Race: The Undeniable Specter of Sports

by dj fuzzylogic on May 20, 2007 11:16 AM PDT in Science Comment 10 comments

The polemical and controversial, yet always astute, Spike Lee takes aim at the racial politics of professional sports. More precisely, the famed director helped launch the journalism program at his alma mater, Morehouse, to address what him and several others describe as "a modern day journalistic apartheid," that is current sports journalism.

Lee's comments suggest that race (and in my opinion, gender, too) continues to be the undeniable specter of sports. The facts seem pretty strong.

A study released last summer at the request of the Associated Press Sports Editors found dismal figures for the industry. Blacks held only 6.2 percent of the sports writing jobs. Out of more than 300 newspapers surveyed, just five had a black sports editor.

Yet, Lee's push for more representation of black journalists goes beyond inclusion; he urges for a more nuanced representation of black athletes. Drawing on the recent NFL draft and the Brady Quinn vs. JaMarcus Russel debates (which sounds a lot like the Bird vs. Magic debates of the 80s, see Todd Boyd's Am I Black Enough for You: Popular Culture from the Hood and Beyond for some insightful analysis on this comparison and its racist inheritances and legacies), Lee discusses how 19th century biological ideas of race continue to inform how we think about not just black and white athletes but about black and white people in general: black people are physically gifted, BUT the white people are intelligent. Some say that that sucks for white people because they're never taken seriously as athletes. Hmmm, given the choices of being considered smart or dumb, I think being considered "athletically gifted" is a curse in disguise. Even Etan Thomas from the Washington Warriors...er.. Wizards chimes in with some thoughtful considerations of social segregation and its impact on writing and black representation.

Although Lee's argument is a recycling of arguments made through the last few decades, its resonance still holds water in current debates of the race politics of sports journalism and to a larger extent, sports. His argument easily goes beyond the "pulling the race card' in my opinion, because it's a question of accountability as much as it is about unequal access to journalistic opportunities. As we've seen recently seen from sports fans and bloggers bloggin on the Warriors playoff run, peoples' knee jerk reaction to upset and aggressive black masculinity is to fall back to racist cookie cutter representations of the black brute in clear opposition to a clean cut static white image of wealth and properness (is that a word?).

I'm not making excuses for Stephen Jackson's meltdowns in several of the games. Nor am I condoning JRich and Baron Davis' antics responding to the refereeing. Heck, I'll probably be the one and only fan of the Warriors to say they're a "dumb" team considering the amount of unforced errors they committed against Utah (which probably comes with inexperience in high pressure situations). But how often do we continue to hear the common stereotype that black players lack the "IQ" compared to their cerebral White counterparts (the Dunleavy debates are a good example)? I'm not saying white athletes don't have to contend with stereotypes too, which many athletes have said have come to their disadvantage in sports, too. I don't doubt it.

The debate should shift away from "oppression olympics" discourse. It should also shift from trying to find a "truth" to whether there is a difference between white and black players, because that debate just reeks of some eugenicist, phrenology thinking that goes black to the logics of slavery and finding a way to justify Africans as the perfect slave. Some might say that "cultural sensitivity" training that many corporations seems to deploy to avoid any lawsuits might help the situations. Not likely, because it still doesn't get at the real problems of race. Like Lee says, the focus should center on the uneven representations of black and white athletes, but also the uneven amount of black and white sports journalists. This points to a larger problem of racial and social segregation (institutionally and sometimes self-imposed) that continues to haunt the U.S. today.

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Bravo

I gotta say, I know you guys thought I was attacking in that last diary, but this is impressive.

Let me try to restate what I said earlier. Your blogs as of lately have been more conscious than they used to, in my opinion. You have always had consciousness, but lately, it's very vivid and it really has impressed me and I enjoy it and I am complimenting you without trying to attack you in any subtle way. Excellent use of citing examples, analyzing arguments, and I really appreciate the boldness in discussing stereotypes and showing how ignorant they are.

Good job Fuzzy and GSoM, I really like what I see today, and I'm sure others will follow.

If War brings peace Dubz wit' it den!

by gsdubz on May 20, 2007 11:55 AM PDT reply actions 0 recs

always

a touchy subject. Race.

Marv Albert: "I ain't trippin'!"

by ZombieWarrior on May 20, 2007 3:12 PM PDT reply actions 0 recs

Interesting

"It should also shift from trying to find a "truth" to whether there is a difference between white and black players, because that debate just reeks of some eugenicist, phrenology thinking "

It may reek but it also may be self evident in many respects to everone's self conscience. How many of the top runners today at the Bay to Breakers were Kenyans?

How many powerlifters are there from Thaliand?

So to this point "Like Lee says, the focus should center on the uneven representations of black and white athletes"

What does he mean?

by Zig on May 20, 2007 7:58 PM PDT reply actions 0 recs

Sorry I need to get better with the proof reading

"It may reek but it also may be self evident seeping into people's self-conscience"

by Zig on May 20, 2007 8:02 PM PDT up reply actions 0 recs

my reading...

is that black athleticism is usually compromised by the assumption that black athletes are then dumb. Their lack is what the white athlete supposedly has and vice versa.

True Kenyan runners kick ass in marathons. but if we look at the NFL, where the QB is paid the MOST, it wasn't until the 90s that black QBs were given opportunities and began to debunk myths of their supposed lack of game IQ. the problem, it seems to be, is that represnetations are then linked to opportunity. the coordination of the stereotype with actual access to more $ in the form of playing the QB (vs other positions that DEF. dont get paid as much..well...maybe similar, but not the same) is what matters.

plus, the vilification of black athletes vs. white athletes (tho i don't know if Lee's #s are necssarily accurate) means that even though black and white athletes may be consuming drugs or whatever equally, who is more to blame and what does that mean as far opportunity? im not saying Lee's analysis of the ratios is correct, but i'm pointing to the fact that stereotypes do work and what Lee and other black athletes are addressing is that they get vilified based on specific well circulated stereotypes about black people as pathological and 'uncivilized.' its not just about 'athleticism' but about a larger discourse about what black people are like vs. white people and the differences in their habits and how ideas about that impact their life chances.

by dj fuzzylogic on May 20, 2007 10:47 PM PDT up reply actions 0 recs

Well

it seems to me that the black and white 19th century assumptions are true, most of the time. But if you take it away and say, "oh man, you can't say Russell is not intelligent" then what? It's clear that Brady doesn't have the athletic ability of Russell, so what advantage does Quinn have?

You could always have the Pietrus-Dunleavy debate. And maybe its true, that black people are simply as smart as white people and white people have no advantages at all.

Ugh. I don't know. I'm in over my head. I think the 80some percentage of black players in the NBA and my inablity to dunk at 6'5" say it all. Black people are just...better. Every sport but golf and hockey will have 90percent black people by 2030.

With his past behind him, Adonal looks toward the future, wherever it may be....

by Zorgon on May 20, 2007 9:03 PM PDT reply actions 0 recs

And Your Point Is?

In trying to deconstruct your diary I got lost trying to find the ultimate point. If it is a sociological arugment that African-Americans (and also Hispanics) are excluded from the white American mainstream and middle class due to the lack of economic and educatonal opportunities for a variety of historical reasons, who could argue with that! If it is that massive amounts of prejudice exists in our society and racism is rampant, then who could argue with that!

If you are interested or even curious in getting a sense of racial attidutes within GSoM, there is an excellent test developed by Harvard University which looks at UNCONSCIOUS attitudes towards people of color. It is called Project Implicit and here is the website:

https:/implicit.harvard.edu/implicit/demo

This test is really eye-opening and worth taking. While I also applaud what your diary broached, I would like a clearer conclusion or even a suggestion on what we might do as a community to address these historical and current social problems. I am interested in hearing more.

by commish on May 20, 2007 9:53 PM PDT reply actions 0 recs

answer?

i think involves some crazy brainwashing or re-wiring or reformatting of the hard-drive. but for reals though, it would probably require a lot of different answers.

to address your first point of who could argue with racism, check here: http://www.aolsportsblog.com/2007/05/19/spike-lee-wants-to-see-more-black-sports-writers/

So while those points may seem obvious to a lot of us, apparently not for many others. so, i am thankful that we can dialogue about this even though we might not agree...(not necssarily me and you commish, but just in general with others on the GSoM community).

It seems that Lee's assessment revolve a few axis:

unequal representation
vilification of black athletes in comparison to white athletes

I cant really think of an adequate solution because i think the common ones continually fail us. Demanding more representation is needed, but merely falls into the traps of affirmative action discourse where meritocracy frames anyone asking for help is deemed a noncitizen. Either that or it diminishes the memories of those historica injuries that we both agree on, by assuming that the rap industry or the nba express reverse racism. The pitfall of Lee's demand for more representation also assumes that all black people think, act alike and that all white journalists do too, which is highly debatable.

Then there's the other point about the misrepresentations or vilification. Well, if merely including more black journalists isn't an option since anti-affirmative action has kicked in almost everywhere, then maybe we can train journalists to be more "sensitive." That sounds bad. Corporations do that to avoid law suits when an employee does something stupid to another employee. I mean, merely telling white journalists to be culturally sensitive doesn't mean we need to start making as many black friends as possible ... that's just plain fetishistic and voyeuristic if you ask me.

I don't know why i repeated all this stuff i alrady said before, but i guess in case others who might not know, might see where i'm coming from.

So what do we do? Man, i don't really know. Racial segregation has a huge amount to do with this, which is linked to huge other economic, wealth accumulation for certain folks at the expense of others. If people are learning about race through mass media ONLY then untangling racial segregation involves more than just proximity but divesting in a larger capitalist system that demands racial exploitation.

How do we do this? Hell, no one has figured that out yet and it's been the nation's mind since it's inception---which is sad.

Based on the Aol blog that put Lee and Black people on blast, its evident that people are basing their judgments on god knows what. i guess a simple solution would be to read widely. sports is a business, so understanding how capitalism functions in all of this important. but it also seems that we can't forget the ideologies that are embedded in what we want to read, see, hear.

case in point, people who say "sex sells." and my question, "why?" that then usually disrupts people's assumptions that sex just naturally sells, but is based on a deliberate ideas about gender that set the terms for women to make money based on certain representations of hyper-heterosexuality only. sorry if this explanation seems super crude, cuz it is, but i just used it as an explanation.

Hmm.. i feel like i just said a whole lot of nothing. but maybe this could be a space to strategize some more? your thoughts?

by dj fuzzylogic on May 20, 2007 10:39 PM PDT up reply actions 0 recs

I "feel" you

I think you hit the nail on the head--solution wise that is--when you said "proxmity" can begin to mitigate against sterotyping. During the years I worked in the mental health field, one area I studied dealt with stigma against people with mental health issues ("problems"). Solid research showed that the more "normal" people had chances to interact with people who had experienced serious mental health illnesses, the more the sterotyping and stigma decreased. In addition, social anthropologist Margaret Meade helped develop social change theorgy by her findings that significant social change takes place in small groups or communities. Ergo, we have small and growing community to practice what we preach, starting with our yet to be revised and improved community guidelines. It may be self evident, but the reason we have guidelines dealing with communication standards is to empower respectfullness amonst members within a context of both fun and possibly opposing views. We can model our tolerance for rich diversity through our virtual 'proximity'.

In terms of the much larger issues of economic and social justice, well, you know our options: vote, register people to vote, model socially acceptable behavior and loving kindness, and have assertive boundaries when you see or experience racism, stigma, and prejudice.

I must say this is a strange posting for GSoM, but what the heck.

by commish on May 21, 2007 5:27 AM PDT reply actions 0 recs

I'm not making excuses

" for Stephen Jackson's meltdowns in several of the games. Nor am I condoning JRich and Baron Davis' antics responding to the refereeing'

No excuse needed. Sjax got jobbed by the refs (just like the Suns did by stern) The league sent the same prejudiced set of refs to utah that had already shown that they were anti Jax in dallas but that's not rascist? I'm not watching any more NBA this year to protest so don't tell me who's in the playoffs!
As to SpikeLee. He's a good film-maker but not always a good thinker. Dint he help reggie miler beat the knicks? Dint he say shoot charlston heston instead of just quietly arranging it?
Do more than 6% of blacks even want to be sports journalists? People are complicated and at the same time simple, you can offer up all kinds of well though out theories why something happened but the answer might be she just had a nice ass.
People should have fair access to any job but they also should have a connection to it that goes beyond the paycheck. We get lots of women that want to work in construction and they show up and go thru the motions but they never really understand the trades while at the end of the day we go home and build something cause it's in our blood.
Education is what's needed to insure everyone gets a fair chance to be what they want to be to their best ability. We learn our first bad habits from our parents so at an early age as possible childern should be exposed to a broad range of cultures and ideas, given the chance young minds will usually absorb the right things. Sports are good way for kids to learn racial tolerance, it would be difficult for a white kid to watch a game and not love Baron as much as a black kid. Baron or Steve Nash, do you thing color matters in your love of their game or their personalities?
Are the races different? of course they are but that's a good thing! people of the same race vary a lot too. It would be a dull world if we were all the same. Kenyans run fast because that was needed in that part of the world. Sherpas have big lungs cause they come from the mountain. Nordics don't have much pigment cause it's dark up there a lot. If certain areas of the world produce traits that are an advantage in certain sports then that's just the way it is. Not good or bad as far as the overall worth of a person is concerned, we all have something we do better than the rest and that's what we should feel good about.
BTW Does anyone know of a country where the races live integrated in true harmony and equality? if so how do they do it? I'm still hopefull that tupac's "we gotta make some changes" will happen someday.