Racism in Today’s Sports
We as human beings have come very
far with regards to technological advancements, communication, and equality as
human beings in our society. Within the last century it is astonishing to take
note of and recognize our societal advancements as a whole. Our advancements
can be observed through many textual genres such as movies, commercials on TV
and on our phone, billboards, television shows, pictures, internet videos, and
many other texts.
All of these genres wouldn’t have been made possible if it weren’t for the
global immigration waves into the United States in the last one hundred
years. Despite the merging of different
ethnic backgrounds or how far we’ve come as a society collectively we can see
where we haven’t advanced or still have societal flaws to overcome. As a
society as a whole we typically don’t tolerate suppress the racist expressions
but in certain scenarios society seems to turn a blind eye, act as if certain
acts are not occurring, prolong the amount of time it takes to address such
uncivilized behaviors ("English Definition of ‘Turn a Blind Eye’").
Racism exists very much in the world but can often be noted or highlighted in
the world of sports. Racism in sports can especially be seen through various
textual genres such as academic journals, pictures captured at sporting venues,
and news reporting videos of events.
The most effective textual genres that easily grasp
someone’s attention are the texts that contain staggering or overwhelmingly
shocking images, articles, or videos to view. An example would be a
photo of a man amidst an angry crowd holding a racist symbol and jeering out
towards targeted athletes to insult them because of where the athlete derives
from. In this case it there
was a man holding out a banana to mock black players on the fans opposing team
to pretend as though the athletes are nothing more than a beast or monkey. The
tone is extremely aggressive and negative based off the actions of that
individual fan and the supporting
social influences from the surrounding fans. This image was taken to
demonstrate a message that racism is still present in today’s society and also
to show how blunt people are about their controversial feelings. In the image
the man is at the lower leveled seats and has many rows that follow his
position and portrays this feeling of a racist leader and his followers. The
man seems as if what he is demonstrating is completely civil and because of the
support around him. He may also feel as if his actions are civil due to the
fact that not one person or security guard had intervened by removing the man
from the stadium or even unarm the man of the harmless yet super offensive
symbol. I believe that the targeted audience aims for those that do not condone
or promote the feelings and expressions of racism in sports. Sports are
universally played because any person or ethnicity has the potential to play so
the fear of racism should be suppressed to become nonexistent.
Another type of textual genre that
shows the existence of racism in sports may branch from videos posted by
amateurs and/or professionals. Examples include the showing of athletes being
racist to their opposing fans in person at the spectacle or for any of those
watching a game at home. The difference from textual genres such as videos and
images are that images leave us to interpret what is occurring while video we
can view what’s unfolding and we have audio to listen to what is occurring. A
video that shows racism in sports is a video from a player in the Greek soccer
league performing what is infamously known as the World War II Nazi salute. The
player made this demonstration as a celebration following a goal he scored in a
match. In the video you can see his teammates bewildered as to why he is making
such demonstrations. Given his setting it is puzzling as to why he would make
such gestures because the country he was playing in has lasting effective from
World War II. The athlete was punished for his actions and can never play in
the Greek soccer league again ("Soccer Player Gives Nazi Salute on Field”).
The soccer player tried to claim he was ignorant of what this gesture meant and
he didn’t know the history behind such salute. I think this video was made to
show that despite the athlete scoring and contributing to the athlete’s team,
awareness is vital when playing because not even a professional player like
himself is exempt from punishment regarding racism.
Other types of genre texts may
include academic articles from authors with greater recognition and credibility
behind their work. An academic piece that fits such a description is called
"Goodbye to the Gangstas": The NBA Dress Code, Ray Emery, and the
Policing of Blackness in Basketball and Hockey. The text is laid out in a
formal way with things such as abstract and the rest of the body of the
article. The way it is constructed is to show the ways the league officials of
the NBA and NHL are restricting the way the athletes, more specifically the
black athletes, present themselves on the courts.
There are many genres texts that can be utilized when
trying to send a message or show something. Each genre may be relevant to each
other but at the same time they display their intended message differently. In
the three texts above, all three pertained to racism in today’s sports but at
the same time they all came from different areas. One area showed the fans
being racist, athletes demonstrating racist beliefs, and also how league
representatives create rules inside their leagues to dilute the ethnic
differences of some of the athletes.
I feel that texts are effective if the
text is eye catching or can get your attention immediately with a shocking
method. If the text gets your attention immediately you will feel inclined to
pay attention to the text displayed rather than overlooking it and moving onto
the next one. Some texts that catch my eye more effectively are typically
images like billboards or pictures. These texts have to provide their message
in a matter of seconds because ideally people are passing by so the message has
to have a concoction of factors to be effective such as being brief, simple, moving, and eye opening.
The texts I chose from most effective to
least effective go in order from the picture, video, and then the academic
article. The least effective message was the academic article because it isn’t
very open to interpretation like the image I found. The article also was dull
and never fully grabbed my attention. The image of the man holding a banana
could have meant multiple things if you didn’t know the background for his
motive to hoist this banana in the air which made me want to find out the
answer to this. I was looking for racist images of sports and this one had
caught my eye because I was very confused as to why a man is standing on his
feet amidst a crowd with a banana of all items.
The same genres don’t necessarily have
to have the exact same material. That is most likely almost never the case. For example, if there was a
genre about basketball there may be many angles to approach such a broad genre.
The life of a basketball announcer, player, and coach may all fit into the
genre of basketball, but there is without a doubt huge difference within this
genre. The same may apply for a topic such as movies or photography. Movies that
fall under the same genre such as comedy may have a different approach
depending on the time period the movies were made. For example, comedies made
in 1980 might be funny to its viewers for that time frame but may not be funny
to people watching in 2006.
The relationship between each genre
varies because some genres are capable of prolonging its description of the
text while some of the genres have to be brief and direct which isn’t
necessarily a negative thing. The messages however are usually similar because
they all fall under a similar genre, but may be delivered through different textual devices. For
example, if a picture with a lot of graphic details is shown from a genre such
world starvation, an image of a malnourished starving child might be better fit
to deliver the message than an article describing the child’s problem.
I believe that the types of texts we
read in society impact us as individuals because this can fall under the
category of anything we see in life which include homework assignments like
reading books or simply driving down the road you are exposed to billboards
that try to persuade you towards a certain belief or opinion. The saying “you
are what you see” does make you who are because you have to usually take a side
with what you see. For example, I constantly see these atheist billboards when
walking to school and I get very opinionated about why I have a religion or why
one should keep their religious or non-religious beliefs to themselves rather than displaying them in
public places. For scenarios like this it’s difficult to have a state of
neutrality so we have to form an opinion about topics like this.
Overall
genres and the types of texts utilized play significant roles in our lives. We
may often time be exposed to different texts without even realizing it. These
can come in the form of ads, handouts, movies, books, articles, and so forth.
Different texts may be used on a similar genre to target specific audiences and
alter the tone and mood portrayed to the audience.
Utilizing a different type of text may change the
approach of a genre entirely and can be useful when trying to have the most
impactful message delivered to the audience.
Works Cited
Lorenz,
Stacy L. ""Goodbye to the Gangstas": The NBA Dress Code, Ray
Emery, and the Policing of Blackness in Basketball and Hockey." Journal
of Sport and Social Issues38 (2013): 23-50. Web. 11 Mar. 2014.
"Soccer
Player Gives Nazi Salute on Field." YouTube. YouTube, 18 Mar.
2013. Web. 05 Mar. 2014. <http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DYIrYphja4s>.
"Will
Galatasaray Players Wear Blackface in Response to Didier Drogba Abuse? Turkish
Soccer Club Reportedly Planning Bizarre Racism Protest." NY Daily
News. N.p., n.d. Web. 05 Mar. 2014.
<http://www.nydailynews.com/sports/more-sports/report-soccer-team-plans-blackface-racism-protest-article-1.1344910>.
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