Monday, December 7, 2009

Racism in sports


Agreeing with many classmates sports in general has come a long way from where it started. Or even a few decades ago. But at the same time there is an issue at hand that makes an impact at every sport at any age level. Typically when talking about hockey one automatically assumes all people Caucasian are associated with it. And vis versa with African Americans with basketball and football like Raelin Hampton said in her personal blog. Well the reason not to many African Americans are in the sport is because it is a pretty expensive sport to get into. Where as baseball, football, or even basketball can be played using less then $20 bucks. Where as in hockey one has to by all the appropriate equipment and the buy the time you spend on the ice. The resources to play hockey is something that not a lot are blessed to have.
Any way when athletes do not do well in a sport that they are suppose to perform good or even perform at some ridiculous circumstances. In the case of Venus and Serena Williams in Indian Wells was discussed in class. I believe a few people do not understand the weight of something such as racism, and try to compare it to being discriminated against because their a girl or because they work or live somewhere. Its definitely not the same..imagine being discriminated against because everything you do is not good enough. you can be a girl guy tall short, smart dumb, athletic or a coach potatoes. Everything about you is wrong. Now please come up with a comparison to that..

Being booed is not nothing new. Yes every athlete is some point high school or not goes through it. Now an example an individual gave in class was his friends in high school with through sort of the same thing the Williams sisters did. Which is believable, but did he try and protect them, standup for them, But the difference is tennis is a team sport you have friends around you to protect or stand up for you or simply show you they have your back if anything gets to out of hand. Serena was alone on that court. Yea her father was there but was late to the match, and she cant go running in the stands for support.

She and her sister encountered something no athlete of any color should go through. Its not something that shows the progress of how far as a nation we have came. Despicable is what it is and I support their Boycott 100%...Comment are needed don't be shy
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2 comments:

  1. The Tennis Prof ChroniclesDecember 8, 2009 at 9:58 PM

    Like I said in class, since the day that Serena was booed and epithets were yelled at her father and Venus, I have felt that administrators in tennis needed to address racism! I was certain that someone would come out and do the "right thing." I was sure that someone else would see what I saw. So I waited. I was ready to mobilize and do something, hoping that this would be a teachable moment for tennis. But nothing was said. I was 100% in Serena's court 8 years ago, and that was before I knew what she wrote about in her book--i.e., that tennis officials knew about Venus' injury and did not announce it. I believe they literally allowed Venus to take the fall. Now that they have made Indian Wells a "mandatory premier" tournament (I do not know what motivated that, except I am sure that the bottom line is money--it always is), I think it is even more imperative for tennis officials to seek to understand why Venus and Serena continue to boycott, even when it may cost them both financially and in ratings points. Another student wrote a comment that they thought that other tennis players should join Venus and Serena in their boycott. I wonder why no one else has done that. I wonder what it will take.

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  2. Chris Holley's BlogDecember 9, 2009 at 9:49 AM

    I agree. I support them never playing there again. He have came so far as a society in regards to racism but the williams sisters incident at indian wells does not show it.

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