I disagreed with a lot that the article, “Sister Act VI: Venus and Serena Williams at Indian Wells: “Sincere Fictions” and White Racism. Although I think racism is still evident in today’s world and in sports, I think that articles just like this one only encourage for racism to still exist. I think that people tend to make something out of nothing a lot of times. Athletes are looked at under a microscope constantly and everything that is said and is done that revolves around them is leaked to the media instantly. I believe that if people and the media keep talking about how racism is still a major issue of sports and society it will always be an issue in society. This article talks about how Tiger Woods, Michael Jordan, and the Williams sisters got an enormous amount of endorsement deals and media publicity because they were black. However I think they got the attention that they received because they are the best athletes in the sport. Not only were they the best, they were the best by a landslide. They have earned the most attention and endorsement deals. I did find it interesting that people were making racial comments at Indian Wells in 2001. However, the article describes toward the end that the fans were most likely frustrated with the match between Venus and Serena not happening and the idea that their father fixed the outcome. This scenario seems to happen a lot more than it needs to happen. A comment that is made is not necessarily racist is blown up through the media when in actuality the fans were just expressing their content about not getting their money’s worth for the game. In today’s sport news, Jeremy Lin has blown up the media as an Asian American point guard for the New York Knicks. His story is a really great story about how he had to work very hard to finally earn playing time. However, his hard work is often looked over and the excuse is made up that he simply just got overlooked talent wise because of his skin color. SportsCenter and other ESPN shows such as First Take talked a great deal about the racial issues when that may not have even have been the real factor that even mattered.
-Tim McLellan
I agree, the media tends to overreact to racial issues and for me I hate when these issues come up or people question different players or decisions. I remember during the Tebow Mania phase of the NFL season I was watching ESPN First Take and were talking about Tebow and two African-American men brought up how Tebow is being treated differently than many black quarterbacks. When Tebow was brought up racial discrimination was not something on my mind because I had no idea people might look at this in a racial way. I think it sparks so much controversy and attention media tends to use racial issues to get hot topics started and debates.
ReplyDeleteI like Tim's point about how such sport networks as ESPN contribute to the notion that racism still exists in sport. Sports today is alot more diverse and all races have been included. And to the point that athletes like Tiger Woods and Michael Jordan only getting endorsements because they are black, I feel that is a major assumption. Yes while it is true that many of the superior athletes in sports today are African American, I feel that is simply a coincidence. It is because of this that the best athletes do deserve the most endorsements so its not surprising that athletes like Tiger Woods and Michael Jordan along with the Williams' sisters are the most highly marketable.
ReplyDelete~Max Householder
I agree with Tim’s views on racism. Often racism isn’t viewed as an issue until it’s brought up. The media can go weeks without an issue involving racism occurring then one small thing can lead to a huge discussion about how racism will never die. I believe racism will never die for this soul reason. The large amount of endorsement deals and media publicity that Tiger, MJ, and the Williams sisters receive I think is a push at trying to end racism and in end might make it worse. They are all good athletes but companies have went over and beyond to promote these athletes, further than they have for any white athlete to my knowledge.
ReplyDelete-Alyssa Robinson
I need to respectfully disagree with some of the points you made about the article I wrote, Tim. My main goal in writing it was to try to understand how racism operates. I was not criticizing the fact that Michael Jordan, Tiger Woods, and the Williams sisters receive a lot of endorsements. In fact, it was Martina Hingis who made the statement that she believed the Williams sisters got a lot of endorsements because they were black. Instead, I was linking that to how "blackness" was beginning to sell within society - through the popularity of rap and hip hop, as well as the proliferation of endorsement deals for black athletes. In some ways, I believe that makes people think that race is no longer an issue in society. However, when there is something like what happened at Indian Wells, where fans yell racist slurs and boo at inappropriate times, this is behavior that is not typical of most tennis fans. The racist slurs indicate to me that this is largely about race. The fact that most people did not hear about it is because it was not at a big event like the U.S. Open, so Indian Wells ran under the radar, in my opinion.
ReplyDelete