Being an African-American in society is difficult on a daily basis. Having to deal with biases and preconceived notions are things that I tend to deal with on a daily basis. On top of that being black and coming from the background I have tends to put a lot more pressure on things as well. Stereotypically someone of my ethnicity and class status should either be a criminal, someone in the media, or an exceptional athlete. It's almost like that's the only things "we" are expected to do to be successful in society. After being told that for so long, a lot of African-American's tend to buy into that way of thinking. I know too many of my friends who spent so much time working on perfecting their "game" that they almost forgot about their school work. They worked extremely hard to make it to the starting roster that they either became c students or in some cases their grades got so low that they were kicked off of the team. For some reason African-American's are looked at as the athletic type no matter what. I am a prime example of that. I haven't played a sport since the 3rd grade. I just like to work out just because of that feeling of accomplishment that you get after a great workout. On a daily basis I am asked, do I play or a sport or why don't I play a sport. In some cases people have even gone to the extent of asking me to join their teams. I find it a bit flattering at times , but in the back of my mind I was laugh at the notion. What makes me more of an athlete than anyone else? Or what makes African-American's better athletes than anyone else? I don't think that no one can truly answer that question. It really doesn't help that most of the most notable athletes in American history have been African-American either. I think that's great that African-American's have made such a lasting impression on sports, but I still think that sports shouldn't be the first thing that comes to mind when talking about black people. There is no race that completely dominates one sport over anyone else. I truly doubt that will ever happen either. I think that everyone has a fair shot, but it just comes down to who truly wants it the most. Like I said when I work out I am a complete competitor. I think that no one is stronger, faster, or more athletic than me. That's not because I believe that to be completely true. That's just what gives me that extra edge in my mind that helps push me to limits that I didn't know that I physically could reach. I think if it weren't for that way of thinking I wouldn't have accomplished what I have in the weight room. I also think that's what most athletes do to prepare for their sport.
I think as a people and as a society getting rid of these stereotypes should be high on everyone's list of priorities. The quicker we all get past them the easier it will be for everyone to prosper. But all of us have to make a conscious effort to change the way in which we all think or else the needed changes will never effectively take place.

Ethnicity was never really a picture in my head until having this class. I see it now how others are treated differently because of where they come from or how they look. I personally look at Micheal Jordan and I never classified him as being African-Americans a great basketball player and so do many people. The reason we do classify Micheal Jordan like that is because, �??within a society that continues to be cleaved by racial inequities, hostilities, and anxieties, Jordan emerged as the quintessential sporting embodiment of the American nation; a national icon with whom everyone could, seemingly, relate.�?� (Andrews, 2006, 103) Jordan was the good clean boy of the NBA who never seemed to get into trouble. Because of that people did not see his ethnicity.
However this is not the case for everyone. Certain ethnicities pick sports or positions because it is what is expected for them to play. As we saw the chart in class in the sport of class it is more likely that the quarterback will be white and the running back and wide receivers are more likely to be African-American. It is also not that often that we hear of a white player getting in trouble as we hear of a African-American getting in trouble. I am almost positive that there are white players doing worse thing it is just that media turns their head away from it. Angela Lumpkin did a very interesting study on the front cover of sports illustrated in which she compared ethnicity and gender. She found that:
The appearances on the covers of Sports Illustrated of African Americans (43.1%) exceeded the number for European Americans (37.1%) during the decade of the 1990s. Another 6.2% of the covers pictured multiple individuals of more than one race (see Table 1)�?�
More African Americans associated with basketball (18.8%) were pictured on the covers of Sports Illustrated; more European Americans in football (14.8%) and baseball (9.8%) appeared on the covers during the 1990s (see Table 2). While there were 22 African Americans in boxing and 7 in track and field on the covers, European Americans in these sports appeared only once (a female in boxing) or not at all (track and field). European Americans in golf and tennis and internationals in ice hockey were more likely to be pictured on the covers than those of any other race/ethnicity in these sports. (2007)
In my conclusion of this article it appears as though African Americans get just as much media with sports illustrated but they are shown in the sports where African Americans are suppose to dominate the field.

I had it pretty easy growing up. I am white therefore it was easy for me to pick sports to play. I choose to swim and it is very rare you actually see an African-American swimmer. There are very few out there because it is not a sport they are suppose to be good at. That just blows my mind. No matter what your ethnicity is you can be good at whatever sport you choose. African-Americans tend to have a greater amount of fast twitch muscles in their body. Because of this they would make very good sprinters in swimming.
In my conclusion of race and sport it believe it is harder to be an African- American playing sports but if they do everything by the book they will stay out of trouble. It is very unfair that they have to be perfect in every aspect while a white athlete will get away with something they cannot. It changes the way the game is played because people will begin to watch their back and protect themselves.

As we learned in class the only way European- americans could justify the use of slavery was �??through the advancement of the dehumanizing process�?� and the idea of the racial binary and the stereotypes it perpetuates. I am a white male and according to the binary I am associated with terms such as sophisticated, controlled, and law-abiding. First off, even if they are positive I do not like to be labeled as being this way or that way just because of the color of my skin, and I�??m sure every race would agree that we are all individually different. I can only imagine, however, how member of the black race feel reading their own supposed �??descriptions�?� in the racial binary and seeing terms such as promiscuous, violent and deviant. The Vogue magazine would be something I would at first glance not think anything of but it is very obvious upon further examination that this does perpetuate the negative stereotypes associated with black people weather it does so knowingly or unknowingly.
As a white athlete I participated in many sports, but the one that stands out (in terms of race) is my participation in the sport of boxing. In the sport it is very rare that while at a match or a tournament I see more than 3 other white people. The majority of races in the sport of boxing are African Americans and Latin Americans. It is in this setting that I noticed the clear racial tension between myself and members of the other races in the beginning. I would go to other gyms and trainers would tell their fighters �??you better take it to this white boy�?� or �??you have to do 5 rounds of jump rope before you leave if you let this white boy whoop you�?�, the key term being �??white boy.�?� Ive had friends of different ethnic backgrounds throughout my life so I was used to this and It was so commonplace that eventually I didn�??t even notice it. It was obvious that they never viewed me as just another boxer like them, but rather a �??white�?� boxer.
The experience shaped my outlook on racial issues in a positive way and taught me the only way to break down racial stereotypes seen in the binary is to step outside of our comfort zone and get to know and talk to people of other cultures. I loved the fact that the same people that tried to fight me with the hate of many of their ancestors for whites eventually came to be some of my closest friends! I believe that the way to break down racial stereotypes is as simple as treat others as you would want to be and to show respect to all. If we can do this as a society the rest we can start eliminate the enormous amount of hate that goes on.

While social class standing makes a huge impact on the way sports are experienced today, there has also been another major issue that has impacted athletes all around the world. This difference in race is an issue that has made a difference throughout the history of sports as well as present day athletics now. In the United States, we seem to have the biggest issue within sports because we are known as the �??melting-pot�?� country. Racial difference not only can divide communities, but it can also make a huge division within sports.

In my hometown of Kiln, Mississippi, I was part of the one percent existence of Spanish at my high school. I was born in the United States, but I was required to say that I was Hispanic/Latino. Being Hispanic means coming from Spaniard origin and Latino is short for Latin American. I am basically about one quarter Hispanic, and I was born in the United States so obviously I am not Latin American. I came to accept that I was Hispanic/Latino though because here in the U.S., there is a label that everyone has to wear. In the area that I lived in, most of the people have not been completely adapted to other races living in the community. My high school was about overall 89 percent Caucasian, 9 percent black, 1 percent Asian, 1 percent Hispanic/Latino, and 1 percent of all other races.

This affect carried over in my experience in sports as well. Many people in the south often refer to Spanish speaking people as being �??Mexicans�?�. While I played football mostly, many people would ask my why I rarely cared about playing soccer for the school and helping to build the team. I would respond by telling them that football was my skill sport, and that just because I am Spanish does not mean I was that good at soccer. Football though in my high school was the only diverse sport. Soccer, baseball, and basketball were sports that consisted as mostly white players in my school, where track was the sport that set the school apart from that. I was on the track team as well, and the reason why i believe there were not any white guys on the team is because people lived on the �??white guys can run/jump�?� ideology. As Rick Reilly states, �??LOOK HOW white I am. Am I lame or what? I can�??t jump. Can�??t dance. Can�??t run. Can�??t dress, Can�??t hang�?� (Reilly, The life of Reilly). This means that white athletes have come to accept this ideology that has been placed on them, but there are those occasional few who break that barrier for change in specific ideologies such as Micheal Jordan and Tiger Woods. �??He was vaunted as an emblem of racial progress, a righter of wrongs a�?? la foundational figures such as Jackie Robinson and Arthur Ashe�?� (Andrews, Celebrating Race Ch.5 pp114).

Another problem in society besides children in schools today is racism. Even though, schools are not segregated anymore, there are many forms of racism that exist in the present. Racism results from people not predisposed beliefs and ideas that have either been passed on through generations or through the media. Even how we define race in this country varies from person to person. Laurel Davis makes an excellent point when questioning this very concept:

�??Who does one put into the categories of black and white?
and, even if we could totally eliminate social context
from consideration (an impossible task), how can we
known which genes affect the performance of a person
who can track her/his ancestors to Europe, Africa, and
North America? (Davis, 1990, pg. 182)

Racism exists everywhere in our society including sports. As stated above, in high school I ran cross country and track and field. During track and field season, I was a distance runner, and normally ran the 800m and 1600m races. Many of the schools that were in my high school�??s conference considered my high school �??beneath�?� them simply because my high school was very diverse not only in race but in religion as well. Our track team was known as the �??ghetto track team�?� in our division because we were not just a team of all white girls. All of the other all girls�?? private high schools thought that they were better than us based on this single point, but they were proven wrong. My high school�??s track team could out run most of the other high schools that we were competing against in any event. In my sophomore year, we were undefeated and in my junior year, we only lost one meet. As Seth Berkman states, �??there is a lot to be learned by both the American sporting fan and athlete�?� (Berkman, 2005, pg. 1). Until humans become more accepting of one another and realize that what is within a person ultimately matters, racism will continue to exist.

Youth involvement in sport and this issue of discipline are very closely tied to race and ethnicity. Across the globe, the issue of race doesn�??t seem to have as much of an impact as it does here in the United States. We are the great �??melting pot�?�, a blend of many different races, ethnicities, and social identities. This blend of social identities creates controversy, especially in sport.
According to geneticists all individuals are 99.9% the same; that includes our skin color. This idea of race was constructed a long time when we realized that some of us were of a different skin tone than others. That difference has created a huge divide amongst all human beings.
As a participant in sport since I was a child, I have seen this notion of race play out. Since I grew up in Baltimore City, I have interacted with many different cultures and races. I played baseball in a town called Hamilton, which was primarily a white, working class town. In the late 1990�??s, there was a shift in the culture and it slowly started to become a primarily African American culture. The baseball program improved. In fact, the play and competitive nature of the program made a huge increase. The program took off and slowly started to become one of the primary competitors in the Baltimore City and County leagues. My play on the field drastically improved because of the improved competition.
On a personal level, I did not experience a racial divide in the sport context. However, a study was conducted to analyze the monetary distribution in Major League Baseball among players in the late 80�??s. Most people would think that there would be a huge segregation in pay. General consensus would probably lead you to believe that white players made more money than black players. This article proved quite the opposite. After player stats and races were compared with their salaries, there was no significant segregation in pay for black players and white players (Purdy 1994). This certainly would no model our society.
Another aspect would could take a look at is the concept of stacking. This concept says that white players are placed in more roles of leadership (i.e. Quarterback or Head Coach) and black players are placed in roles of physical ability (i.e. Halfback or Linebacker). This is where Rick Reilly gets this idea: �??See, we white guys know we suck. We hear it all the time. When we hoop, we�??ve got White Man�??s disease. When we dance, we�??ve got White Man�??s Overbite�?� (Reilly). So what this is saying is white people are more likely to be pushing papers around or doing the thinking work, whereas black athletes are doing the heavy hitting or lifting weights.
How can that be when genetically we are relatively the same? Either was there is a massive divide that has been created by society solely based on the color of our skin. Kind of ridiculous, I know, but is there anything that can be done about? This issue is not just black and white. It stretches across many other cultures and races as well.

Being a white male, the sky was the limit as to what sports I could play, without a stereotype following me. Basketball may be the only exception, but i really never had much interest in playing basketball. While growing up, I played the typical "white boy" sports. Soccer, Hockey, Baseball, Football and even the "whitest of the white" bowling and golf. When I first got to high school, for the first time in my life I saw myself, as a white male, being stereotyped.

I saw the stereotyping the most in football. I being an overweight, white guy, I really had no choice as to where I was going to play for the next four years, it would be on the offensive line. Day in and day out I would here things from my white coach such as "you need to be tough like them" or he would start naming off a list of former Jewish kids who had played for him and asking me why I could not play as well as they could or was it because I was Jewish, I was not as pationate as the black athletes on the team. Stupid, idiotic remarks like that really got under my skin. It wasn't as much a racial issue but an ethnic issue. Hearing this stuff as a high school freshman would be hard on anybody. I soon would doubt myself and not push myself to get anywhere else on the football field because after that year I saw it as, I'm a white kid and since I can't kick the football my role is to be an offensive lineman. My high school football coach would be a great specimen for this class. He truly brings out a lot of the topics we have discussed in class. For example, in our conference we had a predominantly black school. Each year in film study we would here "look out for these kids, they are black, live in the "hood", and are overall tough kids." That's a pretty labeling statement right there, and the black players on our team hated him, since he was such an under the table racist. He would treat the black kids like gold, since they would be his producers.

As mentioned earlier, most of my friends were African American. Though they were great football players, they enjoyed playing basketball often, and playing well. I stood no chance whenever we would play together. It was probably because I have none of the skills associated with playing basketball, but my friends would just play it off as it was because I was white. I was always the laughingstock at the courts and I really had nothing to defend myself. As Rick Reilly explains in his article "White Like Me", he states "I know I'm a pathetic white guy. I laugh about it all the time. I have to. Black athletes love to make fun of us." It is so true, the only way I could overcome the jokes was to just laugh along with them was to agree with them. I would just say "I'm white man, gimme a break."

It's funny, you think of stereotypes involving ethnicity and sports. You feel as if whites are making these stereotypes. But, it truly runs full circle. Even if the stereotypes come from your own race.

-In response to imnotsure75's writing- I really could relate to what you said because I also ran cross country and had friends that ran track in high school and I saw the same types of things occur. I also found your writing about basketball very interesting. Your writing style is easy to read yet seems very professional. Good work.

I have played many different sports over the years. When I was a little kid my parents pushed me towards baseball, which was a good choice, because I had great hand eye coordination and had great control as a starting pitcher. My teammates and those who I played against were predominately white males. This limited my ability to learn about other ethnicities and cultures. Even though I had a great career in baseball, I did not want to limit myself to only one sport, so I began playing basketball. I was not nearly as good at basketball as baseball, but I enjoyed it almost the same. I remember when a team had more than one black player, everyone on the opposing team felt like they were going to be better. I never bought into that stereotype to be honest. I will admit, if a black kid was playing baseball at a young age against me, I usually figured I would have an easy time getting him out, because they normally hit eight or ninth in the batting order. I was also a really good tennis player, but tennis is one of those sports where if you have a lot of money to spend on private lessons and a personal trainer, you can improve a lot more than your competition can. My parents did not have a lot of money to spend, therefore I was challenged to teach myself the sport and develop my skills on my own with my free court time when I worked at a tennis club. This is primarily the reason why I have an amazing serve but a horrible backhand, because serving is something you can develop without someone else to hit the ball back, whereas you need someone to hit the ball back in order to improve your backhand or forehand. When I played singles matches against asian or white players, I always felt I was in for a tough match. When I played singles matches against black tennis players, I always felt it would be an easy win, because they did not have the money for enough rackets or a legitimate tennis court to practice on, whereas my school tennis team payed for us to practice at a local country club with five nice tennis courts and a surplus of expensive rackets. I remember how every time we played a match in Camden, the kids almost always borrowed a racket from us and the court's surface sometimes had glass all over it. I think after thinking about my past experience with my participation in sports, I have realized that I played sports that required less strength and physical contact mostly because my parents would not let me play football or boxing, and that was because I was extremely thin. Also, my participation in sport was not to earn a scholarship or go pro, but for getting involved and being active. I feel like black kids at an early age learn through our social structure, that basketball, football, and boxing are the only sports they are meant to play. In my opinion, this is because the athletes they look up to the most play these sports and these sports require less money to play. I feel like the new push for participation of inner city kids to play baseball is an excellent idea, because it allows them not to be limited to only a few sports that are socially accepted, and it will help Major League Baseball to increase its revenue. I also have learned from this class that being talented at a certain sport is not because of the color of your skin, it's the location of where you live, acceptance of certain sports within our culture with regards to ethnicity, and how much money you have. I think this quote from the Price article is absolutely true, and why the name change of the Washington Redskins should occur. "Even though no team name is under more sustained attack, there's evidence that for the Redskins, a name change would be good for business. In 1996, after much pressure from alumni threatening to withdraw their financial support, Miami (Ohio) University acceded to the Miami tribe's request that it change its team names from Redskins to Redhawks. The following year alumni gave a record $25 million to the school. "Someday it will change," Miami spokesman Richard Little says of the Washington Redskins name. "And you know what? There'll still be a football team there, and there'll still be those ugly fat guys in dresses cheering for it."
Fans of a sport team, especially those teams with a large fan base, for example the Washington Redskins, will almost always will support their local team even with a change to the name and mascot. It simply means new merchandise and less lawsuits against the Washington Redskins ownership. When thinking about it more, I feel that any mascot name that an ethnicity takes offense to because of the underlying meaning should be eliminated.

Race and racism are issues that we would all like to believe are n o longer present in our society. It is true as Ryan stated in his blog this week that �??No matter how much we may try, America�??s poor history with race has a nasty way of repeating itself, and it trickles down to the way we each have experienced sport in our lives.�?� Racism shows it ugly head in many small and sometimes unnoticeable ways. It can be seen on many different levels of society.
In my personal life I have experienced racism and racial issues in sport without even realizing it. Growing up I would play basketball at a park in my community. Teams were made on the sideline while a current game is being played. The winner of the current game played the team created on the side. I would only be picked for a team if it was being made by someone who already knew me or there were number constraints. Rarely did people pick me because I do not fit what society deems to be a good basketball player.
I believe that our society has instilled in us a number of prejudices or stereotypes that we believe and hold true without questioning or discovering for ourselves. Often we judge people based on these stereotypes before attempting to discover for ourselves. Being the socially accepted norm, I do not encounter racial stereotypes all that often that are not in my favor. Given, in the grand scheme of the world and my future, not being selected for a basketball team when I was fifteen years old is not anywhere near as harmful to me as other situations that are encountered by minorities.
I am only recently realizing just prevalent racism is in our society. Looking back at my high school running career, I can now notice small issues that prove the presence of these stereotypes. As middle to long distance track and cross-country runner, I ran mostly against other white males. There was a small number of minority runners present in any of my races. At the time I thought nothing of it. However, now I am noticing how as a new track season started, my coach would start practices with sprinter oriented workouts for the new team members. One of the stereotypes our society has been infested with is that black guys are naturally fast sprinters and are most likely faster than white guys. My coach never even bothered to ask what general events the newer people wanted to do. I was asked as was every other guy who ran cross-country with me. However, he automatically assumed that the new black members wanted to be sprinters. Given stereotypes are loosely based are truth it would have been good practice for my coach to be fair and ask everyone at the start of the season. Now, I am by no means accusing my coach of being racist. There were a few of the new members who just asked to do long distance and my coach had them switch to long distance the next day. Yet, I do believe that he had unconsciously stacked the sprinting portion of the team by not providing the choice at the beginning of the season. I also do not believe that this was limited only to the two schools I ran for. During track meets you can compare the number of minorities on long distance teams and the amount on sprinting and you will see the same outcome.

Being mostly of an Asian gene pool, the stereotype is always going to be there. It was there as a child and it will be there as I am an old man. I am originally from and grew up in the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands. These are a chain of small islands in the south pacific just south east of Japan. The population of these islands is about 175,000 people and is a territory of the United States of America. So you can suffice to say that everyone knows everyone. Growing up in these islands and getting involved with sports definitely did not prepare me for what I had experienced once I moved to the United States. On the island, there were hardly any black or white students. Mostly a mixture of the local island race and a lot of Asians (mainly Pilipino) coming from Asia. Needless to say, there weren�??t a lot of black and white students participating in middle school sports either. Why I point his out is because I had excelled at sports in my middle school years. I was an All Island All-Star year after year during that time. I had truly believed that I was good at what I did and whatever sport that I had participated in. I was on the national travel team that traveled all over Asia for tournaments, and my team had done quite well over there in competition. After my eighth grade year, I had moved to the United States and had an immediate culture shock. I was no longer the fastest runner, the highest jumper, nor considered one of the taller players on the basketball court. Most of these physical attributes that I had so naively believed that I was really good at, turned out that I was just 3rd string on the roster. Listening to the lecture in class and hearing that �??race has nothing to do with physical abilities�?� is really just trying to fool yourself with what is black and white and printed in some scientific study. OK, so the multi-billion dollar genome project could not find a gene that determines race. Maybe they need to look some where or try to approach it another way? Race definitely has everything to do with physical abilities. It has to. Look at the any statistics on race in regarding to professional sports. In June of 1995, of the 357 players on the NBA roster, 290 of them were black including dozens of mixed cultures. (http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m1355/is_n4_v88/ai_16986221). Take a look at the NFL as well. How many white running backs are there in the NFL?? Can you name at least 1 of them that is a starter? I would have to say that is probably not going to be an easy task at hand unless you Google that query. So just because some miserably failed scientific study (the genome project) shows that there is no gene that ties race to physical abilities, take a look at another scientific study called statistics. The statistics are in, African Americans that are in professional sports are by far way more physically superior to Caucasians, Asians, Latin Americans, etc. How can you argue that? Who holds the world record for the fastest 100 meter or 200 meter dashes? I can name countless extreme physical sporting events where race will dominate. It may not be a found scientific fact, but it is a fact that shows in the professional sporting world as a whole every single day.

I must admit, it wasn�??t until we started to observe and discuss the issue of athletic ability and its relation to the color of a person�??s skin that I realized how ludicrous it actually was. I was naïve and under the impression that yes, black people were the most athletically gifted race. I did not question it but it was hard to deny while playing basketball and football most of my lives who the fastest and better athletes were. I am not saying that it was an impossible scenario to see a great white running back however it was a little surprising.
When I was in the fifth grade, I remember playing pee wee football with kids who were in the 7th or 8th grade. Naturally, I was stuck playing defensive line which at that age isn�??t for the biggest players necessarily but it was for the players who weren�??t as athletic. After that year, I began doing calf raises and running with ankle weights all the time. I was determined to get fast and become one of the better athletes in my town. It actually worked. Looking back, I don�??t really remember any other 13 year olds who were working as hard as me to gain speed. That work ethic that I displayed as a 7th grader really helped me to become a pretty decent athlete at the high school level. On my team I was always one of the fastest sprinters. I wasn�??t always the quickest person on the floor or on the field but I never really felt overwhelming overmatched by any of my peers from other teams. For the most part I was known as pretty quick around the conference.
I always played with a chip on my shoulder because I got the Asian curse of being short at 5 foot 7. That was the biggest thing for me to overcome. Having to learn to score over bigger defenders was always an issue for me. I know the human genome explains that we are only separated biologically by one percent and that it only shows we are different by the color of our skin, but truth be told most Filipino people are extremely short. I mean I can easily see that athletically people are made based on there surroundings and that generally they are a product of their environment, but being short is a curse!
It made it extremely difficult at times however I learned to cope with it. I wouldn�??t say that I am necessarily a better player for it, however it has shaped me to become the player I became.

When contemplating this topic about race. I can not help but to think that it is in our nature as humans to label and stereotype those different then us. It is something that we have been doing since the dawn of time. We have always tried to stick people who have different beliefs, values, appearance, and pretty much anything else you can think of, into some sort of asinine assumption or ridiculous notion that we actually know that person. So, it is of no real surprise or shock to me that because black athletes may dominate in sports like basketball and track and field. We assume they can jump higher and run faster because of some super athletic gene they must have, because there skin is dark; when the reality of the situation, really lies in a plethora of accompanying factors, like work ethic, geography, class, culture, ancestors, and so on. For instance, take the sport of long distance running. It is a sport dominated by black men from Kenya, now do they dominate because of there skin color, or is it because of where there from and there culture?
I grew up in the Baltimore area, and as a kid I played a lot of the sports that a white child from the suburbs might play, soccer, baseball, lacrosse, and ice hockey. Now I did play football and basketball with the kids in the neighborhood, but none of us actually played in a league like we did with the other sports. I do believe because I grew up a white child from a middle class family it certainly played a factor in what sports I played, but I also think that if my dad didn�??t love the game of ice hockey and instead loved football, I probably would have played that instead.
Throughout my sporting career there was very little diversity on the teams I played on, and in the sports themselves. When I played lacrosse I can�??t remember anyone that wasn�??t Caucasian in our league and playing ice hockey for as long as I have, I might have run into a few dozen non-Caucasian hockey players. Both soccer and baseball, there was always a few different ethnicities but not enough to even represent there share of the population in the area. These sports were just not heavily participated by other ethnicities.
Ultimately, I believe that we creatures of our own cultures, we general search for those similar to us in every facet of our lives. We look up to those athletes who excel, but also have a lot of the same similarities as ourselves including appearance. The issue of race is something that we just have to live with. In order to keeping improving our situation in this country and around the world we need to educate our youth and preach respect for those different than ourselves.

In my experience with sport over the years, I haven�??t had any significantly memorable events based on race that have jaded my thoughts. In high school, I played soccer all four years, and ran track for one. There was one school in my county that was predominantly black. I remember before track meets including that school, comments would be made about how some of us �??might as well sit down�?� because of the rumored extra muscle that they must have. Of course this isn�??t true, but it was a source of playful amusement for some people, including our own black team mates. They took no offense to it, and took pride in claiming their strength. In soccer, that same school had a select few players marked that were unnecessarily aggressive on the field. According to my racial stereotype as a short white girl, I shouldn�??t be a good runner, be able to play basketball, nor participate in football or hockey. As a teenager, I also saw how the football and basketball teams were both divided, yet integrated. Although no one was really racist, some of the comments you would hear made between a black player and white player showed a slightly biased attitude. Even in the ways they referred to each other, it didn�??t always sound like a natural way of talking.
Reilly�??s article �??White Like Me�?� is very amusing, and surprisingly accurate. Although many of the conversations about race and sports are based on the minorities, it is rarely included that a white person should not be offended by all the jokes referring to their lack of skills. Racism and racist prejudices in sport still continue today, even if in less obvious ways. Even the star athletes are praised in different ways. Tiger Woods was praised for his golf skills, and the commentator included that it must not have to do with his black heritage. On the other hand, Michael Jordan is praised for not focusing on any one race.
Although there have not been any big events that have had any significant effects on my sport experience, the general prejudices that have always surrounded me have made me wonder if any were actually true. Obviously, I know now that anyone with enough talent can participate in any sport, but that doesn�??t mean yet that they will not be criticized.

TOSteen points out that there is a relationship between race, income, and the sports you play. I agree that certain races are more inclined to certain sports because of their finances. I think this is very easy to see in youth sport teams. The more expensive a sport is, the less likely you are to see a miniority or a person of lower class status participating. Especially on travel and rec teams because the equipment is more likely to be funded by the athlete and not the organization.

Growing up in a predominantly white suburb, I did not have many experiences with races other than my own. The neighborhood kids were white, the majority of my classmates were white, and almost all of the teammates I had were white. After learning about race and sport in class, I can see that the lack of interracial team members may have been due to the sports I played. I was a cheerleader for seven years, and not once during that time did I have a team member that was not white. Throughout my years of playing softball, my teammates were only white. However, I did play soccer with a couple girls of Asian decent. It was not until college that I played field hockey on a team with a few African Americans. I believe this may be because Towson is a much more racially diverse school than my middle and high school. Even when my high school field hockey team played other schools, the teams were mostly white. Occasionally, there were a few Asian and black players, but they were far and few between. The most racially diverse team I have played on was my track and field team in high school. The team was predominantly white, but there were also blacks, Asians, and Hispanics. There was not one race that participated in more events than another. The races were fairly evenly dispersed throughout long distance, short distance, jumping, and throwing events. In my opinion, track was so racially diverse because running is passed down through all cultures. I believe sports like softball and field hockey are typically played by the middle class, white, suburban population. Therefore, these sports get passed down through the white culture. On the other hand, I think my views are swayed by the fact that I grew up in a mostly white suburban area. If my high school had been more racially diverse, there is a good chance I would have played with more athletes of a race other than my own.

As I participated in different sports, I found myself falling for racial stereotypes. For example, in track, the best long jumpers and high jumpers on our team were black. �??White man can�??t jump�?� is a phrase that comes to mind with I think back to this. Also, the female runner with the most wins on our team for three years was black. These events have led me to believe the stereotypes that blacks are faster than whites and can jump higher. As a result, before a race would even begin, I would determine whether or not I would win by looking at the color of the skin of the girls on the starting line with me. If there was a black girl, I had it in my head that I would lose to her. If the event was hurdling, I thought I was really at a disadvantage because I assumed the black girl could run faster and jump with ease. Typically, and I am not sure exactly where I developed this stereotype, if there were an Asian girl, I assumed I would beat her. No one ever taught me these things, and the thoughts were very much subconscious. In addition, there were two schools in our league that were predominantly black. The players of every sport, not just the ones I participated in, were intimidated by them. Even if we knew we were the better team and more likely to win, we still were nervous to play them. However, in certain sports such as track, basketball, and football, we went into the game knowing we were going to lose.

These experiences have shown me that racism and racial stereotypes are still very much alive in our society. I agree with Professor White when he states that the color of a person�??s skin determines how a minority or majority culture is received. When it comes to sport, I know I am not the only one still believing that �??white man can�??t jump�?� and blacks are �??naturally�?� faster than whites. In Andrews�?? article �??Celebrating Race,�?� he discusses the acceptance of Michael Jordan and Tiger Woods in our society, even though they are not of the majority race. I believe these individuals are so appealing to whites because they are role models on and off the field/court. For example, blacks are usually feared and thought of as criminals and delinquents. Michael Jordan is portrayed as a smiling, philanthropic, all-around �??good-guy�?� and that is highly appealing to whites. Whites are not intimidated by him because they believe he possesses more �??white qualities�?� than his skin leads you to believe. Likewise, I believe Tiger Woods is appealing for the same reasons. He possesses qualities of a real gentleman and family guy. In addition, Woods is part Asian, black, white, and American Indian. This makes Woods a very likeable person because more than one race can identify in him. People may look at Woods and Jordan and see black men, but they do not fear them because of the way they carry themselves. It is interesting and appalling at the same time that our society can see past the color of skin for some people, but not others.

Even though my experiences with sport and other races are slim, it is easy to see how stereotypes have affected them. Sadly, my stereotypes are shared with a majority of the society. We may hope for a change, but it seems as if change in regard to racism is a long way off.

in reference to ladytigerswim616 I agree that my ethnicity didnt limit the participation in sport. I was able to chose any sport I wanted to. Sometimes I also made judgments on others based on race. I feel it is natural to do so.

For many people, sport is an escape from reality. It is a chance to take a break from the real world, and watch superstars make slam dunks and score touch downs. Sports these days are nothing like it used to be. In the past sports was filled with so much passion and love for the game. People watched sports for the pure competition. These days, sports are filled with criticism. Sport news reports, television shows or radio shows are like political debates. People are bashing on certain teams or reporting on how one team is better than the other and race always comes up in discussion. It is normal for us to hear spectators, coaches, and reporters making assumptions and judgments of the outcome of games based on race. Sports should be an equal playing field. People believe that certain races are better for certain positions. Some people believe certain races have a gene that makes them run faster or jump higher. Stacking and centralities come in play because of this thought. From this certain ethnicities and races play, participate, and watch certain sports. Sports have been categorized for drawing certain ethic groups and races. African Americans are known for being attracted to sports like basketball and football, Whites are known for tennis and hockey, and Hispanics and Europeans are known for soccer. Asians however are underrepresented in the sports world. In Berkman�??s article called �??The Asian Sport Conundrum�?� he pointed out a question from a book referred to in his article, �??In the sporting world, is the Asian athlete to be perceived as the mysterious stranger, whose culture and work ethics seem to represent the polar opposite of modern western civilization or are they �??special�?� minorities, who enter this country minus the documented countless centuries of oppression which African and Latin-Americans have had to deal with in the United States?�?� This class has made me think of race and ethnicity differently. I was one of those people who believed that �??white men can�??t jump�?�. Now I am able to open my eyes to everything about sport differently.
Growing up, my sporting experience was not been based on my ethnicity. Playing sports was about the experience, competition, and most of all having fun. Race was never an issue playing sports when I was younger. Before my middle and high school years everyone got to participate and everything was fair. As I got older it was a different setting as race and ethnicity was concerned. On my high school teams there was more a variety of races in competition. My high school was not very diverse but the teams we played against were. For example, when playing basketball in high school, the position I played was center. I faced off against many other races. But, ethnicity and race has never stopped me from participating in sport. I was able to play any sport that I wanted and when trying out everything was fair and based on skill not race or ethnicity. Your skill of that certain sport won you the spot on the roster.

in responce to gstrats' comment I agree growing up i wasnt really effected by racial issues in school or in sporting events.

Growing up from what I can remember I never had any racial sporting encounters to alter my sporting experience(s). When I was younger the only sport that I did play was soccer for my elementary/ middle school and local rec league. To me every one had equal playing time and every kid was treated the same way. I think I was the darkest kid on the team and I even had a good amount of playing time, even though I would have rather been sitting on the bench because I did not like to run. Each team that I played for was a coed team there were both boys and girls. The girls all got equal playing time and the guys never complained because we knew that most of the girls played better than us. During gym class there were only twenty five kids in my class, I went to a small private school, the girls and boys had class together the teacher let us choose how to pick our teams sometimes we would do boys against girls and the other times we would have coed teams. Both ways no one ever complained we all had fun. My class was mostly white and a few minorities including me. Neither I nor the other minorities got treated any different from the students and teachers. No teacher was hard on you unless you caused some kind of conflict, as students we would have our arguments and teenage drama but no one ever got picked on because of what they looked like.

When I started high school I had to transition from going to a private school for eight years to going to a public school. The only major difference for me was we did not have to wear uniforms and there were more people at school. The student body at my high school consisted of a wide variety of races from white, Asian, African American, Mexican and many other races and ethnicities of course not everyone got along, some people could not stand each other but from what I can remember no one was ever looked down upon because of their race or physical characteristics. Some of my friends played sports for my high school. And I remember asking them who they thought was good, bad or the best player on the team they all basically said the same exact answer. They said so and so is better because he/she can run fast, make quick decisions or is strong or bad because they do not pay attention. I can not remember anyone telling me that this person is better/worse because of their race or where they came from. To me personally I do not think anyone who plays a sport should be judged or discriminated against based on their gender or race. The athletes should be look upon how well they play the sport. When I watch sports I do not look at the athletes' ethnicity I watch the game to enjoy the game.

I agree with cari04r. I would find myself in football to be intimidated more by black athletes then white athletes, even if the white athletes were bigger or faster. For some reason, the stereotype that is given to black athletes seemed to affect me mentally, because i would assume that no white athlete on the field was capable of doing more athletically then i was. I suppose it was that fear of the unknown that intimidated me. As bad as it is to think that way, it just goes to show that race affects us no matter how we try and forget about it.

Have to agree with cari04r African Americans were given a certain stereotype at my school and everyone became very intimidated by them when facing other schools in sports. A lot of times my school had potentially lost the game before they had even played it. It is truly amazing how worked up people get over certain races in playing certain sports.

When I was a kid I lived in an area that was predominantly white and played sports with other kids that were predominantly white also. The school that I attended growing up only had a total of six African American kids in the entire school of about 500. I was fortunate enough to have 3 of them in my grade and became very good friends with them over time. I remember distinctly whenever there was any type of competitive event in gym class that involved teams everyone would hope that they would be on the same team as two of them if not all three of them. See as a bunch of white young country kids none of us knew any better and we thought that since they were African American that they were much better athletes then all of us when in reality it was not true at all. The more I think about it I have to look at what Sage said in his article about how �??sport provided some African American athletes with opportunities of social mobility but denied them in other life factors�?� and I have to strongly agree with that. None of us would have talked to any of them as quickly as we did if it were not for gym class and competitive sports. Being on teams we saw how great of an athlete every one of them was and instantly wanted to become friends with them because of there love and ability to play a sport like us. However, all of us looked up to them for guidance on how to perform better at sports even if what they were doing was actually not how you were supposed to play a certain game. The crazy part about it all too was that they also thought they were great at sports because of all of the glamour and attention we would give them about things, but they never let it go to there head. The only time there ever really was an issue about certain things was when one of them would be reprimanded by a teacher. That usually became an issue with one of them because we fed so many great things in there head that he did not like hearing he was wrong, but that is normal for kids. When I look back on it I just think how crazy it was how everyone flocked to them because they were African American and everyone thought automatically after one gym class performance that they were the greatest athletes in the world and they were good just not great. The more I look back too it makes me laugh even harder when I realize that just because one of the other kids was on there team does not mean that you were always going to win. I remember playing them in a recreation basketball league and my team beating all three of them together while their teammates had said all week that my team was going to lose to them. The same thing would happen in a recreation baseball league when my team played them again. What this class has done for me is realize that there is no real race gene at all. Just because those kids were African American and we were a bunch of white country boys does not mean anything as far as athletic ability is concerned. Everyone is basically made from the same mold and really sport is all in what you decided to put into it. I am also able to look at all of the other great athletes that I went to school and went on to play a sport at another college and became a very good player at that sport as well. This class has really brought my attention at how white people really do look at African American as this phenomenal athlete and when it boils down to it really white people just need to start stepping it up and trying to perform better. I know a lot do and over time they usually hit a wall so it is hard for them to recover from that, but overall white people need to stop talking about how they want to be as good as African American and just do it by trying harder.

I absolutely agree with stevep when he says that he now knows why he played baseball and golf in school. We will play and master the sports that are most common to the area we grow up in as well as the sports we can afford to play. I didn�??t play lacrosse until my freshman year of high school because my parents didn�??t see the point in spending that ridiculous amount of money on equipment when chances are I would grow out of it. That is why I played soccer and baseball mostly throughout my youth. I played what was available to me at that point in my life and I learned to love it and become good at it.

The town I grew up in was predominantly white middle class with the occasional lower middle to lower class family as well as the occasional upper class family. In this area, there was approximately 20% of the population which was considered minority, five years ago. When it came to sports, the stereotypical white sports were the most popular throughout my youth with soccer being the most popular and then close behind was baseball. There were minorities which played the �??white�?� sports but due to where we lived, most of the athletes were white. As I got older and started playing other sports such as football and basketball the occurrence of minorities grew. I don�??t know if it was more due to the type of sports or the fact that our town was growing and many more minorities were moving in. In football, I was considered the slow, chubby white boy who could only play on the offensive and defensive line. The black athletes dominated the positions which speed and agility were key. There were a few white corner backs and running backs but for the most part those positions were taken by the black kids. They seemed to perform the best in those positions and to be honest I didn�??t really mind because when I was a kid I didn�??t really care too much about anything. When I started playing basketball I really started to notice the differences between the white athletes and the black athletes. I was a tall kid but I could not and still cannot jump whatsoever. I noticed that black athletes who were shorter than me were able to do things in the air that I could only dream of.
Today my community is about 60% white and 40% minorities and it is certainly seen on the fields and courts. My high school varsity basketball team was predominantly white when I graduated four years ago and this past winter when I went to a game there was one white kid on the team. Society has instilled in us these stereotypes which have caused kids to stop even trying to play certain sports due to race. Our football team was the same way. When I graduated, half of the team was white and half was minority. Now it is 75% minority and 25% white. What I have noticed over the years in the youth sports as well as sports world wide is that people play the sports that are most available to them. For the white population, typically they are in a slightly higher class than most minorities. This enables them to spend the big bucks on playing sports like hockey, lacrosse, golf, and skiing/snowboarding. To play basketball all you need is a ball and a hoop. For football, all of the equipment is provided by the league or the school system so you only need to purchase cleats. I believe the reason why stereotypes have developed is because if someone has the ability to only play a certain sport, they will most likely become better at it because that is all they play. My black friends in high school played basketball every single day after school at the local park. If you are playing that much there is no excuse not to be as good as they were. The same thing goes for Canadians and Russians when it comes to hockey. The reason they are typically better at hockey is because that is basically the only thing they did as kids. When you live somewhere where it is winter for most of the year, you WILL be more interested in and better at a sport which is done during the winter such as hockey. We are all creatures of our habitats and when your habitat gives you the ability to play hockey because the local lake is frozen over, 7 months out of the year or you can only play basketball because that is the only sport your family can afford for you to play, then you will absolutely be better than someone who doesn�??t always play that sport.

I consider myself one of the lucky kids growing up because race and discrimination was never really an issue in my life. I grew up five minutes away from Ft. Meade base so much of friend were from all different backgrounds. When ever we play pick games all the kids in the neighborhood would participate However I must admit me having a Greek last name did come along with many stereotypes. I remember whenever we play soccer in gym class everybody would assume I was the next Pele because I had a weird last name. So everybody would want me on their team even though non of the kids ever seen me kick a ball. So naturally I had a lot of pressure on me to make sure I stood out and played well. I remember even when I was little when I was playing rec-ball and my dad would yell instructions at me from the sidelines everybody would think he was cursing at me and saying something vulgar because he spoke in Greek. At this point in my playing career my dad was synonymous with me. Everybody would always want my dad to come to the game so they can hear him yell in his deep accent and watch him chew me out. It almost felt like they looked at us as some entertainment. For the most part my ethnicity never really altered my soccer experience least not in a truly negative way.
When I began to pickup basketball in middle then I truly notice how my race effected my playing experience. During the end of my middle school career and throughout my high school career I attended a predominantly black school. When ever we had a free day to play sports in gym class everybody would want play basketball or football. No one was ever interested in playing soccer so I started to participate in playing basketball. Immediately I grew a fast interest and was surprise how I could incorporate much of my soccer abilities into basketball. Me and my best friend would spend everyday just shooting and playing basketball after school. We began picking up the sport pretty quickly so we started to play pickup games around the neighborhood and local parks. During this time I notice how quickly I had a target on back simply because I was a white boy. When we go to play a pick up game to the near by community people would automatically assume that I suck or was weak minded and if I could do anything it was have the typical white boy jump shot. It was the complete opposite experience I had with my soccer career, everybody would assume I was good without watching me play because I was Greek, but when it came to basketball kids assume I would suck because I was white. So I had to work harder then my friends to prove myself and get respect around the neighborhood.
After being in this class for several weeks I think it has both reinforced and alter my thinking on the subject. The way we talked about how other races are looked at as buffoons or clowns related to my experience with my father. At that same time this class has allowed me for the first time to looked at sports as a product of society and how for the most part my experience in sports will continually change the more I learn about society.

In ref to ladytigerswim616:
"This class is certainly responsible for the more intellectual, critical view point I have accumulated over the past few weeks. "

I agree.

Now looking back at my own experiences I see why I played baseball and golf in high school, and my main sporting activity now is tennis. Growing up in a middle class suburban neighborhood, I was surrounded by two sports; lacrosse and baseball. When it cam time to choose, I went with the sport my older brother played �?? baseball. All my friends played one of the two sports and that�??s the way it was �?? not many kids were in to football or basketball as it wasn�??t as popular in the neighborhood. I am confident looking back if I had grown up in a neighborhood where all the kids were playing hockey than I would have jumped right on the bandwagon �?? not because I�??m a Canadian, but because it was the expected sport to play.
Before taking this class I am sure there were times where I fell in with ignorance and assumed certain people were good at certain sports because it was �??in their genes�?�. After analysis of the socio-economic situations of certain �??races�?� in relation with the sports they are good at, it all makes sense. That backed with the knowledge of scientists never proving any gene advantages to any race makes the idea of �??he�??s good at basket ball because he�??s black�?� so ridiculous. In reality he�??s good at basket ball because of culture, socio-economic standing, surroundings, and other factors.

Race is always analyzed and discussed no matter where it is in the United States. This is because of the fact of the differences that people identify between themselves and the individual that they are looking at and talking about. Sports are more analyzed by players�?? ethnicity in the present than ever to define a good athlete. Sports during the present are more diverse than ever because of the skills and talents that some ethnic players are bringing to the sport. This is because these athletes train hard for themselves and the sport and become a key to opening waves into sport. An example would be Michael Jordan, the most well known African American basketball legend that spoke out to African Americans that basically if you train hard and stay in school and try to get ahead you can become great also. Though of course because Jordan made a lot of money from signing up under NIKE for shoes, which in turn also produced negatives results of African Americans stating that if they succeed and become famous they can have a shoe line of their own. Aside that point, sports have been classified for attracting certain ethnic groups and races, basketball and football for African Americans, Soccer for Hispanics and Europeans, Hispanics for baseball, and so on. These attractions are because of someone, a role model, that they have looked up to in that sport that would be from the same ethnic group. Someone might look up to someone of the same ethnic race knowing and thinking that the role model might have had similar experiences and such of growing up and being in that sport. Even though now it is not only sports that ethnicity is crossing over into a different battle field like politics. Barack Obama is running for President and trying his best with his campaign and speaking for the people and not using the same tactics as previous politicians used in their campaigns and he is reaching out to the people and speaking for the people. This is capturing a lot of people of all races that agree with him and what he stands for. He is considered African American however just because of his skin difference even though he is mixed with other races, but just because of the close similarities of African Americans he is more generalized as one. Although he is not the only celebrity of mixed decent that publicized for representing one race. �??Many are well known and come from all parts of the U.S. culture industry. From sports, baseball player Derek Jeter, basketball player Jason Kidd and golf champion Tiger Woods; from music, Paula Abdul, Joan Baez, Cher, Jimi Hendrix, Prince and Tina Turner; from movies, Halle Berry, Martin and Charlie Sheen, and Raquel Welch; and from fashion, Naomi Campbell. Many more live ordinary lives outside the celebrity spotlight.�?� (Rosen, Paragraph 8) Tiger Woods does not claim himself African American at all, not saying he is not proud of having that blood in him but the fact is he is mixed with many different races and isn�??t just categorized to one race but many. Class isn�??t the reason for the change to sport, it is the fact that the racial thoughts and segregation has been brought down that anybody from any ethnic background can do anything with training and hard work. Popularity of an individual and the money that can be made drives certain ethnic groups to a sport because of money that can be made and/or the pride of the sport. A short way to put it is if someone can market a sport to a certain ethnic group that group will embrace that and believe it is for them. I for one do not agree, for instance it has been said that African Americans are built for speak and muscle. That is not true I for one as an African American am not fast what so ever and am horrible at sports. Everyone is brought up differently and has the choice of being physically fit or not, it is not determined by race at birth.

I work at a fine dining restaurant where we have a very strict dress code. Any guests who come in the restaurant not dressed properly are seated in the lounge. Every night, this happens several times and it�??s awkward and guests get offended and mean. Usually, the guests who must sit in the lounge are black people who do not follow our dress code. More times than not, the white hostesses are called racist. The fact is, when our white guests come in dressed in jeans in sneakers, we would also seat them in the bar area. This actually happened recently and the hostesses that evening happened to be black and while the white guests were being seated in the lounge, they called the hostess racist. I think this is the first time I have ever heard a white person pull the race card. It�??s like Reilly said in his article �??White like me�?� we are the unprotected race. There seems to be a huge double standard when it comes to the boundaries white people are expected to respect in regards to other races, but the minorities can say whatever they want about us and no one ever says anything. Also, during the holiday season in December and January, we put up many Christmas and Hanukkah decorations around the restaurant. Our managers were called racist because we didn�??t have any Kwanzaa decorations. Kwanzaa is a made up religion with no historical significance or even existence. I am so sick of people calling each other racist because of the smallest most insignificant little details or decisions one might make. Enough is enough.

I agree with jflesh1, in that were I grew up there was a lot of stack and centrality with players. I also agree that where you grow up has a lot to do with your prospective when it comes to sports, like hockey is a rich sport that is mostly played by Caucasians in more rural areas, and that basketball is a poorer sport played by more African Americans because it is easily accessible in urban cities where there is a high African American population.

In response to cari04r
I strongly agree with the point you make about the basketball team. At my school it was really the same thing that we were believed to be not any good because we were the hick school with very little African American Athletes on it. However, my school also excelled at many sports like yours and than we received of kind the respect that the other schools got. Additionally, I am one of those people who grew up having exactly zero African American head coaches in any of the sports I played. I am not really sure as to why this was but I hope that there is some change in the near future. I think the NFL is one sport on the right track by instituting the Rooney rule.

In response to Travis Hubbard's post. I am actually from Poolesville and went to Poolesville High School. So i know exactly what you are talking about with the small town, predominately white stereotype. We were also called the farm boys and girls and people never thought we'd excel at any sports. And in response to the mascot change. I think i was a sophomore and it was a huge mess. No one understood why we were being asked to change something that was a part of a long history. We were asked as a school to vote on the change. We voted not to change it obviously and of course we were overruled by the school board. It was kind of like we were becoming a whole new school. Everything was changed. And the people who made us change our name are the same people who have been going after the Redskin's for years and I guess they felt as if they couldn't get the big guys to change it they would start small.

In response to Chris Richards-
Your last comment is very true, although we can change, over time the way each of us thinks about racial issues and sport, it is difficult to even think about how we, as a society, would go about encouraging a more ethnically diverse group of athletes for every sport. Athletes play the sports they do for more reasons than just their own personal interest, and it would be unreasonable to believe that our society can change that in order for all races to have an equal share in all sports.

I come from a primarily white community. A small town in Montgomery County, MD. My high school had 700 students in the entire school making us the smallest public high school in the county. Out of these 700 students, it is sad to say when I graduated high school I could count the number of African American students on one hand. When we would go to dance competitions we were the only all white team competing. And I heard numerous comments from the crowd "oh they are white girls, they can't dance" and it wasn't the case. It had nothing to do with any teams majority ethnicity, it was all about the technique and skills you learned and aquired through hard work and practice. Some years we won and some we didn't. This was the only experience in when I would think that in my sporting life it was altered by my ethnicity.
But thinking about the other sports teams from my high school it was very apparent. We had an all caucasion basketball team my junior year of high school and when we would play other schools who were primarily African American it would always seem as if everyone was favoring them because of the stereotypes placed on them and basketball. In Andrews article he discusses how black athletes are thought of as a physical object not for their mind and thinking. And I feel as though that was the case with my friends who played basketball. They would hear they were playing a certain school who has a reputation for being "big black guys" and they would become intimidated because of their size. Not because of their skills in the game or quick plays, etc.
Throughout most of my high school career all of my sports teams were predicted to be the underdog in the season and although it was never said I know it was because of our lack of diversity within the teams. But that wasn't the case. My school excelled in many sports such as lacrosse, track and field, and dance. Bringing home many state championships. I think that just with our society today and all of the media hype about athletes and their ethnicity, when people see a dominantely white school, they feel as if they already have something over them and that is only because that is what the media is telling them.
I also didn't realize until this class how exactly the breakdown of different ethnicities in different sports is. I never realized that most coaches are primarily white in all sports, that members of the same ethnicity tend to hold the same positions and that each sport lacks a certain participation rate of a certain ethnicity. I feel as though when we are young we are taught " well you are white, so you are going to be good at these sports, or you are black you are playing basketball." but that is not always the case, while it may be the norm I have seen many people break that norm and excel in a sport people would have never expected.

Jredding has a great point is his blog about there being discrimination against the white race and not getting reprimanded for it, but there cannot be any against any other race because there will be repurcussions. If there is to be equality then we can't discrimnate against some races and it be okay to do so against caucasions. And the argument with the friend about being held responsible for the past is also a form of discrimination against people of today whom had nothing to do with the unfortunate treatment and happenings of that era.

I can relate to Travis Hubbard when he says that he grew up in farm country and that in his 4 years on the baseball team he never had a black team mate. I�??m from farm country too, but my high school was a mix of two middle schools. The middle school that I went to was primarily white and the other middle school was primarily black. In my four years in high school there was never a black girl on the softball team and there was only one black guy on the baseball team. The coach�??s were not racist, in my case; there were just no black guys or girls that tried out for the team.

I am white female and honestly I did not encounter any discrimination against my ethnicity. Maybe I never paid attention or noticied it. I attended a school where it was predominately caucasian where the norm was everyone was involved in all types of sports no matter what kind. It was unusual if someone was not playing on a sports team of some kind.
I have realized this class has opened up my eyes to the world of sports and how it can be an altered experience because of your ethnicity. Whether it is in the playing field or simply watching a game. Even the magazines we read or the television shows we watch. The Vogue cover that was highlighted this week with LeBron and Gisele on the cover was criticized for its racial stereotypes. LeBron being the savage beast, the image of King Kong as they stated, and Gisele being the light-skinned lovely damsel. The image portraying a black angry aggressive savage and a gorgeous thin model. I will say this, the cover is called the �??Shape Issue, Secrets of the Best Bodies, Gisele and LeBron the World�??s Top Models and Star Athletes.�?� What do they expect to see, ugly fat stars on the cover? That would not sell any magazines. Okay, you got one of the top models, of course she looks good and one of the top athletes showing off his physique. Maybe he is a little over ther top with his pose, but isn�??t he a grown up?? Isn�??t he in charge of his own image and posing like that himself? Did he pose like that all on his own or did someone behind the camera given him direction, I am sure he could have disagreed with certain looks or posed in certain positions that he approved of or was more comfortable in. The same goes for Gisele. If either was so upset with the images that was portrayed on the cover of the magazine, I am sure there would have been media coverage surrounding it. Maybe this image is who they are or they were just having fun and it was a good shot at the time. Okay, so my point is I understand what the article is stating about racial images and stereotypes in society, but I also believe that people are responsible for these images. These are adults and posing on a cover of a magazine and how they pose is their choice. Like why didn�??t Gisele appear in a more tough image and LeBron in a softer pose? Celebrities and athletes have a great impact on society, maybe they should take the intitiative and start changing the way we view these images and stereotypes.

With the NCAA basketball tournament well under way, I have noticed a change in the way in which I spectate games. I find myself commenting on the over-use of commentary and the genotypical and phenotypical differences or similarities of players that make up certain positions, as well as a majority of the teams. This class is certainly responsible for the more intellectual, critical view point I have accumulated over the past few weeks. My race/ethnicity didn�??t necessarily limit/decide the sports I chose to participate in. And in the sport I have participated in my whole life, swimming, the comparison of race isn�??t really an issue since there aren�??t a huge variety of races that compete. I didn�??t come across a noticeable number of swimmers of an ethnicity besides whites, until the end of age group swimming and the beginning of collegiate swimming. At that time, and even when I would come across a black swimmer, I found myself thinking �??that is surprising; I didn�??t know (fill in with whatever non-white race I saw) swam. When the movie, Pride, a film about a black swim team, was first advertised, I remember fellow swimmers, non-swimmers, and even myself, saying that �??black swim teams are usually not very fast�??, or �??why are they making a movie about this, it won�??t be very good�??, or even �??this seems like just another one of those pity movies for black athletes overcoming a huge tragedy�??. After becoming introduced to other theories and ways of thinking in this class, I have tried to let go of my prejudice thinking, but I still find myself commenting as if race is genetic. In high school, I picked up cross country, indoor track, and outdoor track along with my year-round swimming. Running in high school was a little different setting as far as the break down of races. It was more likely to see a little bit more of a variety of ethnicities than swimming, but still not anywhere near a similar make up as sports such as high school football and basketball. Even though I was more accustomed to seeing a more equal representation of races at track meets, it was still normal to hear spectators, coaches, and other runners making assumptions on the outcome of races just by witnessing the skin color of athletes in an event. For example, if the next event was the 100m hurdles and at the blocks there were 3 black athletes, 2 white, and 1 Asian and you didn�??t previously know the ability level of any of the athletes, I beat you would pick that one of the black athletes would win. This assumption is only made because socially, we are taught that blacks are good sprinters. What is also interesting about this scenario is most people predicting the outcome of this race would probably only comment on the black and white athletes and leave out the Asians. A popular reason is that we as a society don�??t really know that much about the Asian-Americans, and they are a relatively new race to play a role in athletics. As stated in Berkman�??s article entitled The Asian Sports Conundrum, �??most people in sporting culture don�??t know how to refer to Asian-American, so they neglect learning more about their culture.
I have recently learned that expressing this view on racial issues is inaccurate and a huge misconception on the part of society. Although it will be difficult to adjust my way of thinking about race representation in specific sports, what will make it all the more difficult is the racially inaccurate views of the rest of society that will continue to be shoved in my face though the media and other sources.

As controversial as Rick Reilly�??s article �??White Like Me�?� may be, I absolutely marvel at its accuracy. I can really relate to his statement �??Were the last unprotected race, so bash on!�?� (page 2). As sad as it sounds it is terribly true. For a race that every other scrutinizes for once being tyrannical and obsolete, people sure are paying the white population back for their �??wrongdoings�?�. For a time when the country begs of equality and togetherness as we are engaged and war and other global disputes, we spend more time defending our own race against scrutiny then focusing on the real problems. Which brings me back to Reilly�??s comment. Why are whites the last unprotected race? Why can black athletes say those things and not be reprimanded, but if a white person says it directed at a black, Asian, or Hispanic person it�??s considered racist and could constitute a hate crime punishable by law? Its disturbing that black children are brought up still hating white children because of the slavery era, thinking that for some reason those white children are direct descendants of the men and women who may have had enslaved there ancestors. I also find it a little odd that countries such as Japan still live in denial of a changing world. Living in Japan and not being 100% Japanese is almost a guaranteed exile from many aspects of life there. It is one instance of an age old history that refuses to change with the fast-paced world around it. I read in an article today of a baseball player in Japan name Yu Darvish. He is thought to be the next legend of Japanese baseball, and at 21 years old, is a guaranteed money maker once he makes his transition to MLB. However, he is raucous and loud, undisciplined and erratic, and doesn�??t fit into the culture Japanese children are taught to grow up with at a young age. It also doesn�??t help that he is half Iranian. Although he sees himself as Japanese, the country of Japan will never fully recognize him as a Japanese hero, just because his father was from Iran.
What I find extremely humorous is the support Barack Obama is getting from the black population, who in some ways are looking upon him as a �??saving grace�?�, thinking that he may be the one who can magically get them jobs, education (which we shouldn�??t begin to discuss the fact that minorities get very generous scholarships to attend most colleges if there grades are at least sub par), and in general put them above the poverty line and into the same country clubs and million dollar homes they believe white people make up. If most of this demographic were to look closely, they would see that Hillary Clinton takes a much larger part of her campaign and directs it at the black population, attempting to mend differences and help problems such as poverty and gang violence, while Barack Obama has all but locked down the college age white vote with his promises of increased college aid and federal grant programs. I know I have been the blunt end of many racial comments, seeing as how I appear to be white. In one case I was in a debate with a black friend of mine, and she stated that �??you should be lucky that no one came and stole you from your land like my ancestors�?�. Little did she know, I am half Native American, and indeed replied back with the fact that my ancestors were deprived of their land by the white population, but I would never put blame on a white person today for that? It�??s silly how people can hang on to a past that most likely never concerned any part of them at all.
Now, to get down to the point of this blog, I experienced perhaps one of the greatest racial issues in youth sports today. I started playing football in 8th grade, and developed into a rather good running back. Now, we all know that white boys don�??t run the ball, and if they do its because they have managed to block successfully for the black running back enough times to deserve a carry on a fourth and 1. I however, stayed the starting running back for my team from 8th grade until I graduated high school. I wasn�??t particularly fast, couldn�??t shake defenders out of there shoes, and most certainly wasn�??t going to break the long game breaking touchdown. However, I was dependable, I was durable, and I was smart. I knew the playbook like the back of my hand, the assignments of all the other players, and was guaranteed to get 100 yards a game whether the defense thought otherwise or not. I could never imagine playing football without the ball in my hands, but in my attempt to go to college, I learned quickly that my running back days would be numbered, and I would be moved to linebacker on defense, or blocking back on offense. White positions. I couldn�??t imagine playing a game that wasn�??t fun, so I stopped. This class hasn�??t done much to refute my belief that racism will never be erased, but it has allowed me to see past any anger that I may have had from my past and the racial line that was drawn between my life and success that I may have had. I have learned that there are things that multiple factors including socio-economic status, demographics, environmental conditions, influence in our everyday lives growing up, and that there is a place for everyone somewhere. I just don�??t, and probably never will understand why dunking a basketball or hitting home runs while doing something you love justifies making more then the doctors, lawyers, and blue collar workers who are going to allow you to coast through life acting as though you�??re always a step ahead of those you once lived amongst. I guess race matters.

I grew up on the Eastern shore of Maryland, just five miles from Ocean city, and the elementary, middle and high schools I attended and the community where I was raised are all far from diverse. In elementary school, I only remember their being two black kids in my grade. When it was time to enter middle school, I attended a school in Delaware and there were a lot more black and Mexican students there than I had ever come in contact with in my life up until that point. Even though blacks and Mexicans were much more prominent at my middle school, they were never in my classes and never participated in the same extracurricular activities as I did. The black and Mexican students usually were in the �??general�?� and �??resource�?� classes, while the �??academic�?� classes were saturated with white students. The middle school I attended separated each grade into two �??teams,�?� and the team a student was placed on depended on his or her ability in math. Only one team taught the highest level of math per grade.
As far as the extracurricular activities I participate in, I also mostly remember all of my teammates being white. I played an instrument in the school band and was inducted into the Honor Society, and again, each participant rarely was anything but white.
I attended Stephen Decatur High School in Worcester County Maryland and again, there were very few black students and even fewer students of any other ethnicity. There was one black girl on my field hockey team, and she played a wing position. The same black girl was also on my lacrosse team, and was also the only black player on the team and fulfilled a wing position on the lax team also. There were three black girls on my basketball team, by my senior year, but the starting five were all white girls. When we played other schools, usually our opponent�??s rosters looked similar to our own. I saw the most diversity amongst the opposing teams when we played schools in Salisbury, where there is a much larger black community. Most of this diversity occurred on the basketball teams, while the field hockey and lacrosse teams were mostly white, which also reinforces the idea that each culture is socially learned to like certain sports for a variety of different reasons none of which are based on genetics.
After our last class lecture, I thought about stacking and centrality amongst the athletic teams at my high school. The most diverse sport by far at my high school was football. I attended football games at Stephen Decatur High School from the time my oldest brother played on the team (he is now 29) to the time I graduated, and I can�??t recall there ever being a black quarterback. I also clearly remember when I was a freshman and we had one of our best football teams ever. People always talked about the unstoppable connection between our quarterback and our receiver. Just as we discussed in class, the quarterback was white, and the receiver was black.
The �??Of Polls and Race Prejudice�?� article was a review of the Sports Illustrated article the �??Indian Wars�?� and I disagree with almost everything the article criticizes about the SI piece. �??Of Polls and Race Prejudice�?� claims that Indian mascots stereotype Native Americans in three ways: only existing in the past, having one culture, and being aggressive fighters. I do not think that any Native American should be offended by an American sport choosing an Indian term, figure, or mascot to represent their organization. These mascots do refer to the Indian tribes of the past, no one thinks that Indians still exist in the same way they did when Columbus came to America just like we do not think Americans, or then, Europeans, exist in the same way either. Every culture has evolved since then; we don�??t assume that Indians still run around wearing only animal skin skirts with no shoes carrying tomahawks. As for mascots stereotyping Indians as having one culture, again these are representations of historical Indian tribes. All cultures during this time had very little diversity. There was little freedom; each culture was expected to adhere to the specific rules of the colony from dress to religion. But today, we have evolved far from those traditions.
Indians were aggressive fighters historically. They are portrayed through out history as being agile, swift, brave, courageous, and feared warriors. But again, America does not think that Indians still scalp people. Having mascots based on the historical Native American tribes is a way of honoring the historical Native American. I don�??t think any organization chose to be represented by an Indian tribe or figure from the past with the intentions to passively aggressively demean, trivialize, or oppress the existing Native American cultures.

Sporting experiences are drastically different based upon an individual�??s ethnicity. It is a sad fact that many people in sport and in society more widely are discriminated against, bullied or harassed purely on the grounds of their race or ethnic background. Being a Caucasian male growing up in the United States I was considered the societal norm when it comes to more than just sport (politically, is changing as we speak).
Being from a Caucasian household considerably opened more sporting avenues than African Americans and Hispanics may have had. Meaning, according the 2000 Median Household Income by Race, Caucasians earned 15 thousand and 12 thousand dollars more on average than African Americans and Hispanics respectively. Due to money playing an enormous role in individuals sporting experiences it determined what sports I played. I play/ed a wide variety of socioeconomic sports growing up including ice hockey, golf, football, swimming, and track. Ice Hockey and Golf are sports that you are not going to find in the lower income areas of the United States because it could cost someone 500 to 1000 dollars prior to actually playing. These type of �??White Suburbia�?� sports which cost a lot money had the minivan driving soccer moms willing to big dollars so that there child didn�??t get hurt. When I was playing Ice Hockey it would often take me thirty minutes just to put on all the equipment and with all that, the odds of perhaps a head injury is of course a great deal less than a fighter. Additionally, the higher income of Caucasian�??s often allowed them to experience sporting practices in person which many of the intercity individuals are unable to part take in.
Moreover, growing up in a small town I know that when I look back on my sporting experiences, football was the only sport I played with any sort of ethnicity diversity. While I played I never once had a black quarterback or a white running back in ten years. Basketball was really the only other sport of any ethnicity diversity where I am from and I never even tried to play because I had the �??white gene.�?� According to Rick Reilly �??when we hoop, we�??ve got White Man�??s Disease�?� which is something that was engraved into us as kids. Therefore, I probably just thought why try if I am going to suck, consequently I decided hockey was the sport for me. Further, growing up and watching the NBA there two good white players in Larry Bird and John Stockton thus just the image of the game definitely affects how someone experiences the sport. I choose to play hockey after watching Wayne Gretzky, Mark Messier and all the other white players. I thought that it looked like a sport that I would be able to be good at unlike basketball. Looking back it is ignorant of me to think sport as having two distinct categories, white and black. But I can honestly say that I was and a lot of you were one of those individuals who would pick black basketball players over the white and/or white hockey players over the black.
Socially there is always going to be sporting differences between ethnicities perhaps due to location, and or socioeconomic status. And let�??s be honest there is no quick change for this situation. If someone is growing up in an urban area they are going to play basketball because that is what is offered and what the city has space for. We as a society have been conditioned as far as what sports to play and which ones to not.

To go along with karagoodwin25, it is interesting to see the American response to Asian athletes. I think that this is mainly because of our overall social perspective when its comes to Asians. We have been conditioned that they are super-smart, technologically savvy, and very urban. In all that I think we came to the conclusion that they can't play sports, which is kind of absurd!!

I haven�??t really had many racial sporting encounters or stories to tell. I went to a private school where the white girls played lacrosse, softball, and field hockey and the black girls danced and some played soccer. It never really seemed to be an issue as the black girls weren�??t interested in playing lacrosse, and it seemed like everyone was happy with the situation. Perhaps maybe there were cultural undercurrents, and the outcome was really due to our societal pressures, but in a school where academics were definitely stronger than athletics, no one seemed to care too much about the makeup of the teams.
I sympathize with all races who have endured hardship and have been discriminated against in society, and therefore, sport. Ideologies of hate and inequality have no place in our world, but the hard truth is that they exist. All the talk about the differences between the races seems to me to simply be fueled by articles like the one written by Andrews. I think I understand his reason for writing the article, but the outcome is that he further separates the world of the white athlete and the world of the nonwhite athlete. It is completely true that Tiger Woods and Michael Jordan are to be admired, and should be commended for their success. However, I believe that there are many white athletes that also deserve their commendations. Athletes such as Cal Ripken, a Baltimore hometown favorite, should also be praised to the level of these other athletes and given the status that Andrews gives Jordan and Woods. Whether or not athletes are Asian, Latino, black, white, from Alaska, or from Bangladesh, it shouldn�??t matter; all their praise should be based on their performance, and not on their race. When Andrews separates Woods and Jordan from the golfing and basketball crowds, respectively, I think it simply leads to more dissention.
I also agree with Reilly�??s article, �??White Like Me�?�; while humorous, it was startling as I realized how accurate it was. It is true that white men have to simply shrug off affronts by non-white competitors, because if they fight it, they are deemed racist, and have to face the consequences for �??their actions�?�. If a non-white player defended himself, he would be praised to the skies for standing up and defending his entire race. Once again, this isn�??t the way it should be! I know that things don�??t change overnight, and I know that its naïve to say that �??its not fair,�?� but something has to be done to level the playing field, and to ultimately leave race at the door.
I have always noticed that there are major differences in the sporting preferences of the different races, but I think that this class has helped me to better understand why, and the cultural force behind these differences. Instead of black men dominating basketball �??just because�?�, it now makes sense that their situation has led them to that sport, etc.

Growing up I played in a lot of different sports in a lot of different leagues. But I did grow up is a smaller rural area and most of the kids on the sports teams were white, so most of the teams that I played on were not very diverse. Out of my four years playing baseball in high school there was never a black player on out team, it wasn�??t due to the fact that the coach was raciest, but rather that there was never any black players to try out for the team. My high school football team was also predominantly white; however there were some players that were not. I actually played high school football with a black friend who is now playing football at Syracuse on a full ride. I know that when ever we played a team from the city in baseball we were always referred to as the �??farm boys�?�, because most of us were white and the town I am from was mainly a farming community. I know growing up everybody assumed that the black athletes were faster and could jump higher than there white counterpart. But now I know that this is not true and different kinds of people are better at different sports and it mainly has to do with how you are raised and what opportunities you have. When I was in high school we always had a very good baseball program and not a very strong basketball program. Many people thought that our basketball team was not very good because there weren�??t many black athletes that played basketball in my town. Until my senior year when there was a new development build on the outer edge of my school district and there were kids that had parents that moved into this new community. The following years our basketball team improved dramatically, this wasn�??t due to the fact that there were more black players on the team, but that there were more players from the city who grew up playing basketball therefore they were better skilled in the game. After attending some of our classes I understand that the sports you play mainly has to do with the socio-economic class you were brought up in. The richer families tend to take part in such sports as golf and hockey, and lower socio-economic families tend to play basketball because they live in cities and basketball is readily accessible there.
When it comes to mascots the �??sport's thorniest word problem: the
use of Native American names�?� (Price), I don�??t know who is right or wrong. I do know that a local high school formally known as the Poolesville Indians changed there mascot and are now known as the Falcons because people raised all kinds of hell because they were called the Indians. I can see where Native Americans can find this offensive, but then why are the Washington Redskins still the Redskins. I think that if these mascots are offensive to Native Americans than all mascots no matter high school, college, or pro should change their mascot to a more appropriate name.

This is an interesting topic to move into writing about because it ties in a lot that I have learned about in this class so far. Personally I feel that my sporting experience was a very jaded and wrong before sitting through the first part of this class. The professor makes mention of Jason Whitlock and his outlandish views in his writings, and being a Kansas City Chiefs fans, I have had the �??pleasure�?� of reading Mr. Whitlock�??s articles in the Kansas City Star. And while I know going in that his articles will be outlandish and full of strong opinions, I can�??t help but to read these articles and even agree with what is written. This is part of the problem that I may have had dealing with sports and how they affected my life.
My hometown may have also had an effect on the way my experience with ethnicity in sports has been altered. The reason I feel that this had an effect is through the makeup of my hometown. Coming from a small town in Southern Maryland, I was raised in an area where there was very little ethnicity variations in sports. Coming to Baltimore, I was then experienced to many other ethnicities such as African-American, Jewish, and Hispanic. Growing up in my town, I played on a lacrosse team composed of only Caucasian players. This was coupled with the fact that our basketball was composed mainly of African-American players, and the football team had an African-American running back and wide receivers. This is how a large numbers of my sporting visions were formed, so I assumed the lacrosse was a �??white�?� sport and basketball was a �??black�?� sport. After taking only a few weeks in this class I have learned that I have engaged in ideas such as stacking and centrality, and these may have been based on what I had seen growing up and playing sports.
My previous experiences with sport have also dealt with geographic aspects of sports. I felt like people from inner cities were forced to grow up playing basketball and that is what they would be good at. On the other end of the spectrum, I would constantly associate rich areas with being good at golf, swimming, and sports like rowing and lacrosse. I now realize that these generalizations were due to social class and there are plenty of rich towns that are good at basketball. I realize that hockey players come from more areas than just Russia and golfers come from more backgrounds than just a rich, higher class setting. These are views that I had of sports just from my prior experiences.
Overall, my sporting views have been shaped through a various number of experiences. I feel that these experiences have provided me with a base knowledge of sports and that my present experiences continue to change the way I view sports. Everyday I become more educated on what issues to look at deeper in the way of sports and I am able to interpret a clearer picture on seeing sports as part of society and seeing different ethnicities and their role in sports.

I am a white female. Stereotypically this means that I am not good at basketball, I can�??t/shouldn't play football, baseball or hockey. I�??m not as competitive as blacks or other ethnicity's because white women aren�??t playing winner stays on sports like basketball. I probably enjoy yoga, running/walking, palates possibly softball, tennis, cheerleading and golf and I probably know nothing about cock fighting or boxing. I do love to run, do yoga, palates, and play softball and it�??s true I don�??t know anything about cock fighting or boxing.
Before taking this class I never thought about the ethnicity of the people involved in specific sports. I mean I knew or had heard the saying �??white men can�??t jump�?� and I understood the fact that it�??s ok for people to make fun of white men or boys but I also knew that there were exceptions to that rule. In Reilly�??s �??White like Me�?� I laughed through out the entire article because his comments were not only funny but so true. I especially liked when he said �??when we jam we�??re just an average white band�?�. I never realized that black men were in primarily running positions in football and there were few black men in the MLB. What I did noticed was that there were a lot of good Latino players in the MLB. I just thought that black men enjoyed basketball more than white men did because basketball is that they culturally grew up playing. I never thought about the fact that they play it because it was what�??s going on in there neighborhood for fun or that it might be the only sport many blacks have access to.
When I used to think of cockfighting I would think of Latino�??s or white men who lived on farms participating in it. I guess I would make that stereotypical assumption because it�??s typically a poor mans sport and I do not know anyone that is involved in it, so I would just base my assumptions on media coverage of the sport. When I think of boxing I don�??t necessarily think of the participants in terms of ethnicity but more of just everyone who is poor. I always thought of basketball as primarily a sport for blacks because generally growing up all the good basketball players I knew in high school and college were black, and majority of the NBA are also black.
I think that American�??s generally view Asian�??s as a bit of a side show or don�??t take them seriously but after the American Idol televised that Asian guy singing �??she bangs�?� even more American�??s began to see Asians as a sort of side show. The article �??The Asian Sports Conundrum�?� discusses the Asian side show issue in America but has hopes that professional athletes such as Yao Ming will change this perception of Asians in America. I would have to agree, I to hope that America will begin to take not only Asians a little more seriously but other ethnicity�??s to. Hopefully American�??s will stop generalizing or classifying someone�??s ethnicity to the sporting abilities they are capable of having. I mean after all if a white boy believes he can jump, he to, can make it to the NBA.