According to Davis and Othello’s article Race and Ethnicity in US Sports Media, “a stereotype is a generalization about a category of people that is negative and/or misleading” (Wenner 157). Their discussion highlights existing stereotypes in the coverage of minority athletes and attempts to reveal the reasons why they remain. They point out that some critics believe the sport media contribute to the spread of racial stereotypes, and in a way, preserve them. What do you think?
“Rainville, Roberts and Sweet (1978) have suggested that the ‘practice of assigning white announcers exclusively to give the play-by-play in games which involve black and white players leads to a prejudicial treatment of the black players’ ” (Wenner 167). Philadelphia Eagles quarterback Donovan McNabb agrees. In an interview on “Real Sports with Bryant Gumbel” in the fall of 2007, he discussed the level of criticism he receives as an African-American quarterback and suggests that he must “do a little extra” since he is “graded more harshly.” The short article outlining McNabb’s thoughts can be found here: McNabb says black QBs under more pressure.
McNabb got a bit of flack for his comments and no longer remarks on the issues of race through a public forum such as the media. This shows an oppressiveness of sorts and promotes the “sweep it under the rug” mentality. Such action further exacerbates the problem, does it not?
Instances of racially-biased coverage have been reported before, but like the athlete’s concerns themselves, they are sometimes hard to uncover. Authors Grainger, Newman, and Andrews discuss in Chapter 27 of the Handbook of Sports and Media, the fact that “the increasing visibility of and coverage afforded African-American athletes” does not necessarily mean that there is a substantial “reduction of racism in the sport media” (Raney and Bryant 461). I don't know about you but I certainly agree.
In some cases it takes a program like “Costas Now” on HBO Sports to unveil the provocative topic of race in sports. The fifth segment of the April 29, 2008 episode dealt with how the issue of race impacts the sports world, and even that seemed uncomfortable. Coincidentally, Donovan McNabb was invited to appear on the show, but declined. So, if the athletes who experience the negativity and prejudice refuse to speak up, how is an ordinary citizen to feel at ease talking about such a touchy subject?
How do you feel about the state of the sports media with regard to race? Do you find it difficult to recognize racial bias or is it fairly black and white? What suggestions might you offer to improve the current coverage? Will we ever see an end to the issue?
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Race is the ultimate paradox of American society. On one hand, it is what makes American different and unique. No matter what your race or ski color is, unless you are Native American, you are a descendant of an immigrant. Unfortunately, on the other hand, because there are so many different races there is still racism in America.
ReplyDeleteBecause racism is a big part of our society, it also permeates into the sports realm. In Chapter 10 of MediaSport, Laurel R. Davis and Othello
Harris discuss the two types of racism in American society, blatant and covert. They talk about how announcers will blatantly speak highly of European-American athletes and then highly criticize African-American athletes. They also talk about how picking sporting announces can cause bias. The duo writes, “As there are few people of color who make decisions about mediated sport, covert prejudice can too often slip into sports coverage without repercussions.” (167)
Personally, I believe that the only way to lessen racism in society is to be meet it face-to-face. People cannot sweep it under the rug and pretend like it doesn’t exist. People of all races must stand up and unite to overcome racism and embrace all our differences. Now I know that is nearly impossible as there will always be somebody with racist ideas. However, our country has made progress over the years and maybe people involved in sports can be the major leaders toward a movement away from racism.
Even now in the year 2009, many years after civil rights fighting there still is the issue of race in America. America has come a long way from the 1960s and continues to improve, but there is still along way to go before everyone can see all athletes equal.
ReplyDeleteAs a sports fan when I see an athlete I don't look at the color of his skin but there are people that do. Some try and stretch the stereotype and say the African American players are seen as unintelligent and "are lacking leadership skills"(Wenner 159). I don't think that's completely true. I feel that African American Athletes have come an extremely long way from the days of predominately African American colleges to enter the mainstream colleges and now receive media attention. Just because they do not receive the same amount of attention through magazines and television does not mean African American Athletes are unable to be in a leadership role.
I think that as more athletes go through the NCAA system and create a name for themselves they can then open the door to have more African American Athletes in the spot light outside of playing. They will then be in the media in a more positive light and can hopefully help end the negative connotation with race in sports and media.
-Amanda Pugliese
There is definitely still racism in sports today. While we are certainly better off than we were a few decades ago (thanks to greats like Jackie Robinson and other boundary-breaking heroes), we still have a long way to go.
ReplyDelete"Current coverage virtually ignores Native-Americans, Latino/a-Americans and Asian-Americans. We need to interpret this omission and consider its consequence. In doing this, we should be careful not to 'reduce race to a variable'" (Wenner 169). Our country and the media within it has to make a lot more changes before we can truthfully say that there is no more racism in sports - or in America, for that metter.
We can start by not judging athletes based on their color, but soley by their physical capabilities, skills, talents and work ethic. When we look beyond color, there can be an even playing field for all athletes. Hopefully in another few decades we will be talking about racism in sports' past, not present.
- Leigh Weissman
I don't believe it is a surprise to anyone, when race and sports are tackled in the same topic. There is still racism in the media that covers sports. Contracts, accomplishments, and especially arrests seem to only be reported and then picked apart by the media when a black athletes involved.
ReplyDeleteIf the media wants to report the wrong doings of athletes, then they should do so in a fair manner. There is no reason to report stories differently based on race. As Grainger, Newman, and Andrews state in Sports, the Media, and the Construction of Race, “the representation of Black athletes in the media commonly reflects and reinforces the more general portrayal of African-American males as deviant, unruly, violent, and animalistic—or “threats to society.” (454)
I rarely hear the positives of colored sporting figures. For instance, when looking up past behavioral issues in the NFL essentially everyone was a black athlete. For instance, last summer, Brandon Jacobs was caught in possession of a firearm before boarding a plane at Nashville International Airport. He was arrested and charged with a misdemeanor, but gave the authority no trouble and went about the motions of anyone caught carrying a weapon. I remember the story being blown out of proportion and people automatically jumping to conclusions about him being a “thug” or simply, one of those typical, unruly football players. Besides that he played for the Tennessee Titans, the arrest was the only other thing I knew about him and this was a very minor incident. I had no idea that he, along with David Barrard and Thomas Tapeh, devoted their time to Rebuilding Together, a project during Super Bowl XLII. If someone like Brett Favre, Tom Brady, or any other white player, were involved in a project of the sort, the media would be drooling over them. For the white individual, media concentrates on the person as a whole, but place a black athlete in the picture that the person is stripped down to the negatives. People are so used to this type of media coverage, me included, that I don’t even realize how biased it is. I believe that this type of media coverage is so normal nowadays and established, that it won’t change any time soon. Race is and always will be an issue in this county—even on the playing field.
Michelle Kokot
Although there are definitely still racial stereotypes in the sports world, I think the cases have become much rarer. Commentators are much more reluctant to say anything that could be offensive in fear that they might get fined or even lose their job. Every now and then someone like Rush Limbaugh will say something outrageous that will attract attention, but this is obviously something we don’t see everyday.
ReplyDeleteI don’t necessarily agree that the highly broadcasted sports media preserves stereotypes, but I will say that blogs and other public forums are an easy place to bring up stereotypes. ESPN in particular does a good job of keeping the stereotypes down and portraying athletes as regular people rather than a person of one race or another. Because there is a larger mix of races in the major US sports, there is room for coverage of all athletes worthy of the highlight reel rather than only showing one particular race. In the handbook, Andrew Grainer states “Such coverage afforded Black athletes could perhaps be seen as indicative of an end to discrimination, bias and racism in the sport media” (449). The more we see events that promote competition between different cultures, like the World Baseball Classic, the more we will see an acceptance of those cultures in media and in society in general.
Christina Gaudino
ReplyDeleteSports have and will continue to evolve immensely throughout the years. We are constantly seeing contradictions to prior stereotypes placed on athletes and their sport(s). I believe sports media at times unintentionally adds to the spread of racial stereotypes. Loved or hated announcers are being listened to. Everything they say is mind-altering and extremely persuasive. We all remember when Don Imus made racial remarks towards the Rutgers University women’s basket ball team. On the April 4 edition of MSNBC's Imus in the Morning, host Don Imus referred to the Rutgers University women's basketball team, which has eight African-American and two white players, as "nappy-headed hoes." His comments caused a well deserved media uproar. People were enraged with his ignorance, and they spoke up. Don Imus was fired from CBS for his racial remarks.
Are these straight forward, clear cut examples of racism what it takes to get people speaking up about stereotypes in sports? Stereotypes go much further than just race. I remember when CBS college basketball announcer Billy Packer used the term "fag out" on the March 30 edition of PBS' Charlie Rose. Packer is quoted saying “You always fag out on that one for me.” Again a public uproar was caused, but why does it take comments of this severity for people to start talking? I think it has to do with fear from the public as well as the press and athletes. Issues of Race and Sexuality are hot subjects. People will remember everything you say and do their best to take it out of context or put you under a magnifying lens. Being willing to discuss topics like these is a risk.
It wasn’t surprising to me when Donovan McNabb opted not to appear on HBO’s Sports Program, “Costas Now.” The episode was to be dedicated to discussing stereotypes in sports. As Wenner points out, it’s a very touchy subject. Sometimes it’s a lot easier to just keep your mouth shut and avoid the media. Many athletes and announcers keep quiet when it comes to this extremely controversial issue because of the past attacks on those daring to comment. As Wenner points out in the text, “Many contemporary sports media stereotyping is covert, with media commentary rarely overtly discussing race or ethnicity.”
According to Wenner:
ReplyDelete"Related to the stereotype about intelligence is the notion that African-Americans do not make good team leaders, coaches or administrators because they lack requisite knowledge possessed by European-Americans. While European-American athletes are sometimes labeled as leaders, African-American athletes are often portrayed as lacking leadership skills (Edwards, 1969; Hoose 1989; Jackson, D.Z. 1987, 1989; Staples & Jones, 1985)" (Wenner 159).
Strides to combat these stereotypes have been made in recent years. African-American quarterbacks are now prominent. That position is seen as the ultimate leadership position, and in the past, blacks were perceived as not being smart enough to handle the job.
Also, African-Americans are also becoming coaches. The NFL has instituted a policy to interview at least one minority candidate. While I don't agree with this policy (I feel it just leads to conducting a token interview), there is a decent amount of African-American coaches in the NFL. College football still has a ways to go, however.
There are definitely "good" black leaders out there, and there are definitely "bad" white leaders in sports today. Race doesn't matter; personality does. People look to play the race card too quickly.
I agree with Andrew Fletcher's sentiments.
ReplyDelete"Related to the stereotype about intelligence is the notion that African-Americans do not make good team leaders, coaches or administrators because they lack requisite knowledge possessed by European-Americans." (159)
The "Each Team Must Interview One Black Candidate" rule is in effect, for better or for worse. The stereotypes, obviously, are still there for some people, but for the most part they're fading away.
But the problem still exists when the popular African-American athletes are the ones that are abrasive and brash. "The representation of Black athletes in the media commonly reflects and reinforces the more general portrayal of African-American males as deviant, unruly, violent, and animalistic—or “threats to society." (454)
Players like Michael Vick are more talked about than the ones that do the right thing and fly under the radar.
There are not many African American athletes that go out, do the right thing, and then find themselves in the media spotlight. The media loves a controversy, so if something goes wrong, they will embrace that -- as opposed to heralding a player for starting a charity or something positive.
Until the players start to be more wary of their effect on the youth of America, the stereotypes will not change. The world will be tormented with bad stereotypes of bad athletes.
In chapter 27 of the Handbook of Sports and Media, it states that, “studies of race in the sports media therefore largely suggest that African-American male athletes are most commonly associated with discourses of deviance, sexual promiscuity, and criminality and are often portrayed as selfish, lacking discipline, arrogant, and disrespectful” (Raney and Bryant 457).
ReplyDeleteI don’t seem to understand how this can come into play with sports because I feel as though there shouldn’t be an issue or any stereotypes about race within sports. Personally, I do not feel as though race should make an impact on athletes or sports as a whole because there will be good and bad players that are good or bad people regardless of their race. Even if that did occur in a study, I wonder what the sample size was because I do not think its okay for people to stereotype anyone based on race let alone athletes. It is also not fair that assumptions should be made about an athlete based on their race; notions should be made about their athletic ability only. However, sometimes the media does blow things out of proportion and if they were to get wind of a comment or insult that someone makes about an athlete particularly about their race, then it can definitely spiral out of control.
Sometimes it is easy to recognize racial bias, but at other times I think that it is more difficult. I feel that way because some people either try to hide what they really feel about a particular issue or athlete, or some people may also pretend that they feel one way about an issue because they know how someone else feels about it and they don’t want to start trouble.
Even though this is a very difficult issue, I think that over time, it can definitely diminish. The only problem that I foresee is that certain people will probably already have preconceived notions or their mind set on the negative aspects of race and sports if that’s how they were brought up. However, I think that if everyone puts their best effort forward, we will all be able to find a way to work together to eliminate racial bias in sports and toward athletes.
Race issues are something that you really can’t get around especially in this country when everyone’s different. I don’t think that by just ignoring the issue of racism it’s going to go away. It’s something that needs to be addressed head on if anything is going to change. According to the handbook, “arguably, the media’s portrayal of sport as one of only a limited range of opportunities for social and economic for social and economic mobility for African-American working class youth also serves to reinforce the myth of natural Black athleticism” (452). I think that it’s not just the media’s fault and that these stereotypes are out there, but I also don’t think that the media is doing anything to help get rid of these stereotypes. I think that these issues need to be discussed, not ignored, by the media and by the general public, in order to try and get rid of these stereotypes and racism. If everyone just focuses on the athletes and their abilities rather than the color of their skin or where they came from I think it would help in the fight against racism.
ReplyDeleteWith regards to race, I think overall the situation is just awkward, which does make bias hard, at least for me, to pick up on. I mean, it’s awkward to read articles where the word “African-American” appears repeatedly, the political correctness just distracts me. I wonder if the writer just used that because they felt like they had to, or if they were making a statement, or if they are really adamant about it. Who knows. But especially when maybe that African-American athlete wasn’t born in Africa, they were born in California somewhere; is it offensive to real African-American immigrants then?
ReplyDeleteEveryone’s afraid to talk about it, because they’re afraid they will get in trouble. If there is no open forum there can be no progress, and our society is such that there are too many people looking to make a profit off anything close to being non-PC. This is why I don’t see an end to this issue in the short term. I think the most progress will be made when we don’t have to hyphenate every person’s race/ethnicity, and that the only reason that these identifications wouldn’t appear in articles would be because it does not matter. But as Alison noted in the lead:
Authors Grainger, Newman, and Andrews discuss in Chapter 27 of the Handbook of Sports and Media, the fact that “the increasing visibility of and coverage afforded African-American athletes” does not necessarily mean that there is a substantial “reduction of racism in the sport media” (Raney and Bryant 461).
The line has blurred so much that we may never know if someone is actually racist, but racism definitely still exists. It’s sad because in a society that puts such emphasis on sports and entertainment, sport media may be to blame for keeping stereotypes and bias alive. If there is no safe environment to “comfortably” address these issues, they could forever remain hidden beneath hyphens.
First, I could not access the video of the short article outlining McNabb’s comments about difficulties of being a black athelete. Second, some years ago a study was done with blind people. They were placed in a box at a baseball game and asked to say whether or not they thought the player was black or white according to the tone and comments of the baseball commentators. They were right 99% of the time.
ReplyDeleteWhen referring to a black player the blind people found that the commentators, derisive, disparaging, expecting more, etc. I'm sure much hasn't changed today.
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