Unit Five: The Role of Race and Gender Identity in Sports

10 biggest ideas/thoughts:

1.     The definition of racism and institutional racism- How racism effects people on a day-to-day basis, even now in the 21^st century.

2.     Racism in Football- How black and minority football players have experiences racism from fans in England

3.     Abuse/racism examples- Monkey chanting, throwing bananas onto the pitch. This abuse was from the crowds.

4.     Comments on racism- prejudice and racism are not acceptable in any part of life, including in football. Hating another person because of their color is wrong.

5.     How should authorities deal with racist fans- I believe racist fans should be kicked one of the game, and banned from public games for a long period of time. Racism is never okay, in any circumstance.

6.     Case studies of recent cases of racism in sport- It’s incredible how these cases of racism in sports were from recent years, 2011 and 2012.  These cases varied, but all had the same issue of racism and discrimination. It’s terrible that the victims of racism were being racially abused by their opponents

7.     Racism is present throughout the United States, but also in other countries, such as Portugal.

8.     Combating Racism- We can combat racism in life and in sport by doing various actions. One way that stuck out to me was including more ethnic minority players in sports. I think this is very important, and good for the public.

9.     Combating Racism- Another action that stuck out was, carrying out national campaigns such as Show Racism the Red Card. I believe this campaign is very important, and educates people against racism.

10.  Controversial advertisement from the UN- This commercial is disturbing, but is on point with what racism does to a person. The more racist you become, the more ugly you look. Racism should not be happening in the public and in sports.

·      This unit describes the term racism, and how racism is present in today’s various sports/sporting events, and how we can combat this racism as a society. There have been many actions already, such as commercials, which depict racism. *

Scholarly Research Analysis Protocol

What structural features define this text as falling within the genre of scholarly/ academic writing? (Create a bulleted list.)

·      Scholarly authors

·      Direct quotes- athletes, reports

What is the argument statement of this text?  (Write one sentence.)

The argument of this text is how black female athletes are being discriminated through the media and by spokespeople, purely based their race and sex. African American women are still struggling with negative bodily representations by the media.         Identify the jargon of this text. [Jargon is specialized terminology characteristic of a particular discipline or area of theory.]  (Use bullets.)

·      ‘Jezebel’, ‘mammy’, ‘Sapphire’, ‘welfare queen’, ‘matriarch’, and ‘Amazon’ – page 494

·      ‘Ghetto Cinderella’s’- page 495

What are five statements that the author uses to support the argument statement? Use only direct excerpts; frame them with quotation marks, and note the page number

1) “Gender hierarchies are threatened whenever women’s bodies are deemed to be excessive: ‘too fat, too mouthy, too old, too dirty, too pregnant, too sexual (or not sexual enough) for the norms of conventional gender representation,”(492).  Women are picked apart with the way they dress, look, act, and live. This happens throughout the media for sport athletes, celebrities, etc.

2) “Saartjie epitomized the ways in which black women’s buttocks, in particular, were constructed as ‘sexually grotesque’ and compels a discussion about the ongoing role of racism in creating an aesthetic that depicts black bodies as diseased, animalistic, deviant, and hypersexual,”(493). Black women athlete’s bodies are being picked apart and sexualized. It’s as if these black women athletes are not being judged by how they play the game, but judged on their appearance.

3) “Such commentary has often been anchored by the stereotypes to which we have alluded of black people being constructed as animalistic and closer to nature. Following Venus’ victory at Wimbledon in 2000, a journalist hailed her as a ‘role model for blacks’ and lamented that black people had not been given more opportunities to participate in sport, because ‘There is a natural physical superiority about those of African origin.. only centuries of repression has prevented them becoming masters of so many sports,”(497).  Black women are being discriminated because of their race, and called such animalistic names.

4) “It is the ongoing systematic pathologizing of African American women’s bodies as ‘sexually grotesque’ that, in tandem with ‘pornographic eroticism’, synecdochially constructs them as racialized and sexualized spectacles,”(500).

5) “African American women continue to struggle to articulate progressive ways by which they can escape the formidable ‘prisons’ of racism and ‘closets’ of sexism. Thus the talented and physically powerful African American women who contribute to the contemporary global sports industry confront severe obstacles in combating heteronormative ideologies of male superiority and unquestioned racism,”(500). In a male dominated society, black women have to overcome not only the obstacles of their gender, but also their race.

What values or views were represented in the message? (Write no more than three sentences.)

Values or views that were represented in this reading were the social constraints that African American sportswomen still encounter. African American women still struggle with negative bodily representations, and are discriminated against through the media, and put into stereotypical categories. 

STEP ONE:

1.      “When we use stereotypes, we take in the gender, the age, the color of the skin of the person before us, and our minds respond with messages that say hostile, stupid, slow, weak. Those qualities aren’t out there in the environment. They don’t reflect reality,”(53).

2.     “We want to feel good about the group we belong to- and one way of doing so is to denigrate all those who aren’t in it. And while we tend to see members of own group as individuals, we view those in out-groups as undifferentiated-stereotyped- mass. The categories we use have changed, but it seems that stereotyping itself is bred in the bone,”(54).

3.     “Scientists think that the automatic activation of a stereotype is immediately followed by a conscious check on unacceptable thoughts- at least in people who think that they are not prejudiced,”(54).

4.     Our society talks out loud about justice, equality, and egalitarianism, and most Americans accept these values as their own. At the same time, such equality exists only as an ideal, and that fact is not lost on our unconscious,”(55).

I believe not all, but many individuals learn beliefs from their parents. I was lucky to have grown up with both my mom and dad, and have such great people to look up too.  I never could believe there was such a thing as being ‘prejudice’, and this is because my family never told me there was a difference, because there isn’t. It does not matter if you are white, black, blue; we are all human beings.  In the reading it said how people should be judged as individuals and not as members of a group. I completely agree with this statement, and believe that many people stereotype and discriminate a person based on their appearance, family members, skin color, etc. Something else that stood out to me in the reading was how certain groups of people are discriminated purely based on their gender and/or race. African Americans are stereotyped as criminals, and women in general are stereotyped as sex objects. This reminds me of my friend with green hair, piercings, and many tattoos. Whenever we go out in public, she gets so many stares. She was even accused of stealing at the mall, purely based on her outside appearance.

STEP TWO:

This article was interesting, and I believe individuals feel gender discrimination or racism at least once in their college years.  In the case of “Spirit Rock”, no one has been physically hurt, and campus officials have taken action in response to the events described in the article.  Just because this group of black women were not ‘physically’ hurt, they were verbally abused, and intimidated/ harassed by members of a white fraternity. I believe that gender discrimination should get more than just a slap on the hand, and have extreme consequences. In the case at Spirit Rock, I believe the abusers/bullies did not get enough punishment to keep them from just doing it again. The frat should not have just gotten placed on probation, but instead be ended. They were punished by being “monitored and evaluated” and were not allowed to pain rocks on campus. This sounded like a joke to me. These were the only punishments for the discriminating and racist things these men said to innocent women? If I was in charge of this case, I would have made the frat take classes on gender and race inequalities, and have them publicly apologize to the women. 

STEP THREE:

1.     Black women being sexualized in the media

2.     Black women’s butts and boobs are being popularized

3.     Black women represented as animals

4.     Black women being characterized as “wild”, or party girls

5.     Black women being portrayed as ‘promiscuous’, with revealing clothes/cleavage

6.     Black women characterized as ‘hood’ or ‘ghetto’

7.     Black women pictured as hyper-sexual/ lustful

8.     Black women portrayed as slaves to males- “Honey, I’m waitin’ fo you”

9.     Black women being seen as “easy”, and to get “black ass” is easy

10.  The negative portrayal of women in the media

The video clip was sad to watch, because all of the black women pictured were pictured sexually. In the media, sex sells, and these black women are being hyper sexualized. Black women are portrayed as ‘jezebels’. 

STEP FOUR:

This list is includes the ways that female athlete face barriers to success in sports, and also how female athletes of color face even deeper barriers.

·      Men and women have been separated into stereotypical categories. Men are supposed to be strong and aggressive, while women are supposed to be weak and submissive. A women’s place is supposed to be in the home, and men are the athletes/providers. Sadly, this idea is still present in some male minds.

·      Although there have been positive advancements for women in sport, there are still factors that serve to undervalue the women’s game.

·      Women do not have equal opportunities to play, in such things as the NBA vs. the WNBA

·      Women do not have equal pay with men. For example, the highest paid woman basket-baller is paid $103,500 while the top paid male basket-baller is paid $24, 806, 250. This may discourage women to even be an athlete. How is this fair?

·      The differences of men and women athletes’ portrayal in such things as the media. One, women are being lacked of media coverage. Two, if they are in the media, women are being sexualized. This is especially true for black female athletes, as seen in previous videos. Their bodies are the main topics, especially their boobs and butts. On the other hand, male athletes are being valued for their skills.

·      Female athletes are being paid less for equal amount of effort and dedication to their sport/career.

·      For some countries, watching live competitive sports if forbidden for women.

·      Females are not always being judged on their qualities that define them as an athlete, but rather for their body type and attractiveness. 

STEP FIVE:

The first image I chose was, the ESPN cover, which states, “HOW BIG CAN CANDANCE PARKER GET?”  This cover shows Candance Parker in a white dress, and pregnant.  She is showing a little bit of cleavage, and looks very feminine. I feel that this image headline could go two different ways. Is this author asking how big can she get as a pregnant woman, or is this author asking how big can she get as a black female athlete? Some people in society could take this image the wrong way, and be discouraged, especially as a black female athlete. Is this image saying that if you’re pregnant, you’re sport’s career is over? Men obviously do not have this problem, and it can be discriminating for women athletes to see this. The second image I chose was, the New York Times Magazine cover with the Williams’ sisters. They are both half naked, with a sports bra on, and one with a short skirt, and the other with short shorts on. Under the image reads, “HOW VENUS AND SERENA WON THE GAME BY JOHN JEREMIAH SULLIVAN”.  There is also the word ‘DEUCE’ over their crotches. This made me think that this author is saying, ‘how did two vaginas win?’  This author is a white American writer from the south. I feel that this image could go two ways, depending on how you look at it. One way could be, how they won as two black women athletes with two vaginas, and as if they were weak and it was something unheard of. The other way may be a more positive outlook of two black and strong female athletes with two vaginas won once again. The third image I chose was the Sports Illustrated cover with Jackie Joyner-Kersee. I believe this sends out a positive image for a young black female athlete. Sports Illustrated is showing this woman as strong, confident, and as a gold medal winner. She is even described as “SUPER WOMAN”. This would be a positive image to show young children; especially those discouraged as female black athletes.