The fastest white guy...the great white hope...the hard working guy overcoming a lack of natural talent. Critical whiteness scholars argue that the "new racism" involves several factors, such as: 1) an increasingly open racial discourse in which ideas, preconceptions, and biases about race are no longer taboo, 2) the avoidance of racial terminology altogether, and accompanying claims of “reverse racism” by whites, 3) the invisibility of the mechanisms (i.e. institutional practices) by which racial inequalities are reproduced, 4) a growth in so-called “safe minorities” who, according to critical race scholars, may do little to promote progressive racial change, and 5) a rearticulation of some racial practices that hearkens back to a past era (Bonilla-Silva, 2003). Not everything is "about " race," certainly. What I wonder though, is how many people respond with nods to this Jimmy "the Greek" Snyder clip from the 1980s? He was fired then, and he would be now, but was he articulating a point shared only by a few Klan members? Surely it is not only Joe the Plumber salivating over this, right? Can we engage with whiteness studies without...falling pitfall to white guilt (as scholar bell hooks noted) OR white exceptionalism? Or pitfall to indifference? To despair? To rhetoric? To biological OR sociological determinism that shuts off honest discourse? When does an "offhand comment" become newly relevant or hopelessly dated? How do sport gamers recreate sporting spaces with re-representations of their racialized selves-as-avatars? Will we move past, or otherwise more intelligently negotiate, this issue once we recognize the insignificance of a minuscule genetic marker like skin color that we attach so much meaning to? Will academics have a damn thing to do with helping to answer these questions?Priceless racial thinking by 1980s sport media
I think this is a very interesting topic and completely true how people have shifted throughout the years to assume, in some sports, that white athletes are not as good as African American or Hispanic players. I read an interesting article about a Stanford Running back who is white. In the video game NCAA Football he was listed a power running back. He is a big guy, but his speed rating was completely flawed. When he and his buddies adjusted his speed rating to the correct rating (He runs a 4.5, 4o yard dash) he was still listed as a power back or a balanced running back. However, when they changed his color from white to black he became a "play maker." It is funny to see how the media and people in general have a certain perception about athletes in this country.
ReplyDelete27% of US adults agree that "blacks are naturally better athletes than whites." People of color (African-American and Hispanic) are significantly more likely to agree.
ReplyDeleteAcademia and research is the only way to critically examine the issue of race and ethnicity in sports. This also may be the only hope we Americans have to “intelligently negotiate” skin color and race. As Hartmann (2000) states, sports should be examined as a “contested racial terrain.” We need a critical theory examining both the positive and negative aspects of sport and race in the United States. Unfortunately, Americans do not get their information from scholarly resources. Popular media needs to do a better job presenting scholarly articles and results. As far as Americans intelligently negotiating race and skin color, optimistically I would like to hope this would be the case. Realistically however, America is an inherently racist country and we have too many prejudiced beliefs based on the color of ones skin. How do you get someone to stop having racist thoughts and beliefs?
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