America's Sport

Does America have a true national sport like Canada? If I had to pick one sport in the United States that I would say is the equivalent of what hockey is to Canada I would pick football without a doubt. I would say football because I feel that over the last 10-20 years it has separated itself from baseball and basketball. A perfect example of this would be this years Super Bowl. There were approximately 111 million who watched Super Bowl 45, which made it the most watched telecast of all time.
I feel that a lot of people would make the argument that baseball is the sport that best describes America because it is our nation's pasttime, but I would argue that baseball has been passed up by at least football and maybe basketball too. I feel one of the main reasons that baseball isn't the face of American sports anymore is because we are not the best in the world at it. The United States did not even win the World Baseball Classic in 2009 and a large percentage of players in the major leagues aren't even from the United States. Many of the current players in the major leagues are from countries like the Dominican Republic, Puerto Rico, and Japan. This is something you never see in football. Football is the most American sport because it is only played in the U.S. and it is not getting any of its participants from other countries. These are just a couple reasons why I believe football is the sport that best represents America.

Binding America with Sport

When it comes to America, it is hard to pick just one sport that brings us together. It is always easy to say that of course baseball is America's pasttime and brings us together because it always has been. I still believe that baseball is a sport that brings Americans together and represents our nation. It is a nice, clean game that is entertaining to watch and go to the games. Even if people don't have a favorite baseball team, most are okay with sitting down and watching a game and just picking out a team to root for. If not in a regular season game, the playoffs and World Series for sure. Baseball goes way back, as well. When I think of the athletes that represent our nation in baseball, I tend to think of the older players like Babe Ruth and Jackie Robinson. I think we still have players like that, I always tend to think of Derek Jeter, but maybe this is because I'm a die hard Yankee's fan. When it comes to baseball, I'd like to think it represents America, not only in the way the game is played and in how baseball players carry themselves, but also how many different nationalities there are in the MLB. It's not just white people and black people, but there are white, black, Latinos and a lot of other ethnicities, just like we have in America.

But that isn't always the case and I think our nation might be a little more rough around the edges and a sport that definitely brings Americans together is football. Whether it is college or professional, everyone loves to watch it and support their team. I have a friend that just moved to North Carolina and even though she isn't here to celebrate and watch the Iowa football team with the rest of us, she still finds a way to watch or listen to the games. Living in Iowa City, I definitely think that football is what brings us together and I believe that it is the same for a lot of other college towns and if we had a professional team, I'm sure we would be the same crazy fans for that team as well. And just like in baseball, if your favorite team didn't make it to the Superbowl, you still watch it and pick a team to root for no matter who is playing. I think the players that represent us in football are the players like Aaron Rodgers, Brett Favre and Tom Brady. Tom Brady might be a long shot but I'm sure those people in the New England area love him and if any of these athletes did something, I'm sure that the people from wherever he is from would feel a little disappointed and hurt because all of these people are someone to look up to.

Again, it is hard to pick just one sport to represent America and it could very well be that it just depends on what season we're in. When it is football season, everyone loves football, but as soon as baseball comes around we all love baseball and worry about our favorite baseball team. But no mattter what, I think that sport, in general, is what brings our country together.

The American Sport

The first sport that comes to my mind is American football. Both the college and professional level teams have entire cultures built around them. Around the country whether they win or lose, these cultures stay loyal by wearing team colors/logos and by watching/attending games. In the larger American culture having a favorite football team is often expected, if you own a business in Iowa City you will do much better to put up a “Go Hawks” sign in front of your office. If you meet someone new it isn’t out of the ordinary to ask them if the have a favorite team in the game this weekend, or whether or not they saw the touchdown pass by Michael Vick. Having a favorite team becomes part of a regional and personal identity that can be related to others on a national level.

With that in mind, it’s hard to pick only a few names to be a “national representation” but superstar players, such as Rothesberger, Favre, Rogers, etc, represent their regions. For example, if Aaron Rogers was to act inappropriately, legally or otherwise, Green Bay citizens would have a right to feel hurt.

We talked a few weeks ago about hockey and Canadian nationalism. We discussed how this is their national game and how this particular sport is meant to bring all Canadians together. Yet, through the commercials we were able to trouble this by pointing out the mostly white males that were featured in this commercial. All in all it is a game meant to bring everyone together but this picture was told through a limited scope. For this week I want to know what you think is the sport or sports that bring America together? How do you know this? What are the athletes in the United States that represent the nation? How does this contribute to our understandings of what America is?

White Athletes

 Now we have been discussing the white athlete for about a week now.  And the series of  "Rocky" has been brought up a few times.  What I would like to know is if one of the main points to this series was that the white athlete in the boxing world was on the downfall, so in order to get the white American public to become more interested in the sport again was to create a movie about the white social family in a run down area, the Italian area of Philly, and put them against the dominant black athlete.  Was it really trying to show that the one thing the white athlete has that the more dominate black athlete is the heart, the will to win?  Or was it that someone from a inner city area has more drive than someone who already has everything?

Commonality in Sports

Sports in general sort of bridge a gap in racial relations that give our society a more commonality between the demographic. We all know that the relationship between blacks and whites was terrible in our society dating before the beginning of Colonial America to the late 1980's. This bridge has become very small in most recent years, now I'm not saying this society is even close to where we morally could be, but as of the progress we are making is a great step in the write direction.  One thing that sports do for our society is give us a sense of unity.  The other day I was walking through the mall and a white male in front of me was wearing a Chicago Bulls shirt and this African American woman shouted out "Go Bulls"!  Even though these people more than likely haven't ever crossed paths before they share a feeling of  commonality.  Another thing our society does that just seems to be accepted is to forgive winners, no matter how morally wrong an individual is if they're a winner we just pat them on the back and say get back out there.  Prime example of this are Tiger, Kobe and Big Ben.  The key to them is they win.  And as far as the media is concerned is that Tiger is the worst of them, but the funny thing about it is he was the only one that wasn't accused of an illegal act.  So am I suppose to believe that Tiger should of had better morals ?  Why?  Because he plays a gentleman's game, or because he's suppose to be an ambassador of the world.  If he would have went out and won a major or two not one person in the media questions his mental toughness, but that's not what happened he came out first season and laid an egg.  I don't think Tiger likes being the bad guy trying to play good guy.  He wants to be the good guy attempting to be bad.  What I'm really trying to get at here is that racism and prejudice is still everywhere, but that people are becoming more aware of individuals moral values than just the color of their skin.

Prejudice vs Racism

Over the first few weeks of class we have discussed a variety of interesting topics. The topic that I found most interesting out of all of them was the discussion of the difference between racism and prejudice. This particular discussion appealed to me because I guess I just did not have a lot of prior knowledge of what made the two words different. I had always assumed that they pretty much meant the same thing, but after coming out of our class discussion I have a completely different view on the matter.
Even though this may be a little repetitive from some of the other blogs classmates have posted I think it is important to first have a look at the definition of both racism and prejudice. In class we defined race as a population of people believed naturally or biologically distinct from other groups. This tells us that racism has more to do with the physical traits of man or woman. Meanwhile, the definition of prejudice is a preconceived judgement or opinion: an opinion or leaning formed without just grounds or a sufficient knowledge.
It is important to make the distinction between these two words because I feel after reading these definitions that prejudice is much bigger problem in both society and sport today. Having said this I have lived in the Midwest my whole life (in small town Iowa for the last 10), so in order to truly get a legit opinion on the matter you would have to poll people from all regions of the U.S. because I am sure someone who has lived in the South their whole life will probably have a different view on how severe of a problem racism is in the U.S. today. My personal opinion is that in parts of the country I am sure it is still a major problem for some groups of people, but I am inclined to agree with a lot of my classmates said they believed that racism is a problem that is slowly getting better with each passing generation. My kids are not going to be taught all the same things and values that maybe my mom taught me so naturally they will have different opinions than the kids from a generation before. I don't know that there is anything that we can do about racism in the present (except be open to talk about it because the situation becomes worse if people are worried about offending others with their beliefs), but I do believe the things we teach and instill in our children will be our contribution to trying end the problem of racism in both sports and society in America.
The issue of prejudice is a much more complicated problem to solve in my opinion. It is hard to change someone's mind who has a preconceived notion about you before you've even met them. I personally see prejudice as a bigger problem in society today, or at least (much like race) it is a bigger problem in the Midwest where I have always lived. A perfect example of prejudice that I see on a regular basis is at the new fieldhouse when my roomate and I go to play basketball. My roomate is Caucasian, but he is an incredible jumper and it is always funny to see the looks on people's faces the first time they get dunked on by him. There's no reason that they shouldn't expect that he would be able to dunk other than that he is white. He is actually about an inch taller than me, but I would be willing to bet money if we polled 10 random people who didn't know either one of us and asked them who they thought could jump higher I would get more votes strictly because I am mixed and all of those people. Fortunately this stereotype is a pretty minor one that doesn't really hurt anybody (except maybe my roomates feelings), but a lot of stereotypes can which is why I believe prejudice in our society is such a major issue. I think prejudice can be slowed in a similar way to racism through trying to better the next generation and not allowing some of the stereotypes that exist currently to pass on to them. If we are able to do this maybe one day when a class like ours is asked if they believe racism is still a problem in sport more of them will answer no than when the question was asked in our class.

racial relations

Race has always been a controversial subject for many people. The reason for this is because of the fear many people have of offending anyone or to be known as a racist. The real problem people in society have with race is the amount of importance we put in it. In class we have said that race is population of people believed naturally and biologically distinct from other groups. When you look at the definition of race it shows you that race is not a legitimate way to classify people. A clue of this is in the beginning of the definition when it say a population of people believed to be naturally distinct from other groups. This is saying that race is just an assumption from other people and an assumption from another person should not define who you are, it is more your ethnicity that defines who you are. In fact in Jay Coakly book Sport in Society he talks about how in the early 19th century white scholars created race in order prove a naturally superiority in white and a natural inferiority in other ethnicity's. Like Drew M. said in his blog "race can also be understood as a social construction" which it is. This fact from Coakly's book you could say is one of the first public form of prejudice turning into racism. This two terms can also be misunderstood because many people will think they are the same when there actually different. Racism is more the belief that a group hold a natural superiority of another group, when prejudice is more an internal subject where a person form an opinion about another group of people they know nothing of. These two subjects I believe still do exist in different parts of society through out the world. Racism is not as big of a social problem now as it has been in the past, but it still is present in different parts in the U.S. From a sports aspect, in the past a case of racism could be in country clubs when it came to playing sports like golf. Prejudice however is little more common thing today than racism. Prejudice is see a lot in sports from the fans as well as the athletes. A lot of prejudice in sport doesn't even come from race it comes from the the type of people that go to that particular school or city. In college a lot of people can admit that they have judged other people by what school they go to or went to. A lot of times people won't get serious about these forms of discrimination until there teams meet, but it is a very common thing in our society. The bad thing about prejudice is that it is normally the result of generalization.

The media is also shows some forms of prejudice from time to time. An example of this would be on sports center when they will talk to athletes others about there race and what it means to be some one of there race playing in a sport. This will happen a lot when a athlete is in a position where he or she is either the only one or the one of few people of there race in there position. This also has emerged in sports magazines as well in television advertisements . Two examples of this is in the Nike combat commercial with adrian Peterson and the Dicks sporting goods commercial with Ndamukong Suh. In both commercials they gave the comparison of both athletes being animalistic. This goes back to the film we watched in class where the cartoons would compare African American adults and children to savages or to animals. For someone to look at these commercials in depth they would be offended, but most people don't because at this point unfortunately people are getting used to these types of images. People are becoming used to these images because the media has had these images so well ingrained that these images are starting to become norms. When they become the norm they become extremely difficult to get rid of. But throughout all these racism and prejudice we have to work hard on trying to get rid of these aspects of our society. The fact that race isn't who you are and that generalizations or assumptions are not what society should use in order to function in some aspects.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_QF2XDsswg

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IDiepg-OhQQ

Race in America

Race in America is a touchy subject. We as a culture tend to “move on” to the next issue after we feel like we have adequately answered the one currently at hand. For example, the restitution for the Native Americans is an issue that is not covered thoroughly, if at all in current media. We find it not to be prevalent to our “current” issues. I like to think of this as the “horse blinder effect” or tunnel-vision. Race is no different in our society. Immediately when you hear the word race in our culture, images of MLK, slaves, and black rights come into mind. It’s a safe assumption that African Americans are the most thought about racial group when discussing the issue in America. The reality of the situation is completely the opposite. America is a melting pot of all different kinds of races, genders, sexes, and nationalities.

From class, we have learned that race can be considered a population of people believed to be naturally or biologically distinct from other groups. This often is derived from physical traits that are mostly visual, but there are also other cues such as one’s spoken language. This is also a socially prescribed label. Racism and prejudice are two issues in our culture that are very prevalent, but it is often hard for people to dissect the difference. Racism is an externalized aggression towards a race based upon their physical stature, while prejudice is a negative attitude you personally have that is internalized. A prejudice can lead into racism, but that is not always the case. Another way to determine prejudice is when viewing a person; the first thoughts that come into one’s head about a label or group that are negative are considered prejudice. Racial prejudice is one of the most talked about, but one could have prejudice towards any group or label another person prescribes to. If the viewer deems this other person’s affiliation with said groups or labels as inappropriate or “wrong”, then this is also a prejudice.

There is an extreme problem today with both issues stated above. The biggest issue is that the media our culture views look away from these social problems. A good example of how real racial ideology and prejudice is in our society can be shown in the movie Crash.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PgsOsnjDan8&feature=related

The media plays a huge role in how we view each and every race. The example from always sunny was a perfect depiction of the stereotypes that black men have in our society as being criminals. In my media and consumers class last semester we also had different pictures that depicted how media is shown. Often times television shows that have pictures of the whole cast leave the colored actors in the back. There was also a picture from the show cops of one man holding another handcuffed man’s arm. One was obviously a police officer, and the other a criminal. The handcuffed man was black. Hidden media messages are in our faces every day like this that give us grounds to build a prejudice that we don’t even know we’re building – it just becomes an assumption based off of what we view in media. Obviously everything we view from the media is the absolute truth, right?

The venue of sport is another monster all together. Take in the fact that it’s an institution that makes racial discrimination hard to detect, add some athletes that serve as our youth’s role-models, sprinkle in scandals, assumptions of greatness based on race, and the allure of sport being a means for vertical social mobility, or a means of achieving the American dream and “making it”, and you get yourself a whole mess of social, political, and ideological problems.

I personally believe that the stigma of black athletes as being superior is one of the many issues that need to be addressed in sport. To me, the fact that we idolize 18-20 year old boys that barely know how to take care of themselves is testament to the fact that the window into our own society that media shows us is biased and skewed. I heard somewhere once that the messages from media you’ll see the most are the ones with the most financial backing – but it’s your choice to decide whether to accept or reject the message. Stopping prejudice and racism starts with the media. Plain and simple.

Race in America Video