Racism in Sports Media
 

Racism in sports journalism is everywhere. It's so in your face that it barely registers. Every white dude is a "hard working, over achiever". Every black athlete is of course "naturally gifted". It's shocking how blatant it is and even more shocking that no one ever reacts. I was watching the combine the other day and some pale skinned defensive end was running some drill and naturally the comment was... hard working, student of the game blah, blah, blah... then he was of course compared to fellow pasty d-ends Patrick Kerney and Justin Smith. Really? Here in 2011 :D this is the best we can do? Honestly I don't find any of this stereotyping is done out of hatred, it's down to pure lazy thinking... and sportswriters are some of the laziest mofos on the planet.

I know Jason Whitlock isn't the most popular guy, but his second last podcast did an greatt job of covering the topic of racial stereotyping in sports media. It was an excellent bit of of podcastery.

I don't find myself outraged by it, but definitely surprised that it still is so pervasive in the coverage of almost every sport... it's a lazy crutch and replaces actually doing some thought on the real strengths and weaknesses of a given player.

Hopefully media members like Whitlock continue to point out this stuff...

Until then...

Man, that Marc Mariani is teh awesome! Dude is the next Wes Welker!

What does this gave to do with coffee, pens, Cheez-Its® or weights? :confused:

All depends, do you want an athletic player, or a cerebral player?

Frankly, this subject bores me here in 2011.

Dudes wringing their hands over perveived silliness such as this...

Yet Black history month, black entertainment television, black news, black award shows continue to exist as separate entitites...even as an African American is President and blacks are already well represented in all the mainstream television, new, awards to begin with.

Everything is race based when its convenient for some, yet others have to tread softly around such subjects for fear of being branded racist.

Its beyond ridiculous.

I hear what you are saying. You see it applied to black QBs a lot too. It gets to be annoying for sure. I also agree that it basically boils down to laziness for the most part, no real malice intended, just going with the first thing that compares favorably.

I was actually discussing this at work yesterday in a mixed-race setting (it came up because of the D. Sterling flap). We all agreed that the last two years, Black History Month has been decidedly underwhelming, less (wrong word) pervasive? We concluded that Obama has begun to put the kibosh on the whole thing...

Why is Tyler Perry only on TBS?

Oh, the ironing.

_

Yeah, I'd be pizzed off if someone referred to me as a hardworking, cerebral player or a naturally gifted athlete.

Why are obese sassy black grandmothers just so darn funny?

But white ones...not so much.

And entering from stage right, the deliberately obtuse.:ohbrother

They lack sufficient sass? :dunno:

This thread is naturally gifted

I'm an ex- reformed obtucist who fell off the wagon.

You swung and missed my point almost entirely, but for the most part I agree with your thought about segregating humans in to categories of race, it's worse than pointless. We'd be just as well served having an awards show for redheads.

mmmm... Christina Hendricks

I was just expressing surprise at how blatant it is. It seems like a quaint holdover from a bygone era. But if you step back, doesn't it seem wildly out of place in today's sporting world. Millions of dollars are spent in the evaluation of players, the media follows every tenth of a second... every fraction of a pound. Yet in the end, pretty much every white dude guy is ultimately labelled the same. It's just one of those weird accepted things, that as I said in my original post doesn't outrage or really even irk me (if you got that from my OP it wasn't my intention). It's just surprises me.

I can understand your reticence to discuss racial issues, but I thought this was goofy and ultimately harmless enough that it wouldn't mess up easily ruffled feathers.

(HINT: He's from the naturally gifted side.)

Why not rascism in the media when our President is now blaming the results of the last mid term election on rascism?

Wow.

You're a d!ck.

I'm pretty sure dick is allowable.

http://growabrain.typepad.com/photos..._goldwater.jpg

I work very hard at swinging and missing.

link? quote? anything to back up such a ridiculous statement?