating here, but maybe it’s about optics. Referring to him as an attendee sounds better than putting a platinum level event sponsor on blast.
A lot of thought and consideration needs to go into these kinds of announcements to make sure the event/organisation does not cause targeted harassment of the victim and, to a lesser extent, the perpetrator. Internet fanboys can be insane and whenever any announcement like this happens, weird people love coming out of the woodwork to find any reason to question the announcement/victim and harass them.
I imagine once the NYYL has a bit more time for proper deliberation (they are in the middle of US Nats, so things will be very busy even without this) they will make a more firm statement about the measures that will be taken against Ben/potentially YYF going forward. At least I hope there are some repercussions, because this kind of behaviour has absolutely no place in the community regardless of Ben/YYF’s stature.
In the meantime, a post like this is a good immediate step to help members of the scene, particularly those at Nats, feel safe and demonstrate that racism will not be tolerated.
To start a witch hunt as an official organization?
Does this mean that a Yoyofactory player does not have to win Nats now?
Yyf is a major part of competitive scene. Calling out the person who runs yyf would only harm them.
To be clear this 100% happened, the reason you aren’t seeing a ton of official communication is that it happened off-mic on stage in front of three National Yo-Yo League members, who are actively busy running the US National Yo-Yo Contest, and they (understandably) want to ensure the contest runs smoothly.
So at this point we should talk about it and not deny/avoid/beat around the bush. Doing otherwise is a disservice to the community.
To 100% what was said and by who:
On stage before the judging panel Q&A at the national yoyo contest, YYF Ben (yes, Ben McPhee) walked up to Colin Beckford and two other NYYL members (if you don’t know who Colin is, he’s a judge for the National Yo-Yo League, one of the founders of Scales, and has done a crazy amount behind the scenes for yoyoing) with a red and blue lollipop and asks him to pick one. Colin declines, and Ben then says “the red one represents the blood of black people on juneteenth”. Colin + the other two NYYL members didn’t reply out of shock, Ben said some other nonsense and walked away.
The only unclear details at the moment are if Ben said black people or slaves (…same intention so doesn’t make a difference), and then exactly what Ben was saying afterwards while walking off (it definitely was NOT an apology).
There’s no other way to write this off other than deliberate racism. Colin has done more for the yoyo community through helping to run a crazy amount of contests, being heavily involved in judging and the NYYL, running scales, and being a role model for minority yoyoers to look up to. The implications of Ben feeling comfortable enough to make a racist joke to Colin of all people should say a lot. Ben is literally the face of the biggest yoyo company in the world and this isn’t even the first time he’s been in hot water for being a racist. IMO off with his head. (figuratively speaking…)
Thank you for the comprehensive clarification and info. I’ll be interested to see if anything is done about it besides the current ban. YYF is a pretty big name & sponsor.
Regardless this is yet another blow to the community and competition and it sucks that this is where we are at.
I can’t even fathom what makes someone think that’s appropriate.
A mistake was made. Better go ruin the guy. You cancel culture people make me sick.
This was another wrong response for Bens burner account #1789
Ben’s an adult and he was doing this this time last year.
Truly, this. How can someone be so absolutely clueless as to think that this is A. acceptable or B. wont be called out and not tolerated?! Just disgusting disgraceful behavior
I think what makes it worse is that he has a history of such mistakes. Maybe he just has a very strange kind of “humor”, but if he’s already had problems with that in the past, it’s incomprehensible why he doesn’t just hold back with statements like that. So he does it on purpose and a mistake made on purpose is more than just a mistake
A mistake momentary showing of inner character was made. Again.
Turns out normal people aren’t racist by mistake. Repeatedly.
