Existing 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 genres. 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.
Textual genres that are effective
when the image, article, or video are the ones that are staggering or
overwhelmingly shocking to view are easy to grasp someone’s attention. 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 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 support 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 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,
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. That’s
like saying that because Youtube is a source of videos then all the videos must
be similar and pertain to the same stuff.
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 theme.
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. “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 to display
them in public places.
Works Cited
"English
Definition of "Turn a Blind Eye"" Turn a Blind Eye.
N.p., n.d. Web. 05 Mar. 2014.
<http://dictionary.cambridge.org/us/dictionary/british/turn-a-blind-eye>.
Hawkins,
Billy Joe. The New Plantation: Black Athletes, College Sports, and
Predominantly White NCAA Institutions. New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2010.
Print.
"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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