Hope you all enjoyed Spring Break. I want to focus the first part of the week on Tamir and Galily’s article Women’s Sports Coverage in Israel: Perception Verses Reality. After reading this article I can’t help but notice some similarities and differences between how women’s sports are covered in Israel and the United States.
So my question for the first part of the week is as follows:
Did you notice any differences and/or similarities between women’s sports coverage “perception vs. reality” in the United States’ and women’s sports coverage “perception vs. reality” in Israel?
You can start by stating what you observe about how women’s sports are covered in the USA. Then you can state what you think our society (not media) feels about women’s’ sports.
The second part of the week, (Wednesday night) I will present a question that will help us out in the classroom. Stay tuned.
Hi all! I think in the US it is clear that the sports coverage is not equal to males. I am not sure if it ever will be, but I have never seen women’s ice hockey (besides the Olympics) being shown on TV. I believe the media here focuses on the “feminine sports” such as gymnastics and ice skating. Outside of the Olympics, you rarely see women’s sports being broadcasted and if they are they are not on a national channels. In a personal note, I was really upset a few weeks ago when Shalane Flanagan (US distance runner from Marblehead, MA) qualified for the Olympics in the marathon and it was not even mentioned in the nightly news. The event was not shown live and was broadcasted before a NFL playoff game and was cut short. This is an amazing athlete who won the US Olympic trials. (She won a bronze in the 2008 Olympics in the 3,000 Meters). It is heartbreaking to me that she did not get the attention and respect that she deserves. I do not think our society takes women’s sports as serious as men’s sports. It does not bring in the same amount of money and is certainly not as popular. After reading the journal article Women’s Sports Coverage in Israel: Perception Versus Reality by Tamir and Galily, I found it interested to learn that “Male and female readers alike expressed a greater desire than sports journalists for wider coverage of women’s sports in the sports section” (p. 104). From this, you wonder if women are not getting the coverage they deserve because the sports journalists do not enjoy covering their sports? I was not surprised to learn that women more than men were not satisfied with the current coverage of women’s sports in the newspaper. As a female athlete, you want to read about other females who are doing amazing things in sport. Lastly, I think it is great that kids have sport role models, but you can’t help but notice how many male athletes they know compared to female athletes. (Thanks to the media)
After reading "Women's Sports Coverage in Israel: Perception Versus Reality," I noticed that there is one main common denominator between the way women in sport are covered in the US and Israel. If we are to take a look at the coverage of women's sport in the media, we would notice that it is a mere after-thought. There is one point in the article where the authors describe the sports package for viewers in the country of Israel as directed toward the male viewers. I believe they called it the "the men's package" (Tamir and Galily, 2010). In the same way the US cable companies have the NFL sunday ticket and other exclusive channels dedicated to men in sports. As a women, I would like to see coverage of women in sport. I agree with Aimmee, that it is outrageous that Shalane Flanagan was pretty much overlooked by the media. Her accomplishment is an amazing feat, and we will be watching her in the upcoming Olympic Games!
In response to Daniel….. Yes I do feel there is inequality for women in Sport. However, as I read the Tamir & Galily (2010) article I began to think about my local newspaper and this topic. I discovered that high school and professional athletes were covered quite differently. High school female athletes seem to be written about as often as the males were. In contrast, professional women athletes rarely seem to be written about in the newspaper. I wonder why media coverage has drifted so far from inequality in professional sports. Could it be that the journalists are listening to the readers when they write about high school sports? Does this suggest that Tamir & Galily (2010) were on to something with their study? Or are there rules and regulations for high school athletics that do not apply to professional sports.
I'll start with an observation about how women's sport is covered in the United States. Clearly, it doesn't get the same coverage or attention as men's sport. An excellent example of this was evident to me this past weekend as I was watching coverage of NCAA basketball. The much anticipated men's selection show was aired Sunday night during prime time (6:00, on CBS) as a climatic culmination of both the day and weekend's conference tournament outcomes. The NCAA bracket was revealed after much anticipation, and then at the end, they gave about a 10-second plug for the women's selection show. The women's NCAA tournament bracket would be revealed the following day on a channel and time slot where many basketball fans wouldn't even be able to see it (late Monday afternoon on ESPN).
Something that really caught my eye from Tamir and Galily's article was the similarities in media coverage for women's sport in Israel. Now, in the Israeli media, the lack of coverage for women's sport seems a bit more "extreme" than here in the United States, but I definitely notice a similarity. On page 98, the author says this about the perception of women's sport in Israel: "The basic perception is that sports broadcasts are intended for male spectatorship, and this is the rationale underlying the cable-television-viewing package selection in Israel, which for a long time included a sports cable package called “the men’s package.”'(Tamir and Galily, pg. 98). This is strikingly similar to a lot of ways that sports are marketed and covered here in the U.S. For example, Spike TV is a network that markets specifically for men, and broadcasts sports such as ultimate fighting on a regular basis.
I noticed the similarities between the coverage of women in the US and the coverage of the women in Israel. I feel that women do not get equal coverage in any part of our media. I have noticed that ESPN has been pushing the women’s March madness almost as much as the men’s. The golf channel also gives women and men’s play equal coverage. As for the “Men’s” channels maybe when our society starts taking women’s sports seriously sponsors will jump in and spend money on women’s sports. Let’s face it the sponsors dump serous amounts of money into the NFL, MLB NHL, etc channels which makes them money. We can’t say that women don’t have any “women’s” only channels we get HGTV, Opera network, Oxygen. Hopefully someday our society will get excited about women’s sports. As for the article, I was taken back by how the few women’s sports writers that existed in Israel acted the same way towards women’s sports as their male co-workers. The women’s sports writers have the power of coverage and chose to be conformists and do what the males do. They need to stick up for each other and cover the women and fight for what they believe is right.
Rick, you stole my thunder. I completely agree that the coverage of women’s sports in the local papers is well represented. Small newspapers are reporting the sports that their readers’ want covered. In the most recent Carver Reporter (March 9, 2012) the sports editor Adam Ellis provided two front-page articles. One article was on the Carver High men’s basketball team and the other on the Old Colony girl’s basketball team. I feel that this particular paper is fair in their coverage of gendered sports throughout the year.
In the Tamir and Galily journal article, I found it very surprising as stated by Aimee that the readers both female and male wanted a variety of the coverage of sports in their paper and the editor thought other wise. Also on p. 104 “News producers, in effect are expressing their personal opinion when they claim there is a lack of interest in women’s sports in the news papers.” This viewpoint is the exact opposite of what the research showed about the attitudes of the readers. I believe the journalist and editors; the so-called “gatekeepers” according to Tamir and Galilyh should turn in their key.
I like what I have read so far regarding this weeks' readings! I am at the airport right now and heading to Tel Aviv, Israel. One idea that I think is so interesting is the one CJ brought to light. This is what the media "gatekeepers" believe to be true seems to be very key to what ends up in the sports pages. If we were to look at the gender make up of newsrooms, we would find men in a lot of leadership positions, they make the decisions. From what I understand, when women do get to work for ESPN and some other big newsrooms, they tend to support the 'status quo' and cover/support men's sports because that is what their bosses want them to do. I wonder how this can be changed on a more national level? I agree, too, that local newspaper coverage is better. But local TV news is NOT very positive in terms of women's sport. I am off to Israel, hopefully I will post from there!
Good stuff here. I agree with the Rick and CJ that local women’s high school sports are prominent in local papers. To increase this at a national level, I think that there first needs to be more advertising for women’s professional sports. The professional sports organizations that make the most money domestically (MLB, NBA, NFL, and NCAA) are prominently shown on ESPN. Once women’s sports get good funding from advertisements and fans, then that is when women’s sports will get more exposure in the media.
Topic II:
After reading Dan Ninham’s article The Games of Life: Integrating Multicultural Games in Physical Education, I wanted to share what I do personally in my classes and hopefully you would like to share something as well. Children
As you all know, it is sometimes hard to get children motivated. I try to introduce new activities and concepts in class that are interesting to them. In my classes, which can range from single classes of 25 children to double classes of 50 children, we play a modified version of the Indian sport of Kabaddi. A short video is below.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=96ZzVeCgUVY (I tried embedding this video)
I originally learned about it in a previous class I took with Dr. Rosenthal. I set up the field as a 100’ x 50’ rectangle split into 2 halves. The game is somewhat basic in that the object of the game is that each team, taking turns, sends a “raider” to the other side of the field and tag as many people as they can. The raider then must return to their “safe” side of the field before they get tagged. The only people that can tag the raider are people that have been tagged by the raider. If the raider returns without getting tagged, their team gets as many points as people tagged. If the raider does not make it back safe, then the other team gets a point.
I have the students work together to come up with a strategy for both raiding and defending. They seem to really enjoy this game.
Now if you’d like you can share your own multicultural activities you do with your students or even come up with one that you would like to try with your students so we can introduce more multicultural activities in our classes.
Nice discussion this week. To be honest Dan, I haven’t really seen a lot of coverage on women in sport. I personally don’t know if it’s because of a lack of interest or the lack of time the media spends on it. The studies by (Goodich-Abrahm,2000) found that the perceptions of women were a reflection of male dominance. I thought the awareness and the image of the sexes that are portrayed through the media was interesting (Tamir and Galily, 2010). I would never think of eating disorders and other ailments that might affect the image of women in media. We have to acknowledge what we have been brought up to believe or understand as our roles in society can make us question if the equality of men and women in sport will ever be equal. But the reality might be we won’t live to see it.
I can’t agree more about the coverage of local high school sports. I read the Patriot Ledger and have noticed in recent weeks that the coverage of female high school sports has at least matched the boys. I also coached varsity basketball for six years. Our girls team got plenty of coverage when we played well. Here is a video link from our glory days of 2008, http://www.necn.com/Boston/Sports/Deaf-basketball-team-making-forceful-statement-/1204241434.html It might be argued that we may not have gotten the coverage if we were not a deaf team. The lack of coverage for the Olympic Trials is very troubling; better not schedule anything during the NFL playoffs. Professional sports are all about the money. The old boys in the news room maybe holding back on covering female sports, no question. The problem goes way beyond those gatekeepers, there is not as much going on in female professional sports. There are so many news outlets that if you want info on any sport you can find it, there simply is not enough happening to make it profitable to cover. I see the lack of coverage of professional sports as more of a grass roots issue.
Tamir and Galily's (2010) article discusses women in sport are still oppressed compared to men in sport. When it comes to media coverage women are viewed as not valued by the readers/viewers. Readers/viewers show a lack of interest in women in sport. The terms “father/son and men’s packages” are used. I have to say in the United States I have not come across packages that are labeled for father and son or just men. I am sure I could be wrong, but in my mind the United States in comparison to Israel has done better with that.
Israel and the United States are similar when comparing the statement that, “real sports are sports that emphasized physical contact and muscle” (Tamir & Galily, 2010, p. 96). I feel as though a lot of men or “gatekeepers” would say the same thing (no disrespect to the men in this class). It is a common statement I have heard from many men in my life when the topic of lack of women in sports coverage is discussed. It is unfortunate that the U.S. is not the only place where women are struggling to make headway in sport and a lot of other areas.
To touch upon the term “gatekeeper” that Tamir and Galily (2010) use in their article does give women in sport some hope. As women take on more leadership roles as Dr. Rosenthal brings up, women may see more assistance in getting attention in sport. Also men in leadership roles that look at the other side of spectrum (like the guys in our class) can help women too. Hopefully, if a woman does take on a leadership role she does not have the view of women in sport not being as newsworthy or what sells to the readers/viewers.
Topic #2 response Dan I would agree that motivation is a challenging aspect of teaching. We teach a short project adventure unit which is full cooperative learning activities and in some ways similar to the multicultural philosophy. Project adventure has been extremely helpful in motivating the students who rarely participate. We sometimes offer choice in our curriculum to meet the individual interests of our students. When we first offered project adventure most of the students did not choose it because it was a new activity. However, after 1 or 2 lessons the numbers drastically increased. It was then that I knew we were on to something big. After reading the Ninham (2002) article I am motivated to include more multicultural activities in our curriculum. I liked the description of the Long Ball game, with exception of throwing the ball at the person because it reminded me of dodge ball. I would modify that aspect and have the students simply tag the runner with the ball. The video on Kabaddi was something I had never seen before. It looked like a combination of wrestling and football. I think I will try your version in my class. For this discussion I am interested in learning some new multicultural activities to enhance my project adventure unit.
I thought the article "The Games of Life: Integrating Multicultural Games in Physical Education" was interesting. It made me think about the ways we can use sport in PE to combat discrimination, and open up the eyes of our students to others around them. I work in a school where there are a lot of different ethnic backgrounds and it would be great to include games from the student's heritage. Currently I use dance as a way to introduce culture into the PE classroom. At the high school level I focus on ballroom dance which enables me to talk about the origins of the different dances and music used during class. I find that going over the history and culture involved in the subject brings a richness to the dancing and a respect and appreciation for its heritage.
Really good discussion this week. I'm glad Dan brought up the issue of motivating certain students in physical education and multicultural activities we can implement to encourage those less willing to participate to join in and contribute. This aspect of teaching physical education seems much more challenging to deal with at the middle and high school levels, however at the level that I teach at (K-2), there seems to always be a few difficult students that are very unwilling to contribute to class. Rick, I like that you brought up project adventure and cooperative activities. These are probably my favorite units to teach because it allows the students to take complete control of their behavior as well as the task at hand. Teaching these concepts allows us as teachers to kind of take a step back and watch our students put what we have taught them about responsibility and cooperation into action. I also teach these units partly as a way of motivating kids to do the right thing, cooperate with their peers, and really motivate one another to contribute. A multicultural activity that I frequently teach in my classes is a dance that I learned in a course I took at BSU taught by Professor Baumgarten. It is called Hoeana, and it is a Native American group dance that is very low-energy but it gets students moving and it gets them working in sync with each other in their groups working together.
After reading the article on Blackboard called The Games of Life: Integrating Multicultural Games in Physical Education by Dan Ninham, it gave me some new ideas about multicultural activities to try in my classes. I really enjoyed the kick ball relay because of the time the students have on task. It seems like they would always be moving with a lot less standing around. I would probably modify it a bit and make the activity a bit more cooperative in nature with 4 in a group so that when each pair gets to the other end of the playing area, they could send the other two teammates back to the line that they started at with a high five. This would make the activity a bit more cooperative in nature while changing from working in pairs to working in small groups.
I know everyone has mentioned the “Gate Keepers” and the responsibility that goes along with that. Tamir & Galily noted the relevance of Title IX in America and its negative influence towards sport entities that were unable to keep funding for equal opportunity with their sport or game. Israel has dedicated eighty million shekels to the National Program for Women's Sports in Israel (Tamir & Galily, 2010, p. 95). Which is great, but two years later, no money was used. Some initiative needs to be taken that will help this movement along. The “Gate Keepers” would be a great place for this movement to gain momentum.
“The Games of Life: Integrating Multicultural Games in Physical Education”, by Dan Ninham was great. The game Long Ball seems to be a great chance for the kids to learn about the history of game play and the native Iroquois Indians.
That raider game sounds fun, Dan. I 'm going to try it. I play a game that uses some knowledge about islands and native tribes. I tell the students they must escape from the island which is part of a “Archipelago”. This island can no longer sustain the tribe and they must find a more suitable island to live on. I give them some yarn balls to represent food. As a group they must use their equipment to get from their endangered island to a new safer island. I play some multicultural music during the challenge and the students seem to love it. Four hoops are spread out across the gym. These serve as the islands. A starting island and a finish island are designated in front of the group. They can not touch the floor and are giving two scooters, one hockey stick, one rope, and ten yarn balls neatly behind the starting line. They must bring all the equipment and supplies with them on their journey. It creates teamwork and allows the group to learn about archipelagos and some tribes. You can have some facts and information about selected tribes before hand that will enhance the multicultural aspect of the game.
The game, Archipelago, can be found in on lulu.com. The book info follows: DeCleene, L., Lepisto, D., Nicolet Elementary School, "Coorperative Team Challenges" www.lulu.com. If anyone is interested in this book, there is no real copyright or year, but the ID: 1121915. Its been a great book promoting cooperation.
The dominate perceptions towards women’s sports coverage barely touches the surface. It is not considered a central issue in sports journalism and women journalist who have been asked the question respond that they “have never really thought of it before” or ‘have never considered the matter till now.” (Tamir and Galily 2010) My opinion is that they say that intentionally but if you were to catch them off the air, those same women might say otherwise. I agree with Jen the big four: NFL, NBA, NHL, & MLB generate so much revenue and attention it blurs all the rest of sports because of their intermediary dominance. The intensive following of fans and the money generated gives a false sense of familiarity with sports fans and their opinions. In actually, sports section readers have a significant interest in women’s sports and would even prefer to see more extensive coverage of them. News producers, in effect, are expressing their personal opinion when they claim there is a lack of interest in women’s sports in the newspaper. These producers are acting as gatekeepers, as CJ brought up. (Tamir and Galily 2010) The commentators and web of media that follow men’s sports are all riding the revenue wave. It is these dominant voices that do not reflect the wide range of opinions but only reinforces dominant perceptions regarding sports fans.
One of my favorite sports is professional men’s and women’s surfing and far from the big four. When was the last time that you have seen an article about anything surfing in the newspaper or on TV? Well if you have dig a little deeper and find out about Stephanie Gilmore she is going to win her fifth title this year.
I believe that our local newspaper the Marshfield Mariner does a fantastic job equally covering men’s and women’s sports. There is quite a bit of interest generated at the local level for all sports and the local media does a great job because that is what the people want. It is not dominated by narrow opinions or tainted by money. I think that as a society we yearn for good competition and it is so pure at the youth and high school levels.
After reading Dan Ninham’s article The Games of Life: Integrating Multicultural Games in Physical Education it reminded me of one of my theme based field days I run at my school. The name of the field day is called “Where in the World is Mr. P.?” I would be happy to share this field day theme with anyone in class. In the field day there are 12 different events representing 12 different countries. Some of the events are spoofs about the country (i.e. Leaky Pipe Relay, Holland and Legend of Bigfoot Walk, Canada). Some of the events are authentic games from that country or culture (i.e. Spearing the Disc, Ethiopia, Bowling the Makai Stone, Hawaii and Corkscrew, England). My students absolutely love this field day. My field day volunteers run each event where they are provided directions and history of each game. I got some of these activities from a multicultural games book that I do not have the name for at this moment. I will reference it when I get back to my school on Monday. I believe it is important to open our student’s eyes and relay to them that there are more games than just football, baseball and basketball. What happens on fields outside of the United States is important for the growth of our youth.
The multicultural article by Ninham just reminded me of the Alaskan Olympics that I have read about. I like the idea of telling a story with the activity. I frequently use this at the elementary level and the students absolutely love it. The best story/ activity might be “Old Witch Toes”. CJ and I use this as our annual Halloween tag activity. The ghost story really makes the game; otherwise it would just be another tag game. The story takes it to the next level. I like the idea of “the Game of the Clouds” and the native connection through story. I could see this relay working well with a unit focused on kicking (soccer ball or football/ punting or kicking. Students work cooperatively with their partner(s) and alternate punts to a fixed post in the ground and back. The students must maintain a jog throughout the activity. How many times can you get back and forth in five minutes or count the number of kicks you take can you beat your lowest score? I might even try setting it up as a course with different holes and a par with the 4th and 5th grade students.
Hi Dan, Sorry I'm just jumping into this conversation, but Ive been running a Special Olympics basketball event at my school this week, which has kept me extremely busy the past few days...
In response to your question about the observation of women's sport coverage here in the U.S., as authors Eitzen and Sage point out in Chapter 11, entitled Sport and the Mass Media, the coverage of women's sports has been on the decline ever since 1999. In today's media coverage of women's sports, a whopping 91.4 percent of airtime is dedicated to the programming of men's sports, and only 6.3 % for woman's sports programs. Additionally, as these authors point out, the FOX network in particular was even lower in terms of their coverage of women's sports. FOX's coverage ratio of male to female sports was an astonishing 15:1 in favor of men's sports. As hard as it is to believe, the FOX network wasn't even the worst in terms of equality in media coverage for women. ESPN, the Worldwide Leader in Sports, was at a ratio of 20:1 in favor of men's sports, which is simply inexcusable. With numbers as shocking as these, I feel it's safe to say that the coverage of women's sport in the United States is discriminating to say the least towards these female athletes.
As for the second part of your question Dan, in regards to our society's feelings about women's sports, I think it is virtually impossible in this day and age to fully separate media from society. In the US anyhow, unless you live under a rock, we as Americans are exposed to mass sport's media in almost every facet of our lives. You open up the front page of the newspaper in the morning, and there's sure to be at least one sport's headline, you go onto Yahoo to check your email, and will find several sport's stories on their homepage, same goes for watching the evening news after dinner time. The media has such a strong influence on our society, that we tend to believe whatever it is that we see and hear. So when programs such as SportsCenter, are only dedicating 3, (yes, 3) minutes of every hour's worth of sport's coverage to women, it severely affects how we as a society feel about women's sports. It is especially influential to young viewers, who when they see males dominating the sport's headlines, are going to tend to idolize male athletes, regardless of their gender. This neglect of women's sports leaves young females without many well known women athletes to look up to, therefore further enhancing male dominance in the world of sports.
In terms of the perception vs. reality of women's sports coverage in Israel compared to that of women's sports coverage in the US, I found many similarities in the Israeli media coverage of women athletes to that of the coverage of women's sports here in America. As authors Tamir and Galily allude to this comparison of Israel and the US, “When the issue of the portrayal of women in the media is raised, several characteristics are repeatedly found: absence of women in comparison with the amount and time the media dedicate to men; emphasis on certain functions women are able to perform, or to which they are obligated—usually in the private sphere.” Tamir and Galily go on to discuss the strong influence this type of media coverage has on young Israeli women in terms of shaping their gender identity. Similar to the US, the portrayals of women athletes in Israeli media has caused self image issues for many young women, which has directly lead to social issues, such as eating disorders in these girls. The author's seem to indicate that the perception of women athletes in Israeli media is as bad, if not worse that here in the US.
Additionally, although there has been some improvement in terms of equality in recent years, the sports media has been especially discriminatory towards women in terms of job opportunities. With nearly every on air sports broadcast consisting of an all male broadcast team, viewers do not have the opportunity to see and hear the perspectives of women during live sporting events. This trend is similar in both countries, where the perception is that if you are watching a men's sport, there should be only men announcing the game. In regards to this issue however, I would have to say that at least here in the US, we now have at least a few well known women announcers who do in fact announce all male sports. From a personal standpoint, two of these women, Doris Burke (ESPN College Basketball) and Pam Ward (ESPN College Football) are two of my favorite sports commentators. Both of these women more than demonstrate the capabilities of women to perform as well, if not better than, their male counter-parts in sports media today.
Part 2: I have to be completely honest and admit that I do not include multi-cultural activities into my curriculum. I have numerous opportunities where I play games that I can relate to different cultures, but I do not have the information to tell the correct story. I play a game that is called boccer; it is a combination of basketball and soccer. I found it online, and a majority of students like it. When the ball is on the ground it must be kicked and in order to score it must be shot into a soccer goal. If the ball goes up into the air or is tossed out by the goalie the game is then basketball and the ball has to be shot into the hoop. The students seem to like it because they have to switch up their defense and the skills very quickly without much time to think about it. I am sure I can relate that game to combining different cultures, and I also have the opportunity in dance. It is sad to say with the amount of time that I actually have to teach that I am too focused on getting my students as active as possible rather than tying in important topics. I will do better!
Ninham’s article The Games of Life: Integrating Multicultural Games in Physical Education (2002) was a struggle for me. I had a tough time visualizing exactly how the games would work. I can take the games that Ninham gave for ideas and modify them, but I would probably not have them exactly right. I like it that in the directions of Kick ball relay, Ninham mentions to encourage the players and not have them focus on winning. I over emphasize in my class that it does not matter if you win or lose. My co-worker and I like to keep score in certain games just to make sure that the teams are even, but I constantly have students coming up to me I scored, I scored, Ms. Lassey you missed a goal. That is when I look at them and have to repeat that the score doesn’t matter. We take away points for not following the rules or for not practicing fair play. The majority of students eventually get it. They understand that our focus is working as a team, being a good sport, and using the proper skills. There is always that one student that has been brought up in a household where losing is the worst thing that can happen to him/her. The student that comes to mind is in 6th grade and I am setting a goal that he will understand by the end of this school year.
As for your posting in regards to multicultural games Dan, I read your description of the Indian sport of Kabaddi, before watching the YouTube clip you provided. I was amazed at the difference of what I was picturing in my head, and what I saw in the video. As I was reading your description of the game, I was picturing second graders playing a nice, friendly, game of tag. And then I watched the video, in which shirtless men were tackling each other, and throwing one another into leg and ankle locks ?? Looked more like a middleweight UFC Title Fight than a tag game, so I'm assuming you play by some modified rules when you play it in class !! ...However, it does sound like a fun tag game which could be a nice way to introduce Invasion games to elementary students. A multicultural game which I have begun teaching and playing in some of my higher skilled (APE) classes at the high school level, is that of Team Handball. Although it may not sound like a multicultural game, Team Handball was originated in Central Europe, and is now played in Sweden, France, South Korea, Norway, England as well as the United States, just to name a few. It combines elements of soccer, water polo, hockey, and basketball, and is a very popular Summer Games Olympic sport. Here are rules of Team Handball for anyone who has not played it before: http://www.ga.k12.pa.us/Academics/MS/6th/MCGAMES/Games/Thandbl.htm Here is also a video, which introduces the sport, and some of the basics of Team Handball: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q6RcTHNlxto
Also, in relation to Ninham's article on multicultural games in P.E., as he was describing the game, Long Ball it made me think of a modified whiffleball and kickball game I created, and used to play with elementary students. In my version of this game, One batter or kicker strikes a pitched ball as far (or well placed) as they can, between foul lines and run back and forth as many times between home and first base as they can, while the fielders (who each are responsible for a base or polyspot) must field the ball and pass it to EVERY base/fielder before the batter is out. Each time the batter successfully runs from home to first and back before the fielders complete their passing of the ball from base to base, counts as 1 run for the batting team. After every batter on the hitting team has batted, they switch sides with the fielding team.
I have enjoyed reading everyone’s posts this week. I also will definitely try some of the multicultural games mentioned above. I think they are great. I teach a very multicultural population so adding games from around the world is really meaningful. I teach multicultural or cooperative games in between units. One game I really enjoy is called Drum Boo Eee. It is a South African game. The game is set up like a baseball/softball diamond. There are two teams, the fielding team and the runners. The runners roll a ball to “home plate” where there is a pin that needs to be knocked over(I believe they get 3 attempts). They then begin to run the bases but start at 3rd base, then run to second, 1st then home. The object is to get home before the ball. The fielders get the ball as soon as it knocks over the pin and must throw the ball to each base and get to home plate before the runner. The runners are standing in a circle (the pitching mound) and everyone gets the opportunity to roll the ball prior to switching. I used this as a field day game last year, the kids enjoyed it. I just have multiple games at the same time so there is not too much standing around.
The coverage for girls sports in my local paper is equal to the boys. Our girls basketball team made it to the state finals and our paper did a great job with coverage. They put a lot of positve articles and many color pictures. As for multi-cultural teaching it is not at the curriculumn at my school, which is to bad. I would love some new ideas on how to intergate the topic in the classroom.
Good discussion this past week. I enjoyed reading about several different multicultural activities played in your classrooms. I'll definitely be using ideas and activities that were discussed and try to integrate them into my classroom. See everyone soon.
I have to admit that I don’t pay a great deal of attention to the sports pages, because I spend a fair amount of time listening to sports radio in my daily commute and checking scores online. Many of the radio broadcasters also do a daily newspaper piece and are part of the “old boys” network of writers and sports people. I can see how they are resistant to change and broadening their perspectives. The point that the Tamir and Galily article makes about women sports people foster the same “old boys” attitude has merit. Female writers want to fit in and be part of the sports culture so they can succeed in their careers. I am coming around to the view that the media are “gate keepers” in many ways because they shape the public dialogue about sports. I can’t help but think that if there was so much interest in female sports events, someone would capitalize on that and market themselves to those of us more interested in female sports and a more progressive view of sports in general. The Sage text suggested “encouraging signs that conditions are improving for women” (p.268), maybe more media outlets will be providing more info on female athletes and different sports in the future.
The ideas for multicultural sports were interesting, sharing game ideas with other PE teachers makes courses at BSU so valuable for me. The video with the shirtless guys trying to tackle each other was wild. I lived in Malaysia {a Muslim country) for 7 years and taught PE there. The English had a major impact on games that are played in that country. I try to show the British connections with current sports we currently play in the states in my current teaching practice. More importantly I try to teach my students that they can modify games anyway they want to make it more inclusive and enjoyable for everyone. No one mentioned the Livengood and Stodolska article. I never considered how we gave the 9/11 bombers so much power beyond the death and destruction of that day in September. We seem to have learned little after we mistreated Japanese Americans during WWII. We should not allow ourselves to be manipulated by a small number of extremists. I always admired the Muslim college students I taught in Malaysia, their devotion was very impressive. During fasting month there was never a complaint or a lack of participation in outdoor classes in extreme temperatures and wearing heavy clothing. I have trouble imagining how American Muslims have to be so vigilant when out in public in the USA. I would hope I could speak up if I ever saw that kind of mistreatment of others. Sorry about getting my thoughts out so late, looking forward to next weeks discussion.
Is there still racial discrimination in sport today???? After reading chapter 13 in Eitzen and Sage I think that there are two ways to look at this. First let’s take the stacking theory discussed in the chapter. Stacking refers to situations in which minority group members are disproportionately found in specific team positions and underrepresented in others (pg307). Eitzen and Sage used the NFL as an example of stacking; they believe that African Americans are left out of the thinking and leadership positions, such as, quarterback kicker, punter, and offense linemen. African Americans are placed in less “thinking” positions such as wider receiver; running back and safety because they are fast and have good hands. I feel that professional football players are playing the positions that they have because they are really good at them not because of what color they are. Also, let’s face it most of them are making enormous amounts of money for playing. Next let’s look at sports that minorities are sparingly found, hockey, golf, NASCAR, lacrosse, and rugby. There are a few reasons that could account for the under representation, the expensiveness of the sport, the location of the facilities for practice and games, or the unfamiliarity of the sports. These are relatively expensive sports to play, some of which require a lot of equipment whereas basketball only requires a ball and some sneakers, and a local court. So after reading the chapter here is a few follow up questions: Do you think that racial discrimination is still prevalent in sports? Why? Why do think over representation of African Americans in the NBA and the NFL exists?
In response to the question presented, I felt there is a big difference in the article, Tamir and Galley’s article Women’s sports coverage in Israel compared to the United States. Over the weekend I found myself watch ATP women’s tennis, I also watch the espn two special on the women NCAA basketball tournament and how great Baylor’s women team has done all year. You can pretty much find any type of women’s sports if you have cable. Unlike the poor coverage in the Israel’s paper and the T.V. news, the Boston globe had articles about women’s sports, the hot topic of the weekend“ state high school girl basketball finals.” In the same sports section an article on Lindsey vonn “ends her best season ever”. The coverage of female sports can be found in many different mediums. The Chief Editor of any sports section of a paper or magazine is trying to sell their product. When looking into the perception or reality of this comparison, between the lacks of coverage in any country is the hot topic. So the reality of picking up the Boston Globe newspaper and seeing high school girls being covered in the news paper isn’t bigger than the upcoming NCAA men’s or women’s tournaments or is it? To the locals who buy the paper, they wanted to read about the girl who plays down the street or the daughters of the family members who care about their local team. When they as a community go out and support their team and local paper, buy purchasing a single copy or 10 copies because their daughter is on the front page of the sports section the product (Boston globe) that the public is seeking. So my question is Israel just having a lack of women’s product, or is it the same ole tiring argument that women are being put down and not treated as equals where we have been stuck for this entire class. Did anyone watch the NCAA men’s tournament and see any anchor men interviewing the coaches and players as they left the court……all women interviewers…?
The idea of brand extension is another way to make more money off the hot market of the NFL the WNBA, ABA, NBA, ECT… Where do they stop? I don’t think them or you as company who pride themselves on making more desirable products to offer their consumer. Which then provides more money to be made using their logo or trademark athlete or athletic team? Is it really any different than a young individual businessman /women with a lemon aid stand who has been selling just cups of juice and says hey how about selling lemon aide and some cookies and make double the income? When or if that sells they get more creative and hire two friends to work the street four blocks down to open another extension of their business. So for a million dollar companies to keep stretching their hand out into people pockets all around the world to entice more people to wear their product that’s a sign of a successful business.
Wow, Chapter 13 was truly an amazing chapter. I have about six topics I would like to discuss but, I don’t want to take up too much room. To answer your question, Yes, I do believe that racism exits in sports today. I cannot argue with some of the facts presented in this chapter. Jen, I agree there are different ways to look at racism in this chapter. First, I believe that people may contribute racism without even realizing it. For example a team’s mascot for their school may be considered racism to a certain group (Eitzen and Sage, 2009). The second view that appears to be left out is the social, cultural and political factors which may indicate why a person may choose to participate in a particular sport (Eitzen & Sage, 2009).
I would like to discuss the argument that there are more differences with in the same race than there are in the different races (Eitzen & Sage, 2009). I never heard of race being compared in this fashion. The point about Kenya and Nigeria was amazing. Eitzen & Sage (2009) discovered that runners from Kenya did so well in distance running and Nigerian runners did not however, they were both consider the same race. They further point out that the Kenyans were considered to have physical advantages in endurance events but none of them are in the Tour de France. This would imply that racism is linked to societal, cultural, and political factors and I agree with this statement. I realize that my example applies to the Olympics but, I believe that the involvement of African American in the NBA and the NFL are also related to culture, social and political factors.
Before reading chapter 13 of Eitzen and Sage, I would answer the question, "No, I do not believe that discrimination is still prevalent in sports." I was unaware of the many ways minorities are left out of the picture in sports. After reading the chapter I would have to think more carefully about the question. On the surface everything seems fine. African American athletes seem very successful in sport and get paid plenty of money, so it is easy to assume that there is little if any discrimination going on. After reading the section on stacking, I was less blind to the way minorities are treated in the sports world. It does seem like discrimination exists when African Americans are pigeon-holed into certain non-leadership/non-thinking positions in sport. I always assumed players earned certain positions because they were the most talented in that spot. Now I am not so sure if that is the definite reason why. Another case for answering yes to Jen's question is that minorities are also less likely to be in media, refereeing, coaching positions, and other leadership positions in the sporting world (Eitzen and Sage, 2009). If there is no discrimination going on, we would see more minorities in these positions.
Spring High School Sports started this past Monday. As the Boy’s Lacrosse team was waiting outside of the track one of the quotes from a Lacrosse athlete was, “Look at all the black kids on the track team.”
Yes, I think racial discrimination is still prevalent in sport. One of the biggest reasons I believe this to be true is the lack of diversity in some sports (such as swimming, distance running, hockey, lacrosse, vs. sports such as baseball, football and basketball). Stacking was something I did not think much about until after reading this chapter. “The lower the degree of purely social interaction on the job, the lower will be the degree of racial discrimination” (Eitzen & Sage, 2009, p. 307) This is truly remarkable to me that this is still happening today. “Whites are found disproportionately at the thinking, leadership, and most central positions, while blacks are found at those peripheral positions requiring physical attributes” (p. 308). I am not sure me knowing this is going to change anything, but it is now something I am very aware of.
I think there is an overrepresentation in the NBA and NFL because after reading Eitzen & Sage’s chapter 13, I learned that young African Americans want to make their families proud by being good athletes. These are sports that do not require a lot of money to play (not as expensive equipment, team sports vs. individual sport, sports that are also played in schools). Learning there is still a wage gap, this could be one of the reasons why.
Hi Jen. In Chapter 13, when Eitzen and Sage discussed the idea of "stacking" in the NFL, and Major League Baseball, I found it difficult to agree that "stacking" was a form a racism. The authors point out that most positions in these two team sports which require the most athletic ability, (i.e. Running Backs and Cornerbacks in football, and Outfielders in baseball) are held by black athletes, where as the less athletic, "thinking/leadership" positions are typically white players, such as Quarterbacks, and Pitchers (see Table 13.2).
While I do agree that "stacking" by position does in fact exist in these professional sports today, I do not consider this to be a diliberate act of racism. As every sports fan is aware, in professional sports, the bottom line is winning and losing. While media personnel may create stereotypes by calling an African American who plays QB a "black quarterback," or a Caucasian who plays RB a "white running back," it is difficult to assume that team General Managers in these sports are doing the same. GM's do not care about anything other than winning. If they need a running back in the NFL Rookie Draft, and a white RB is the next best available player on Mel Kiper Jr's draft board, the team will draft that player, with the same holding true for black quarterbacks. As the numbers show, there have already been 3 black QB's taken with the #1 overall pick in the NFL draft over the past decade (C. Newton, J. Russell, & M. Vick).
The scouts and GM's for these NFL franchises vigorously scouted these players in every way imaginable before deciding to take them with the #1 overall pick. The bottom line for each of these players were that they were the BEST available player at the position, regardless of whether they were white, black, brown, or yellow. General Managers are not saying to themselves, "We need to find a black running back, or white quarterback." They are saying, "We need to find the running back or QB that gives our team the best chance of winning, so that I can keep my job." Therefore, I do not agree that stacking by position is racist, but is rather a group of players who give their team the best chance of winning, who may or may not be, black or white.
After reading the chapter, it is hard to say there is no racism in sports today. These statistics do not look like this by coincidence. What was interesting to me was that once I was reading the statistics, a light bulb went off in my head and noticed the racial divide in sports today. Table 13.3 points out the coaching positions and it was interesting to me the number of White coaches vs. Black, Latino and other Also, what was really stuck out to show how much racism is in our sports’ officiating with an average of roughly 70% of all referees being white. (Eitzen & Sage, 2009).
It’s funny because I never even realized that these statistics hold true until I read them. When a player, coach, or referee is not the “normal” race that they should be they get treated differently by the media and/or commentators. Take Jeremy Lin for example. For a few weeks, he was the talk of the town because he was the first American born Asian NBA player. Now, since he and his team are not doing as well as they were when Linsanity exploded, you rarely hear any hype or anything about him.
I agree with Aimee in that over representation in the NBA and NFL exists because of the lack of equipment and strong support in the schools. There are countless professional athletes that claim they would be outside shooting hoops or playing football every day until it was time to go to bed and then repeat that process the following day.
Jared I really think you are on the right track. The idea that those in charge are putting white athletes into more responsible positions and black athletes into more athletic roles because of a bias, makes no sense to me. The authors (Eitzen & Sage) do not present both sides of the issue. What could be the reasons for the NBA being so dominated by black players? I know it is not the politically correct thing to say but could it be that blacks players have better athletic skills than white players? Those same skills lead black athletes in football in play more athletic positions. I would also argue that while players pick the decision-making positions because they lack the athletic ability to play the more athletic positions positions. It is a question of nature vs. nurture. The authors seem to reject the notion that certain races might have an innate advantage over another group, The NFL takes the best athletes at each position regardless of their race. More than any other major sport, athletes do not stay around long if they do not perform regardless of race.
I think racial changes are lagging behind in the coaching and administrative positions in most sports. Changes in this regard are going too slow, the authors have a point on that topic.
I'm not sure I agree entirely about the premise of “stacking” (Eitzen & Sage 2009). Jared had very good points on the subject. They are saying the less social and less demanding jobs are where the majority of a given ethnic group would be placed. Which I would argue it would be the bias and prejudices of the coaches that put our youth in these positions which would reflect where they play as an adult. To say anyone would not be intellectual enough or grasp the position because of their color or ethnicity would be ignorant and racist. The color of one's skin should not be the measure by which someone is selected or rejected. Jen, as for whether there is over representation of African American athletes in sport today, we can look at the theory in chapter 13 about “Race-Linked Cultural Differences” (Eitzen & Sage 2009). This says that the dynamic of the African American Culture puts an emphasis on sports and athleticism. This could give a reasoning to the amount of representation of any given culture in any sport for that matter. Just like Rbap was mentioning with the amount of runners from Kenya and Nigeria. In my eye something worth a discussion is in Chapter 13 about “institutional racism”. The thought that even if we consciously make an effort to stop any type of practice involving prejudices, we would still have racism through U.S institutions is a sad truth that people should definitely be aware of (Eitzen & Sage 2009).
I also agree with Jared and the ideas associated with “stacking”. I don’t believe that coaches and general managers consider race before selecting a player in the draft or trading for a player for certain positions. They are looking for the best person available to make their team successful. I also disagree with Loy and McElvogue’s initial research in Eitzen and Sage (09) that blacks are more commonly found on defense because they can react better to the offense. Playing defense in football requires a lot more than just being able to react. You need to be a thinker and a leader on defense, especially at middle linebacker and safety. These positions require players to read offensive tendencies, understand reasons for formations and motions, and communicating with teammates to change coverage or blitz packages. The data according to Lapchick (2005) shows 40 whites and 154 blacks for these two defensive thinker positions. I will get off my defensive coaching soapbox now.
I have to agree that I do not believe that stacking is done intentionally. I feel as though if a professional coach were to look at these statistics that Eitzen and Sage (2009) present in chapter 13 the coaches would be shocked. I do believe that when racial barriers were primarily broken stacking would have been intentionally done.
In chapter 13 Eitzen and Sage (2009) say things that I would never be able to find the words to describe. I really like the way everything was broken down. We all come from a different culture, and each of our cultures focus on specific sports (Eitzen & Sage, 2009). Some of us choose to reach beyond the norms of our culture, but the majority of us follow our family leaders. The activities that people choose to focus on have nothing to do with the color of their skin it has everything to do with how they were raised. If I was raised in an inner city and my family loved basketball then I would most likely go to the nearest park and play as many pick up games as I could. If I was raised in a suburban area and my family loved baseball then I would most likely go to local baseball fields or the batting cages. Most African Americans that play basketball are known for being more aggressive to the basket rather than hitting three’s, which has everything to do with the environment they play in. The population of African Americans in inner cities is high, and they fight to stay on the local basketball courts. In order to stay on the court they have to play tougher defense and take riskier shots (Eitzen & Sage, 2009). I think that the reason why certain races are so dominant in specified sports has everything to do with the culture a person was raised in and the environment that person is forced to play and live in.
Do I think racism still exists in sports today…it depends on what specific part of sport you are referring to. I am sure that the stereotypes of race comes into play when it comes to picking positions (without coaches even realizing it), but do I think that people mean anything racist/negative by it…no I don’t. That doesn’t mean that racist people are not involved in sport, because I am sure there are. I am more referring to coaches or sports leaders. I do not believe that they are thinking about white supremacy when they are picking players for positions or coaches for jobs. I think they are just looking for the best person to fill the role. If they aren’t…they better be!
Hi everyone. An interesting discussion this week for sure. After reading the chapter, I'm not sure how much I necessarily agree with stacking in professional sports, especially in the NFL (Eitzen & Sage, 2009). In response to African-American players in the NFL playing less "thinking" positions, I would just have to totally disagree. In football, every player on the field is responsible for something. Each player on the field has a "job" at all times. Whether or not it's the quarterback, an offensive lineman, or a wide receiver, I believe each position on the football field should be considered a "thinking" position. Wide receiver, a position that is dominated by African American athletes and said by the authors to NOT be a "thinking" position (Eitzen & Sage 2009) is a very difficult position to play. Wide receivers in the NFL are responsible for knowing every route in the playbook as well as every play even if it doesn't include them. They are responsible for timing with the quarterback, and their KNOWLEDGE of the offensive system as well as the playbook is what earns the trust of the quarterback as well as the coaching staff.
I do believe that racial discrimination is still prevalent in sport, but I see it as more of an underlying issue than a blatant thing that deliberately occurs. Yes, the statistics show that there are certain discriminations, but I don't believe that these discriminations necessarily stem from racism.
Also, to Dan's point on Jeremy Lin: he's just not a very good NBA player. The whole Linsanity craze was way overblown in my opinion. Any point guard that averages more turnovers than assists per game should not be getting that much coverage. It was a fun story, but it seems to have subsided in recent weeks, mostly due to the fact that his team is in shambles. Their team quit on their coach, in turn causing him to step down from his position, and the Knicks just can't win a game. Seemed like a perfect situation for the NBA at the time, though. Extremely marketable player in the biggest sports market in the country, he has a couple huge games but then he just seemed to have faded off in recent weeks. To me, it's one of the more intriguing sports stories of the year.
In terms of racial discrimination's existence in sports today, I think Chapter 13 shows how it still does exist, especially at the collegiate level. As Eitzen and Sage point out, only 4 out of 119 D-1 college universities in 2006 had an African American president, as well as a mere 3 Latino presidents out of those 119 schools. Additionally, college athletics most popular sport, college football, had only 2.5 % black head coaches, and only 0.8% Latinos. These numbers are clearly indicative of the prevalence of racial discrimination in college sports today.
As for professional sports, I would have to say both yes and no as far as racial discrimination goes. Although in Chapter 13, the authors state that in 2005, only 6% of head coaches were African American, in the NFL this past season (2011), 7 of the leagues 32 coaches were African American. That is almost 10 times the percentage of African American head coaches that coached during the 2006 college football season. (22% in the NFL in 2011, compared to 2.5% in college football in 2006.) As for another major pro sport, the NBA, in 2005 37% of head coaches were black. These numbers indicate that there are a large number of African Americans landing head coaching positions at the highest levels of their sports.
Where the racism in professional sports really lies, is inside the doors of team front offices. When the New York Giants hired Jerry Reese to be their general manager in 2007, he became only the 3rd black general manager in NFL HISTORY!!... as hard as that is to believe. Additionally, out of the 4 major pro sports leagues (NFL, NBA, MLB, NHL) only 2... yes 2, team majority owners have been African American, according to Frank McCoy of The Root.com. These numbers clearly demonstrate the prejudices within team front offices against African Americans in professional sports today.
In my first response I commented on how cultural and social factors play a role in the type of sports athletes choose to play (Eitzen & Sage, 2009). Here are more examples. Thanks Earl, glad you agreed. I think the Kenyon’s are a great example of the cultural aspect. If I were a child growing up in Kenya I would probably be interested in distance running. Brad, I see your point and agree that there are other sides to the argument that were not included in chapter 13. I wonder if they researched the African Americans who played in the NBA to find out where they grew up, would there be any similarities. Could the physical surroundings be an indication of what sports children choose to participate in? I teach in an Urban School area and most of my students live in housing projects. Most of my students love basketball. The housing projects have a limited amount of grass space and I have not seen any with baseball fields. Could it be that the children who live in these areas don’t have the area to play baseball. However, each of the projects has paved basketball courts. Perhaps it is the design of the property that indicates what sports children play. Did the majority of the players in the NBA come from areas which were similar to the housing projects? Maybe there are fewer whites in housing projects. Perhaps this is one reason why the NBA is dominated by African Americans. I disagree with the theory of stacking from Loy and McElvogue in Eitzen & Sage, (2009). I think the best person plays the position period!
As for the over-representation of African Americans in both the NFL and NBA, while I do not think African Americans are biologically superior to Caucasians in terms of athletic ability, I do think that the African American culture has played a major role in their development in athletics. As Eitzen and Sage discuss in Chapter 13, black subculture places a strong emphasis on "athletic prowess." The authors state how unique forms of dance, music, and art may have influenced the moves, speed, and agility of African Americans, providing them with the skills necessary to be very successful in both football and basketball.
Additionally, I have to agree with Aimee, who mentioned how both football and basketball do not take much money or equipment to play (not touch football anyhow). Since these two sports are inexpensive to play, and since there are so many poor black youths in urban communities, these have traditionally been the two sports played by these youths on the playgrounds and in their neighborhoods. With such strong numbers of participants in these two sports, it is relatively easy to see why there is such an over-representation of African Americans in both the NFL and NBA. Where as in a league such as the NHL, these poor black youths do not have the means or capabilities to afford hockey equipement and access to hockey rinks. Hence, the reason why you see so few African Americans represented in the National Hockey League.
I believe that the evolution of racism in sports has modeled that of society. Until about 1950, U.S. racial–ethnic minorities typically were excluded from sport. Since then they continue to be excluded in some sports and are underrepresented in leadership positions (Eitzen & Sage, 2009). While African American athletes are underrepresented it is tough to ignore the way that things used to be. The societal perception towards African American athletes has evolved dramatically from the 1950’s and huge gains have been made. By no means is it perfect but the reality is that attempting to correct a society based on power takes generations to change. The glass is half full.
Eitzen and Sage call it “stacking” in the NFL or NBA I would call it drafting or pick the best athletes to make the best possible team to compete and achieve the ultimate objective: winning. Winning equals money. Our society is based on power, which is derived from capitalism, so there would be no reason not to pick the best possible athletes to fill those positions. More African American athletes are involved in football and basketball has a direct relation to the opportunities that exist for those young athletes to develop during youth sports. Consistent exposure and opportunity to develop the skill set to be successful at alternative activities; like hockey, golf, NASCAR, lacrosse, and rugby, seems to be the underlying lack of diversity in those sports not racism. Eitzen and Sage do a good job explaining that the problems have structural foundations on p.292.
It makes sense that the inner city would bring out more athletes have basketball skills than in any other sport. I would have liked the authors (Eitzen & Sage, 2009) look more deeply into the reasons for why black players dominate that sport. When I was coaching basketball we took our team out to Indiana to play in an invitational tournament, the interest in basketball in the mid-west is intense. I would expect that more players from the Heart Land would be playing in the NBA if it is a matter of exposure to basketball. Why not examine when white players are not represented? That goes back to being politically correct. Kenny, I have to disagree with what you said about Jeremy Lin and the Knicks. Until last night the Knicks had won six in a row under their new coach. Lin stats look very good in two games this week including 18 points in two games. Last night he was held in check like the rest of his team. So many gifted athletes never get a chance to play on a professional level despite having great potential. The only reason Lin got a chance to play was because the Knick were desperate for a point guard. Big players are so scarce that they get an opportunity to play. Smaller players have to convince their coach and teammates that they can help the team. We can’t know why Lin did not get significant playing time until this year. But is hard to believe that race and going to an Ivy League college did not hold him back. I hope this whole story gives more players a chance for game time no matter their race or background.
I would like to mention some of the current issues that would go along with what we have read in chapter 13 (Eitzen & Sage, 2099). I was moved by Dr. Bernice Johnson Reagon’s presentation on racism. Her use of music and stories was inspiring. That is a perfect example of what a great storyteller is. Although her stories were all based on facts and truth and revolutionary in the activist movement of African American Issues, I think the one I witnessed a week before could get some lessons from Dr. Reagon.
Something in the media that is important is about the young African American teen in Florida that was shot and killed because he was wearing a hoodie and looking suspicious. It’s easy to take a stand or a position on racial issues but this could be an example of a bias that exists still today. I will never know what it feels like to be a minority or discriminated against at that level but I wonder if the bias and suspicion that the cop felt when he shot that boy exists within the larger population.
I believe we take for granted what we have. We live in a safety net which is comfortable to us and can make harsh realities such as the boy in Florida seem far way. We have to realize that in sports and other facets of life racism is still apparently present and closer to home than we might realize.
Throughout all this very intriguing discussion I can’t stop focusing on the “sports opportunity structure” that John C. Phillips argued that Eitzen and Sage (2009) discuss. African Americans are not found in expensive facilities. A lot of sports cost a ton of money and the majority of African Americans or Latin Americans are not growing up in a lucrative areas (Eitzen & Sage, 2009). New Bedford is an exact example of that. As Rick said our students love basketball. I have students that get angry when we are not playing basketball, which considering how much they usually play you would think they would be sick of it by now. They eat, sleep, and breathe basketball. Why…because that is what is available to them. At the middle school I am working at we have a large population of Hispanics and bilingual students that are coming over from Cape Verde. Guess what sport is available to these students and what their culture thrives on…soccer. In the beginning of class while students are still in the locker room we let the students warm up with a soccer ball, basketball or football. If you are to take a step back and look at who is using what you would see the Hispanic students playing soccer, and the African American students playing basketball. The girls that come over from Cape Verde love volleyball because that is what is available to them and highly played in their culture. It is the ways of a child’s culture and the environment that they grow up in that pushes them towards these activities. The Hispanic students that end up staying in New Bedford for many years end up really liking basketball too. Why…because it is their new environment and there are barely any fields available to play soccer on anymore.
To answer Jen's second question about over-represenation of blacks in the NBA and NFL, I would like to refer to Chapter 13th, page 13, where the authors talk about social structure constraints. According to Eitzen and Sage, blacks are skilled in the sports that are available to them (2009). Many African Americans do not have access to private clubs, but are involved in sports through their community (Eitzen and Sage, 2009). Let's face it, football and basketball do not require much for equipment, and many people can play using one ball. Most schools have access to football fields and basketball courts, even in poorer sections of towns/cities. Along with social structure constraints, what young black children observe also has an effect on their desire to play basketball and football. Most of their heroes are the athletes they see on the televisions and advertisements who are successful in the NBA and NFL (p. 309).
This has been a fabulous discussion. The close connections to the Eitzen and Sage text has really made this a very sophisticated discussion. One point that occurs to me as I read about your views regarding racism today in professional sports. That is, what happens when racism and sexism actually work together in sport? An interesting fact related to how Title IX has helped White girls and Black girls is that Black girls have not gained nearly as much as White girls since 1972. White girls have far more chances to participate in sport than do Black girls. We will look more closely at this in a few weeks when we look at data about access to sport/physical activity in the US. Black girls are steered into track and field, basketball and volleyball. Rarely do you see Black girls in lacrosse, swimming, and skiing. This group is potentially one of the most underserved groups of youth in the United States. Latino girls suffer some of the same limitations.
Thank you for all of your comments. I agree with Dr. Rosenthal on sexism-racism link. It is true you rarely see female minorities on lacrosse, swimming, and golf teams. I still believe it has a lot to do with the access to the sport and the financial support to play them. Again, thank you for the great discussion this week.
To weigh in about African Americans dominating the NBA and NFL, I think Rick is onto something with his observation about living in underpriveliged urban areas. Children that grow up in these areas are surrounded by surfaces that are made of concrete. They have no field space to use and I think that this has a lot to do with the fact that you don't see as many African Americans in the MLB. It almost seems as though people embrace their surroundings and the fact that so many inner city kids only have access to basketball courts at the city park has a lot to do with why they get into basketball at a young age instead of baseball.
The fact that minorities are still less likely to be in "leadership positions" (Eitzen & Sage 2009) is amazing to me. It is still rare to find a black general manager of a team, as evidenced by the statistic that Jared shared about Jerry Reese becoming only the third black GM ever in 2007. In recent years we are seeing way more African American coaches, and especially in the NFL it makes me wonder how much of this has to do with the Rooney Rule, where when a team is interviewing a coach or GM they have to interview at least one black candidate. I think that this would be a very interesting topic for discussion!
Dr. Rosenthal mentioned a very good point about racism and sexism working together in sport. I also agree that white girls have gained much more in sport compared to black girls. I was seriously shocked when I looked at the graph in Eitzen & Sage (2009) scholarship athletes in division 1 schools by race/ethnicity and gender in 2005 on page 301. There are 24.8% black male division 1 athletes compared to 5.4% black females. It is hard to compare race in this graph because the population numbers are very different. However, looking males to females in this way it shows black females are at a major disadvantage.
Brad you bring up an interesting point about basketball in the heartland. It is curious that more players are not representing that area in the NBA. Rachel I think you make a great point about how cultural influence sways athletic interests in your school. Consistent exposure and availability promote understanding of the game as well as the development of the skill set needed (2009).
Eitzen & Sage make an interesting connection in regard to the black athletically superior male being comparable to the successful hustler or rapper; he is something of a folk hero (Eitzen & Sage, 2009). The media really plays right into this race-linked cultural difference. Dr. Rosenthal's comment about black women being underrepresented in sports sparked an interesting connection for me related to the Ch. 13 reading. It seems that the media focus on the black folk hero character, which is publicly applauded as a super hero, could enable black male dominance and further disadvantage black women in sport?
Sean, you mentioned the under representation of black females in sports that Dr. Rosenthal mentioned and I cant help but blog about what Eitzen and Sage mention towards the end of chapter 13. They say that black women are victims of double jeopardy because they are both black and female (2009). The authors then go on to talk about various statistics about black women in sports.
This discrimination comes from the owners who think that fans will not back a black head coach, or because the black players did not play a position that required decision-making (2009). If owners are hesitant about deciding to utilize black males in administrative positions, then they will most definitely be hesitant to hire a black female for that position. For more black males and females to get leadership positions in sports, owners need to just give them a chance. I feel that once an owner gives more black males and females more opportunities to show that they are more than capable to lead teams from administrative positions, more owners will follow suit.
I agree with the many comments made about how blacks succeed at basketball due to the fact that this is what they are exposed to in the inner city. Eitzen and Sage also discussed the Latino population and their connection to baseball. Baseball, boxing and soccer are sports that are most prominent to Latinos (p. 295). As stated by Eitzen and Sage, 29 percent of MLB players are Latinos. The reasons seem similar to that of African/Americans and basketball. Baseball is very popular in their culture, it’s inexpensive, and they can play year around to practice their skills. For every LeBron James and “Dr. J” Julius Erving in the NBA there is a David Ortiz and Roberto Clemente in MLB.
64 comments:
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Hi All,
Hope you all enjoyed Spring Break. I want to focus the first part of the week on Tamir and Galily’s article Women’s Sports Coverage in Israel: Perception Verses Reality. After reading this article I can’t help but notice some similarities and differences between how women’s sports are covered in Israel and the United States.
So my question for the first part of the week is as follows:
Did you notice any differences and/or similarities between women’s sports coverage “perception vs. reality” in the United States’ and women’s sports coverage “perception vs. reality” in Israel?
You can start by stating what you observe about how women’s sports are covered in the USA. Then you can state what you think our society (not media) feels about women’s’ sports.
The second part of the week, (Wednesday night) I will present a question that will help us out in the classroom. Stay tuned.
Hi all!
I think in the US it is clear that the sports coverage is not equal to males. I am not sure if it ever will be, but I have never seen women’s ice hockey (besides the Olympics) being shown on TV. I believe the media here focuses on the “feminine sports” such as gymnastics and ice skating. Outside of the Olympics, you rarely see women’s sports being broadcasted and if they are they are not on a national channels. In a personal note, I was really upset a few weeks ago when Shalane Flanagan (US distance runner from Marblehead, MA) qualified for the Olympics in the marathon and it was not even mentioned in the nightly news. The event was not shown live and was broadcasted before a NFL playoff game and was cut short. This is an amazing athlete who won the US Olympic trials. (She won a bronze in the 2008 Olympics in the 3,000 Meters). It is heartbreaking to me that she did not get the attention and respect that she deserves.
I do not think our society takes women’s sports as serious as men’s sports. It does not bring in the same amount of money and is certainly not as popular. After reading the journal article Women’s Sports Coverage in Israel: Perception Versus Reality by Tamir and Galily, I found it interested to learn that “Male and female readers alike expressed a greater desire than sports journalists for wider coverage of women’s sports in the sports section” (p. 104). From this, you wonder if women are not getting the coverage they deserve because the sports journalists do not enjoy covering their sports? I was not surprised to learn that women more than men were not satisfied with the current coverage of women’s sports in the newspaper. As a female athlete, you want to read about other females who are doing amazing things in sport. Lastly, I think it is great that kids have sport role models, but you can’t help but notice how many male athletes they know compared to female athletes. (Thanks to the media)
Welcome back from spring break!
After reading "Women's Sports Coverage in Israel: Perception Versus Reality," I noticed that there is one main common denominator between the way women in sport are covered in the US and Israel. If we are to take a look at the coverage of women's sport in the media, we would notice that it is a mere after-thought. There is one point in the article where the authors describe the sports package for viewers in the country of Israel as directed toward the male viewers. I believe they called it the "the men's package" (Tamir and Galily, 2010). In the same way the US cable companies have the NFL sunday ticket and other exclusive channels dedicated to men in sports. As a women, I would like to see coverage of women in sport. I agree with Aimmee, that it is outrageous that Shalane Flanagan was pretty much overlooked by the media. Her accomplishment is an amazing feat, and we will be watching her in the upcoming Olympic Games!
In response to Daniel….. Yes I do feel there is inequality for women in Sport. However, as I read the Tamir & Galily (2010) article I began to think about my local newspaper and this topic. I discovered that high school and professional athletes were covered quite differently. High school female athletes seem to be written about as often as the males were. In contrast, professional women athletes rarely seem to be written about in the newspaper. I wonder why media coverage has drifted so far from inequality in professional sports. Could it be that the journalists are listening to the readers when they write about high school sports? Does this suggest that Tamir & Galily (2010) were on to something with their study? Or are there rules and regulations for high school athletics that do not apply to professional sports.
Hi everyone,
I'll start with an observation about how women's sport is covered in the United States. Clearly, it doesn't get the same coverage or attention as men's sport. An excellent example of this was evident to me this past weekend as I was watching coverage of NCAA basketball. The much anticipated men's selection show was aired Sunday night during prime time (6:00, on CBS) as a climatic culmination of both the day and weekend's conference tournament outcomes. The NCAA bracket was revealed after much anticipation, and then at the end, they gave about a 10-second plug for the women's selection show. The women's NCAA tournament bracket would be revealed the following day on a channel and time slot where many basketball fans wouldn't even be able to see it (late Monday afternoon on ESPN).
Something that really caught my eye from Tamir and Galily's article was the similarities in media coverage for women's sport in Israel. Now, in the Israeli media, the lack of coverage for women's sport seems a bit more "extreme" than here in the United States, but I definitely notice a similarity. On page 98, the author says this about the perception of women's sport in Israel: "The basic perception is
that sports broadcasts are intended for male spectatorship, and this is the rationale
underlying the cable-television-viewing package selection in Israel, which for a long
time included a sports cable package called “the men’s package.”'(Tamir and Galily, pg. 98). This is strikingly similar to a lot of ways that sports are marketed and covered here in the U.S. For example, Spike TV is a network that markets specifically for men, and broadcasts sports such as ultimate fighting on a regular basis.
I noticed the similarities between the coverage of women in the US and the coverage of the women in Israel. I feel that women do not get equal coverage in any part of our media. I have noticed that ESPN has been pushing the women’s March madness almost as much as the men’s. The golf channel also gives women and men’s play equal coverage. As for the “Men’s” channels maybe when our society starts taking women’s sports seriously sponsors will jump in and spend money on women’s sports. Let’s face it the sponsors dump serous amounts of money into the NFL, MLB NHL, etc channels which makes them money. We can’t say that women don’t have any “women’s” only channels we get HGTV, Opera network, Oxygen. Hopefully someday our society will get excited about women’s sports. As for the article, I was taken back by how the few women’s sports writers that existed in Israel acted the same way towards women’s sports as their male co-workers. The women’s sports writers have the power of coverage and chose to be conformists and do what the males do. They need to stick up for each other and cover the women and fight for what they believe is right.
Rick, you stole my thunder. I completely agree that the coverage of women’s sports in the local papers is well represented. Small newspapers are reporting the sports that their readers’ want covered. In the most recent Carver Reporter (March 9, 2012) the sports editor Adam Ellis provided two front-page articles. One article was on the Carver High men’s basketball team and the other on the Old Colony girl’s basketball team. I feel that this particular paper is fair in their coverage of gendered sports throughout the year.
In the Tamir and Galily journal article, I found it very surprising as stated by Aimee that the readers both female and male wanted a variety of the coverage of sports in their paper and the editor thought other wise. Also on p. 104 “News producers, in effect are expressing their personal opinion when they claim there is a lack of interest in women’s sports in the news papers.” This viewpoint is the exact opposite of what the research showed about the attitudes of the readers. I believe the journalist and editors; the so-called “gatekeepers” according to Tamir and Galilyh should turn in their key.
I like what I have read so far regarding this weeks' readings! I am at the airport right now and heading to Tel Aviv, Israel. One idea that I think is so interesting is the one CJ brought to light. This is what the media "gatekeepers" believe to be true seems to be very key to what ends up in the sports pages. If we were to look at the gender make up of newsrooms, we would find men in a lot of leadership positions, they make the decisions. From what I understand, when women do get to work for ESPN and some other big newsrooms, they tend to support the 'status quo' and cover/support men's sports because that is what their bosses want them to do. I wonder how this can be changed on a more national level? I agree, too, that local newspaper coverage is better. But local TV news is NOT very positive in terms of women's sport. I am off to Israel, hopefully I will post from there!
Hi again,
Good stuff here. I agree with the Rick and CJ that local women’s high school sports are prominent in local papers. To increase this at a national level, I think that there first needs to be more advertising for women’s professional sports. The professional sports organizations that make the most money domestically (MLB, NBA, NFL, and NCAA) are prominently shown on ESPN. Once women’s sports get good funding from advertisements and fans, then that is when women’s sports will get more exposure in the media.
Topic II:
After reading Dan Ninham’s article The Games of Life: Integrating Multicultural Games in Physical Education, I wanted to share what I do personally in my classes and hopefully you would like to share something as well. Children
As you all know, it is sometimes hard to get children motivated. I try to introduce new activities and concepts in class that are interesting to them. In my classes, which can range from single classes of 25 children to double classes of 50 children, we play a modified version of the Indian sport of Kabaddi. A short video is below.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=96ZzVeCgUVY
(I tried embedding this video)
I originally learned about it in a previous class I took with Dr. Rosenthal. I set up the field as a 100’ x 50’ rectangle split into 2 halves. The game is somewhat basic in that the object of the game is that each team, taking turns, sends a “raider” to the other side of the field and tag as many people as they can. The raider then must return to their “safe” side of the field before they get tagged. The only people that can tag the raider are people that have been tagged by the raider. If the raider returns without getting tagged, their team gets as many points as people tagged. If the raider does not make it back safe, then the other team gets a point.
I have the students work together to come up with a strategy for both raiding and defending. They seem to really enjoy this game.
Now if you’d like you can share your own multicultural activities you do with your students or even come up with one that you would like to try with your students so we can introduce more multicultural activities in our classes.
Nice discussion this week. To be honest Dan, I haven’t really seen a lot of coverage on women in sport. I personally don’t know if it’s because of a lack of interest or the lack of time the media spends on it. The studies by (Goodich-Abrahm,2000) found that the perceptions of women were a reflection of male dominance. I thought the awareness and the image of the sexes that are portrayed through the media was interesting (Tamir and Galily, 2010). I would never think of eating disorders and other ailments that might affect the image of women in media. We have to acknowledge what we have been brought up to believe or understand as our roles in society can make us question if the equality of men and women in sport will ever be equal. But the reality might be we won’t live to see it.
I can’t agree more about the coverage of local high school sports. I read the Patriot Ledger and have noticed in recent weeks that the coverage of female high school sports has at least matched the boys. I also coached varsity basketball for six years. Our girls team got plenty of coverage when we played well. Here is a video link from our glory days of 2008, http://www.necn.com/Boston/Sports/Deaf-basketball-team-making-forceful-statement-/1204241434.html It might be argued that we may not have gotten the coverage if we were not a deaf team. The lack of coverage for the Olympic Trials is very troubling; better not schedule anything during the NFL playoffs. Professional sports are all about the money. The old boys in the news room maybe holding back on covering female sports, no question. The problem goes way beyond those gatekeepers, there is not as much going on in female professional sports. There are so many news outlets that if you want info on any sport you can find it, there simply is not enough happening to make it profitable to cover. I see the lack of coverage of professional sports as more of a grass roots issue.
Tamir and Galily's (2010) article discusses women in sport are still oppressed compared to men in sport. When it comes to media coverage women are viewed as not valued by the readers/viewers. Readers/viewers show a lack of interest in women in sport. The terms “father/son and men’s packages” are used. I have to say in the United States I have not come across packages that are labeled for father and son or just men. I am sure I could be wrong, but in my mind the United States in comparison to Israel has done better with that.
Israel and the United States are similar when comparing the statement that, “real sports are sports that emphasized physical contact and muscle” (Tamir & Galily, 2010, p. 96). I feel as though a lot of men or “gatekeepers” would say the same thing (no disrespect to the men in this class). It is a common statement I have heard from many men in my life when the topic of lack of women in sports coverage is discussed. It is unfortunate that the U.S. is not the only place where women are struggling to make headway in sport and a lot of other areas.
To touch upon the term “gatekeeper” that Tamir and Galily (2010) use in their article does give women in sport some hope. As women take on more leadership roles as Dr. Rosenthal brings up, women may see more assistance in getting attention in sport. Also men in leadership roles that look at the other side of spectrum (like the guys in our class) can help women too. Hopefully, if a woman does take on a leadership role she does not have the view of women in sport not being as newsworthy or what sells to the readers/viewers.
Topic #2 response
Dan I would agree that motivation is a challenging aspect of teaching. We teach a short project adventure unit which is full cooperative learning activities and in some ways similar to the multicultural philosophy. Project adventure has been extremely helpful in motivating the students who rarely participate. We sometimes offer choice in our curriculum to meet the individual interests of our students. When we first offered project adventure most of the students did not choose it because it was a new activity. However, after 1 or 2 lessons the numbers drastically increased. It was then that I knew we were on to something big.
After reading the Ninham (2002) article I am motivated to include more multicultural activities in our curriculum. I liked the description of the Long Ball game, with exception of throwing the ball at the person because it reminded me of dodge ball. I would modify that aspect and have the students simply tag the runner with the ball. The video on Kabaddi was something I had never seen before. It looked like a combination of wrestling and football. I think I will try your version in my class.
For this discussion I am interested in learning some new multicultural activities to enhance my project adventure unit.
I thought the article "The Games of Life: Integrating Multicultural Games in Physical Education" was interesting. It made me think about the ways we can use sport in PE to combat discrimination, and open up the eyes of our students to others around them. I work in a school where there are a lot of different ethnic backgrounds and it would be great to include games from the student's heritage.
Currently I use dance as a way to introduce culture into the PE classroom. At the high school level I focus on ballroom dance which enables me to talk about the origins of the different dances and music used during class. I find that going over the history and culture involved in the subject brings a richness to the dancing and a respect and appreciation for its heritage.
Really good discussion this week. I'm glad Dan brought up the issue of motivating certain students in physical education and multicultural activities we can implement to encourage those less willing to participate to join in and contribute. This aspect of teaching physical education seems much more challenging to deal with at the middle and high school levels, however at the level that I teach at (K-2), there seems to always be a few difficult students that are very unwilling to contribute to class. Rick, I like that you brought up project adventure and cooperative activities. These are probably my favorite units to teach because it allows the students to take complete control of their behavior as well as the task at hand. Teaching these concepts allows us as teachers to kind of take a step back and watch our students put what we have taught them about responsibility and cooperation into action. I also teach these units partly as a way of motivating kids to do the right thing, cooperate with their peers, and really motivate one another to contribute. A multicultural activity that I frequently teach in my classes is a dance that I learned in a course I took at BSU taught by Professor Baumgarten. It is called Hoeana, and it is a Native American group dance that is very low-energy but it gets students moving and it gets them working in sync with each other in their groups working together.
After reading the article on Blackboard called The Games of Life: Integrating Multicultural Games in Physical Education by Dan Ninham, it gave me some new ideas about multicultural activities to try in my classes. I really enjoyed the kick ball relay because of the time the students have on task. It seems like they would always be moving with a lot less standing around. I would probably modify it a bit and make the activity a bit more cooperative in nature with 4 in a group so that when each pair gets to the other end of the playing area, they could send the other two teammates back to the line that they started at with a high five. This would make the activity a bit more cooperative in nature while changing from working in pairs to working in small groups.
I know everyone has mentioned the “Gate Keepers” and the responsibility that goes along with that. Tamir & Galily noted the relevance of Title IX in America and its negative influence towards sport entities that were unable to keep funding for equal opportunity with their sport or game. Israel has dedicated eighty million shekels to the National Program for Women's Sports in Israel (Tamir & Galily, 2010, p. 95). Which is great, but two years later, no money was used. Some initiative needs to be taken that will help this movement along. The “Gate Keepers” would be a great place for this movement to gain momentum.
“The Games of Life: Integrating Multicultural Games in Physical Education”, by Dan Ninham was great. The game Long Ball seems to be a great chance for the kids to learn about the history of game play and the native Iroquois Indians.
That raider game sounds fun, Dan. I 'm going to try it. I play a game that uses some knowledge about islands and native tribes. I tell the students they must escape from the island which is part of a “Archipelago”. This island can no longer sustain the tribe and they must find a more suitable island to live on. I give them some yarn balls to represent food. As a group they must use their equipment to get from their endangered island to a new safer island. I play some multicultural music during the challenge and the students seem to love it. Four hoops are spread out across the gym. These serve as the islands. A starting island and a finish island are designated in front of the group. They can not touch the floor and are giving two scooters, one hockey stick, one rope, and ten yarn balls neatly behind the starting line. They must bring all the equipment and supplies with them on their journey. It creates teamwork and allows the group to learn about archipelagos and some tribes. You can have some facts and information about selected tribes before hand that will enhance the multicultural aspect of the game.
The game, Archipelago, can be found in
on lulu.com. The book info follows:
DeCleene, L., Lepisto, D., Nicolet Elementary School, "Coorperative Team Challenges" www.lulu.com.
If anyone is interested in this book,
there is no real copyright or year, but the ID: 1121915. Its been a great
book promoting cooperation.
The dominate perceptions towards women’s sports coverage barely touches the surface. It is not considered a central issue in sports journalism and women journalist who have been asked the question respond that they “have never really thought of it before” or ‘have never considered the matter till now.” (Tamir and Galily 2010) My opinion is that they say that intentionally but if you were to catch them off the air, those same women might say otherwise. I agree with Jen the big four: NFL, NBA, NHL, & MLB generate so much revenue and attention it blurs all the rest of sports because of their intermediary dominance. The intensive following of fans and the money generated gives a false sense of familiarity with sports fans and their opinions. In actually, sports section readers have a significant interest in women’s sports and would even prefer to see more extensive coverage of them. News producers, in effect, are expressing their personal opinion when they claim there is a lack of interest in women’s sports in the newspaper. These producers are acting as gatekeepers, as CJ brought up. (Tamir and Galily 2010) The commentators and web of media that follow men’s sports are all riding the revenue wave. It is these dominant voices that do not reflect the wide range of opinions but only reinforces dominant perceptions regarding sports fans.
One of my favorite sports is professional men’s and women’s surfing and far from the big four. When was the last time that you have seen an article about anything surfing in the newspaper or on TV? Well if you have dig a little deeper and find out about Stephanie Gilmore she is going to win her fifth title this year.
I believe that our local newspaper the Marshfield Mariner does a fantastic job equally covering men’s and women’s sports. There is quite a bit of interest generated at the local level for all sports and the local media does a great job because that is what the people want. It is not dominated by narrow opinions or tainted by money. I think that as a society we yearn for good competition and it is so pure at the youth and high school levels.
After reading Dan Ninham’s article The Games of Life: Integrating Multicultural Games in Physical Education it reminded me of one of my theme based field days I run at my school. The name of the field day is called “Where in the World is Mr. P.?” I would be happy to share this field day theme with anyone in class. In the field day there are 12 different events representing 12 different countries. Some of the events are spoofs about the country (i.e. Leaky Pipe Relay, Holland and Legend of Bigfoot Walk, Canada). Some of the events are authentic games from that country or culture (i.e. Spearing the Disc, Ethiopia, Bowling the Makai Stone, Hawaii and Corkscrew, England). My students absolutely love this field day. My field day volunteers run each event where they are provided directions and history of each game. I got some of these activities from a multicultural games book that I do not have the name for at this moment. I will reference it when I get back to my school on Monday. I believe it is important to open our student’s eyes and relay to them that there are more games than just football, baseball and basketball. What happens on fields outside of the United States is important for the growth of our youth.
The multicultural article by Ninham just reminded me of the Alaskan Olympics that I have read about. I like the idea of telling a story with the activity. I frequently use this at the elementary level and the students absolutely love it. The best story/ activity might be “Old Witch Toes”. CJ and I use this as our annual Halloween tag activity. The ghost story really makes the game; otherwise it would just be another tag game. The story takes it to the next level. I like the idea of “the Game of the Clouds” and the native connection through story. I could see this relay working well with a unit focused on kicking (soccer ball or football/ punting or kicking. Students work cooperatively with their partner(s) and alternate punts to a fixed post in the ground and back. The students must maintain a jog throughout the activity. How many times can you get back and forth in five minutes or count the number of kicks you take can you beat your lowest score? I might even try setting it up as a course with different holes and a par with the 4th and 5th grade students.
Hi Dan, Sorry I'm just jumping into this conversation, but Ive been running a Special Olympics basketball event at my school this week, which has kept me extremely busy the past few days...
In response to your question about the observation of women's sport coverage here in the U.S., as authors Eitzen and Sage point out in Chapter 11, entitled Sport and the Mass Media, the coverage of women's sports has been on the decline ever since 1999. In today's media coverage of women's sports, a whopping 91.4 percent of airtime is dedicated to the programming of men's sports, and only 6.3 % for woman's sports programs. Additionally, as these authors point out, the FOX network in particular was even lower in terms of their coverage of women's sports. FOX's coverage ratio of male to female sports was an astonishing 15:1 in favor of men's sports. As hard as it is to believe, the FOX network wasn't even the worst in terms of equality in media coverage for women. ESPN, the Worldwide Leader in Sports, was at a ratio of 20:1 in favor of men's sports, which is simply inexcusable. With numbers as shocking as these, I feel it's safe to say that the coverage of women's sport in the United States is discriminating to say the least towards these female athletes.
As for the second part of your question Dan, in regards to our society's feelings about women's sports, I think it is virtually impossible in this day and age to fully separate media from society. In the US anyhow, unless you live under a rock, we as Americans are exposed to mass sport's media in almost every facet of our lives. You open up the front page of the newspaper in the morning, and there's sure to be at least one sport's headline, you go onto Yahoo to check your email, and will find several sport's stories on their homepage, same goes for watching the evening news after dinner time. The media has such a strong influence on our society, that we tend to believe whatever it is that we see and hear. So when programs such as SportsCenter, are only dedicating 3, (yes, 3) minutes of every hour's worth of sport's coverage to women, it severely affects how we as a society feel about women's sports. It is especially influential to young viewers, who when they see males dominating the sport's headlines, are going to tend to idolize male athletes, regardless of their gender. This neglect of women's sports leaves young females without many well known women athletes to look up to, therefore further enhancing male dominance in the world of sports.
In terms of the perception vs. reality of women's sports coverage in Israel compared to that of women's sports coverage in the US, I found many similarities in the Israeli media coverage of women athletes to that of the coverage of women's sports here in America. As authors Tamir and Galily allude to this comparison of Israel and the US, “When the issue of the portrayal of women in the media is raised, several characteristics are repeatedly found: absence of women in comparison with the amount and time the media dedicate to men; emphasis on certain functions women are able to perform, or to which they are obligated—usually in the private sphere.” Tamir and Galily go on to discuss the strong influence this type of media coverage has on young Israeli women in terms of shaping their gender identity. Similar to the US, the portrayals of women athletes in Israeli media has caused self image issues for many young women, which has directly lead to social issues, such as eating disorders in these girls. The author's seem to indicate that the perception of women athletes in Israeli media is as bad, if not worse that here in the US.
Additionally, although there has been some improvement in terms of equality in recent years, the sports media has been especially discriminatory towards women in terms of job opportunities. With nearly every on air sports broadcast consisting of an all male broadcast team, viewers do not have the opportunity to see and hear the perspectives of women during live sporting events. This trend is similar in both countries, where the perception is that if you are watching a men's sport, there should be only men announcing the game. In regards to this issue however, I would have to say that at least here in the US, we now have at least a few well known women announcers who do in fact announce all male sports. From a personal standpoint, two of these women, Doris Burke (ESPN College Basketball) and Pam Ward (ESPN College Football) are two of my favorite sports commentators. Both of these women more than demonstrate the capabilities of women to perform as well, if not better than, their male counter-parts in sports media today.
Part 2: I have to be completely honest and admit that I do not include multi-cultural activities into my curriculum. I have numerous opportunities where I play games that I can relate to different cultures, but I do not have the information to tell the correct story. I play a game that is called boccer; it is a combination of basketball and soccer. I found it online, and a majority of students like it. When the ball is on the ground it must be kicked and in order to score it must be shot into a soccer goal. If the ball goes up into the air or is tossed out by the goalie the game is then basketball and the ball has to be shot into the hoop. The students seem to like it because they have to switch up their defense and the skills very quickly without much time to think about it. I am sure I can relate that game to combining different cultures, and I also have the opportunity in dance. It is sad to say with the amount of time that I actually have to teach that I am too focused on getting my students as active as possible rather than tying in important topics. I will do better!
Ninham’s article The Games of Life: Integrating Multicultural Games in Physical Education (2002) was a struggle for me. I had a tough time visualizing exactly how the games would work. I can take the games that Ninham gave for ideas and modify them, but I would probably not have them exactly right. I like it that in the directions of Kick ball relay, Ninham mentions to encourage the players and not have them focus on winning. I over emphasize in my class that it does not matter if you win or lose. My co-worker and I like to keep score in certain games just to make sure that the teams are even, but I constantly have students coming up to me I scored, I scored, Ms. Lassey you missed a goal. That is when I look at them and have to repeat that the score doesn’t matter. We take away points for not following the rules or for not practicing fair play. The majority of students eventually get it. They understand that our focus is working as a team, being a good sport, and using the proper skills. There is always that one student that has been brought up in a household where losing is the worst thing that can happen to him/her. The student that comes to mind is in 6th grade and I am setting a goal that he will understand by the end of this school year.
As for your posting in regards to multicultural games Dan, I read your description of the Indian sport of Kabaddi, before watching the YouTube clip you provided. I was amazed at the difference of what I was picturing in my head, and what I saw in the video. As I was reading your description of the game, I was picturing second graders playing a nice, friendly, game of tag. And then I watched the video, in which shirtless men were tackling each other, and throwing one another into leg and ankle locks ?? Looked more like a middleweight UFC Title Fight than a tag game, so I'm assuming you play by some modified rules when you play it in class !! ...However, it does sound like a fun tag game which could be a nice way to introduce Invasion games to elementary students.
A multicultural game which I have begun teaching and playing in some of my higher skilled (APE) classes at the high school level, is that of Team Handball. Although it may not sound like a multicultural game, Team Handball was originated in Central Europe, and is now played in Sweden, France, South Korea, Norway, England as well as the United States, just to name a few. It combines elements of soccer, water polo, hockey, and basketball, and is a very popular Summer Games Olympic sport.
Here are rules of Team Handball for anyone who has not played it before:
http://www.ga.k12.pa.us/Academics/MS/6th/MCGAMES/Games/Thandbl.htm
Here is also a video, which introduces the sport, and some of the basics of Team Handball:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q6RcTHNlxto
Also, in relation to Ninham's article on multicultural games in P.E., as he was describing the game, Long Ball it made me think of a modified whiffleball and kickball game I created, and used to play with elementary students. In my version of this game, One batter or kicker strikes a pitched ball as far (or well placed) as they can, between foul lines and run back and forth as many times between home and first base as they can, while the fielders (who each are responsible for a base or polyspot) must field the ball and pass it to EVERY base/fielder before the batter is out. Each time the batter successfully runs from home to first and back before the fielders complete their passing of the ball from base to base, counts as 1 run for the batting team. After every batter on the hitting team has batted, they switch sides with the fielding team.
Hi Everyone- Happy St. Paddy's Day!
I have enjoyed reading everyone’s posts this week. I also will definitely try some of the multicultural games mentioned above. I think they are great. I teach a very multicultural population so adding games from around the world is really meaningful. I teach multicultural or cooperative games in between units. One game I really enjoy is called Drum Boo Eee. It is a South African game. The game is set up like a baseball/softball diamond. There are two teams, the fielding team and the runners. The runners roll a ball to “home plate” where there is a pin that needs to be knocked over(I believe they get 3 attempts). They then begin to run the bases but start at 3rd base, then run to second, 1st then home. The object is to get home before the ball. The fielders get the ball as soon as it knocks over the pin and must throw the ball to each base and get to home plate before the runner. The runners are standing in a circle (the pitching mound) and everyone gets the opportunity to roll the ball prior to switching. I used this as a field day game last year, the kids enjoyed it. I just have multiple games at the same time so there is not too much standing around.
The coverage for girls sports in my local paper is equal to the boys. Our girls basketball team made it to the state finals and our paper did a great job with coverage. They put a lot of positve articles and many color pictures. As for multi-cultural teaching it is not at the curriculumn at my school, which is to bad. I would love some new ideas on how to intergate the topic in the classroom.
Good discussion this past week. I enjoyed reading about several different multicultural activities played in your classrooms. I'll definitely be using ideas and activities that were discussed and try to integrate them into my classroom. See everyone soon.
I have to admit that I don’t pay a great deal of attention to the sports pages, because I spend a fair amount of time listening to sports radio in my daily commute and checking scores online. Many of the radio broadcasters also do a daily newspaper piece and are part of the “old boys” network of writers and sports people. I can see how they are resistant to change and broadening their perspectives. The point that the Tamir and Galily article makes about women sports people foster the same “old boys” attitude has merit. Female writers want to fit in and be part of the sports culture so they can succeed in their careers. I am coming around to the view that the media are “gate keepers” in many ways because they shape the public dialogue about sports. I can’t help but think that if there was so much interest in female sports events, someone would capitalize on that and market themselves to those of us more interested in female sports and a more progressive view of sports in general. The Sage text suggested “encouraging signs that conditions are improving for women” (p.268), maybe more media outlets will be providing more info on female athletes and different sports in the future.
The ideas for multicultural sports were interesting, sharing game ideas with other PE teachers makes courses at BSU so valuable for me. The video with the shirtless guys trying to tackle each other was wild. I lived in Malaysia {a Muslim country) for 7 years and taught PE there. The English had a major impact on games that are played in that country. I try to show the British connections with current sports we currently play in the states in my current teaching practice. More importantly I try to teach my students that they can modify games anyway they want to make it more inclusive and enjoyable for everyone.
No one mentioned the Livengood and Stodolska article. I never considered how we gave the 9/11 bombers so much power beyond the death and destruction of that day in September. We seem to have learned little after we mistreated Japanese Americans during WWII. We should not allow ourselves to be manipulated by a small number of extremists. I always admired the Muslim college students I taught in Malaysia, their devotion was very impressive. During fasting month there was never a complaint or a lack of participation in outdoor classes in extreme temperatures and wearing heavy clothing. I have trouble imagining how American Muslims have to be so vigilant when out in public in the USA. I would hope I could speak up if I ever saw that kind of mistreatment of others.
Sorry about getting my thoughts out so late, looking forward to next weeks discussion.
Racial-Ethnic Minorities and Sport
Is there still racial discrimination in sport today???? After reading chapter 13 in Eitzen and Sage I think that there are two ways to look at this. First let’s take the stacking theory discussed in the chapter. Stacking refers to situations in which minority group members are disproportionately found in specific team positions and underrepresented in others (pg307). Eitzen and Sage used the NFL as an example of stacking; they believe that African Americans are left out of the thinking and leadership positions, such as, quarterback kicker, punter, and offense linemen. African Americans are placed in less “thinking” positions such as wider receiver; running back and safety because they are fast and have good hands. I feel that professional football players are playing the positions that they have because they are really good at them not because of what color they are. Also, let’s face it most of them are making enormous amounts of money for playing. Next let’s look at sports that minorities are sparingly found, hockey, golf, NASCAR, lacrosse, and rugby. There are a few reasons that could account for the under representation, the expensiveness of the sport, the location of the facilities for practice and games, or the unfamiliarity of the sports. These are relatively expensive sports to play, some of which require a lot of equipment whereas basketball only requires a ball and some sneakers, and a local court.
So after reading the chapter here is a few follow up questions:
Do you think that racial discrimination is still prevalent in sports? Why?
Why do think over representation of African Americans in the NBA and the NFL exists?
Al
In response to the question presented, I felt there is a big difference in the article, Tamir and Galley’s article Women’s sports coverage in Israel compared to the United States. Over the weekend I found myself watch ATP women’s tennis, I also watch the espn two special on the women NCAA basketball tournament and how great Baylor’s women team has done all year. You can pretty much find any type of women’s sports if you have cable. Unlike the poor coverage in the Israel’s paper and the T.V. news, the Boston globe had articles about women’s sports, the hot topic of the weekend“ state high school girl basketball finals.” In the same sports section an article on Lindsey vonn “ends her best season ever”.
The coverage of female sports can be found in many different mediums. The Chief Editor of any sports section of a paper or magazine is trying to sell their product. When looking into the perception or reality of this comparison, between the lacks of coverage in any country is the hot topic. So the reality of picking up the Boston Globe newspaper and seeing high school girls being covered in the news paper isn’t bigger than the upcoming NCAA men’s or women’s tournaments or is it? To the locals who buy the paper, they wanted to read about the girl who plays down the street or the daughters of the family members who care about their local team. When they as a community go out and support their team and local paper, buy purchasing a single copy or 10 copies because their daughter is on the front page of the sports section the product (Boston globe) that the public is seeking. So my question is Israel just having a lack of women’s product, or is it the same ole tiring argument that women are being put down and not treated as equals where we have been stuck for this entire class. Did anyone watch the NCAA men’s tournament and see any anchor men interviewing the coaches and players as they left the court……all women interviewers…?
The idea of brand extension is another way to make more money off the hot market of the NFL the WNBA, ABA, NBA, ECT… Where do they stop? I don’t think them or you as company who pride themselves on making more desirable products to offer their consumer. Which then provides more money to be made using their logo or trademark athlete or athletic team? Is it really any different than a young individual businessman /women with a lemon aid stand who has been selling just cups of juice and says hey how about selling lemon aide and some cookies and make double the income? When or if that sells they get more creative and hire two friends to work the street four blocks down to open another extension of their business. So for a million dollar companies to keep stretching their hand out into people pockets all around the world to entice more people to wear their product that’s a sign of a successful business.
Wow, Chapter 13 was truly an amazing chapter. I have about six topics I would like to discuss but, I don’t want to take up too much room. To answer your question, Yes, I do believe that racism exits in sports today. I cannot argue with some of the facts presented in this chapter. Jen, I agree there are different ways to look at racism in this chapter. First, I believe that people may contribute racism without even realizing it. For example a team’s mascot for their school may be considered racism to a certain group (Eitzen and Sage, 2009). The second view that appears to be left out is the social, cultural and political factors which may indicate why a person may choose to participate in a particular sport (Eitzen & Sage, 2009).
I would like to discuss the argument that there are more differences with in the same race than there are in the different races (Eitzen & Sage, 2009). I never heard of race being compared in this fashion. The point about Kenya and Nigeria was amazing. Eitzen & Sage (2009) discovered that runners from Kenya did so well in distance running and Nigerian runners did not however, they were both consider the same race. They further point out that the Kenyans were considered to have physical advantages in endurance events but none of them are in the Tour de France. This would imply that racism is linked to societal, cultural, and political factors and I agree with this statement. I realize that my example applies to the Olympics but, I believe that the involvement of African American in the NBA and the NFL are also related to culture, social and political factors.
Before reading chapter 13 of Eitzen and Sage, I would answer the question, "No, I do not believe that discrimination is still prevalent in sports." I was unaware of the many ways minorities are left out of the picture in sports. After reading the chapter I would have to think more carefully about the question. On the surface everything seems fine. African American athletes seem very successful in sport and get paid plenty of money, so it is easy to assume that there is little if any discrimination going on. After reading the section on stacking, I was less blind to the way minorities are treated in the sports world. It does seem like discrimination exists when African Americans are pigeon-holed into certain non-leadership/non-thinking positions in sport. I always assumed players earned certain positions because they were the most talented in that spot. Now I am not so sure if that is the definite reason why. Another case for answering yes to Jen's question is that minorities are also less likely to be in media, refereeing, coaching positions, and other leadership positions in the sporting world (Eitzen and Sage, 2009). If there is no discrimination going on, we would see more minorities in these positions.
Spring High School Sports started this past Monday. As the Boy’s Lacrosse team was waiting outside of the track one of the quotes from a Lacrosse athlete was, “Look at all the black kids on the track team.”
Yes, I think racial discrimination is still prevalent in sport. One of the biggest reasons I believe this to be true is the lack of diversity in some sports (such as swimming, distance running, hockey, lacrosse, vs. sports such as baseball, football and basketball). Stacking was something I did not think much about until after reading this chapter. “The lower the degree of purely social interaction on the job, the lower will be the degree of racial discrimination” (Eitzen & Sage, 2009, p. 307) This is truly remarkable to me that this is still happening today. “Whites are found disproportionately at the thinking, leadership, and most central positions, while blacks are found at those peripheral positions requiring physical attributes” (p. 308). I am not sure me knowing this is going to change anything, but it is now something I am very aware of.
I think there is an overrepresentation in the NBA and NFL because after reading Eitzen & Sage’s chapter 13, I learned that young African Americans want to make their families proud by being good athletes. These are sports that do not require a lot of money to play (not as expensive equipment, team sports vs. individual sport, sports that are also played in schools). Learning there is still a wage gap, this could be one of the reasons why.
Hi Jen. In Chapter 13, when Eitzen and Sage discussed the idea of "stacking" in the NFL, and Major League Baseball, I found it difficult to agree that "stacking" was a form a racism. The authors point out that most positions in these two team sports which require the most athletic ability, (i.e. Running Backs and Cornerbacks in football, and Outfielders in baseball) are held by black athletes, where as the less athletic, "thinking/leadership" positions are typically white players, such as Quarterbacks, and Pitchers (see Table 13.2).
While I do agree that "stacking" by position does in fact exist in these professional sports today, I do not consider this to be a diliberate act of racism. As every sports fan is aware, in professional sports, the bottom line is winning and losing. While media personnel may create stereotypes by calling an African American who plays QB a "black quarterback," or a Caucasian who plays RB a "white running back," it is difficult to assume that team General Managers in these sports are doing the same. GM's do not care about anything other than winning. If they need a running back in the NFL Rookie Draft, and a white RB is the next best available player on Mel Kiper Jr's draft board, the team will draft that player, with the same holding true for black quarterbacks. As the numbers show, there have already been 3 black QB's taken with the #1 overall pick in the NFL draft over the past decade (C. Newton, J. Russell, & M. Vick).
The scouts and GM's for these NFL franchises vigorously scouted these players in every way imaginable before deciding to take them with the #1 overall pick. The bottom line for each of these players were that they were the BEST available player at the position, regardless of whether they were white, black, brown, or yellow. General Managers are not saying to themselves, "We need to find a black running back, or white quarterback." They are saying, "We need to find the running back or QB that gives our team the best chance of winning, so that I can keep my job." Therefore, I do not agree that stacking by position is racist, but is rather a group of players who give their team the best chance of winning, who may or may not be, black or white.
After reading the chapter, it is hard to say there is no racism in sports today. These statistics do not look like this by coincidence. What was interesting to me was that once I was reading the statistics, a light bulb went off in my head and noticed the racial divide in sports today. Table 13.3 points out the coaching positions and it was interesting to me the number of White coaches vs. Black, Latino and other Also, what was really stuck out to show how much racism is in our sports’ officiating with an average of roughly 70% of all referees being white. (Eitzen & Sage, 2009).
It’s funny because I never even realized that these statistics hold true until I read them. When a player, coach, or referee is not the “normal” race that they should be they get treated differently by the media and/or commentators. Take Jeremy Lin for example. For a few weeks, he was the talk of the town because he was the first American born Asian NBA player. Now, since he and his team are not doing as well as they were when Linsanity exploded, you rarely hear any hype or anything about him.
I agree with Aimee in that over representation in the NBA and NFL exists because of the lack of equipment and strong support in the schools. There are countless professional athletes that claim they would be outside shooting hoops or playing football every day until it was time to go to bed and then repeat that process the following day.
Jared I really think you are on the right track. The idea that those in charge are putting white athletes into more responsible positions and black athletes into more athletic roles because of a bias, makes no sense to me. The authors (Eitzen & Sage) do not present both sides of the issue. What could be the reasons for the NBA being so dominated by black players? I know it is not the politically correct thing to say but could it be that blacks players have better athletic skills than white players? Those same skills lead black athletes in football in play more athletic positions. I would also argue that while players pick the decision-making positions because they lack the athletic ability to play the more athletic positions positions. It is a question of nature vs. nurture. The authors seem to reject the notion that certain races might have an innate advantage over another group, The NFL takes the best athletes at each position regardless of their race. More than any other major sport, athletes do not stay around long if they do not perform regardless of race.
I think racial changes are lagging behind in the coaching and administrative positions in most sports. Changes in this regard are going too slow, the authors have a point on that topic.
I'm not sure I agree entirely about the premise of “stacking” (Eitzen & Sage 2009). Jared had very good points on the subject. They are saying the less social and less demanding jobs are where the majority of a given ethnic group would be placed. Which I would argue it would be the bias and prejudices of the coaches that put our youth in these positions which would reflect where they play as an adult. To say anyone would not be intellectual enough or grasp the position because of their color or ethnicity would be ignorant and racist. The color of one's skin should not be the measure by which someone is selected or rejected.
Jen, as for whether there is over representation of African American athletes in sport today, we can look at the theory in chapter 13 about “Race-Linked Cultural Differences” (Eitzen & Sage 2009). This says that the dynamic of the African American Culture puts an emphasis on sports and athleticism. This could give a reasoning to the amount of representation of any given culture in any sport for that matter. Just like Rbap was mentioning with the amount of runners from Kenya and Nigeria.
In my eye something worth a discussion is in Chapter 13 about “institutional racism”. The thought that even if we consciously make an effort to stop any type of practice involving prejudices, we would still have racism through U.S institutions is a sad truth that people should definitely be aware of (Eitzen & Sage 2009).
I also agree with Jared and the ideas associated with “stacking”. I don’t believe that coaches and general managers consider race before selecting a player in the draft or trading for a player for certain positions. They are looking for the best person available to make their team successful. I also disagree with Loy and McElvogue’s initial research in Eitzen and Sage (09) that blacks are more commonly found on defense because they can react better to the offense. Playing defense in football requires a lot more than just being able to react. You need to be a thinker and a leader on defense, especially at middle linebacker and safety. These positions require players to read offensive tendencies, understand reasons for formations and motions, and communicating with teammates to change coverage or blitz packages. The data according to Lapchick (2005) shows 40 whites and 154 blacks for these two defensive thinker positions. I will get off my defensive coaching soapbox now.
I have to agree that I do not believe that stacking is done intentionally. I feel as though if a professional coach were to look at these statistics that Eitzen and Sage (2009) present in chapter 13 the coaches would be shocked. I do believe that when racial barriers were primarily broken stacking would have been intentionally done.
In chapter 13 Eitzen and Sage (2009) say things that I would never be able to find the words to describe. I really like the way everything was broken down. We all come from a different culture, and each of our cultures focus on specific sports (Eitzen & Sage, 2009). Some of us choose to reach beyond the norms of our culture, but the majority of us follow our family leaders. The activities that people choose to focus on have nothing to do with the color of their skin it has everything to do with how they were raised. If I was raised in an inner city and my family loved basketball then I would most likely go to the nearest park and play as many pick up games as I could. If I was raised in a suburban area and my family loved baseball then I would most likely go to local baseball fields or the batting cages. Most African Americans that play basketball are known for being more aggressive to the basket rather than hitting three’s, which has everything to do with the environment they play in. The population of African Americans in inner cities is high, and they fight to stay on the local basketball courts. In order to stay on the court they have to play tougher defense and take riskier shots (Eitzen & Sage, 2009). I think that the reason why certain races are so dominant in specified sports has everything to do with the culture a person was raised in and the environment that person is forced to play and live in.
Do I think racism still exists in sports today…it depends on what specific part of sport you are referring to. I am sure that the stereotypes of race comes into play when it comes to picking positions (without coaches even realizing it), but do I think that people mean anything racist/negative by it…no I don’t. That doesn’t mean that racist people are not involved in sport, because I am sure there are. I am more referring to coaches or sports leaders. I do not believe that they are thinking about white supremacy when they are picking players for positions or coaches for jobs. I think they are just looking for the best person to fill the role. If they aren’t…they better be!
Hi everyone. An interesting discussion this week for sure. After reading the chapter, I'm not sure how much I necessarily agree with stacking in professional sports, especially in the NFL (Eitzen & Sage, 2009). In response to African-American players in the NFL playing less "thinking" positions, I would just have to totally disagree. In football, every player on the field is responsible for something. Each player on the field has a "job" at all times. Whether or not it's the quarterback, an offensive lineman, or a wide receiver, I believe each position on the football field should be considered a "thinking" position. Wide receiver, a position that is dominated by African American athletes and said by the authors to NOT be a "thinking" position (Eitzen & Sage 2009) is a very difficult position to play. Wide receivers in the NFL are responsible for knowing every route in the playbook as well as every play even if it doesn't include them. They are responsible for timing with the quarterback, and their KNOWLEDGE of the offensive system as well as the playbook is what earns the trust of the quarterback as well as the coaching staff.
I do believe that racial discrimination is still prevalent in sport, but I see it as more of an underlying issue than a blatant thing that deliberately occurs. Yes, the statistics show that there are certain discriminations, but I don't believe that these discriminations necessarily stem from racism.
Also, to Dan's point on Jeremy Lin: he's just not a very good NBA player. The whole Linsanity craze was way overblown in my opinion. Any point guard that averages more turnovers than assists per game should not be getting that much coverage. It was a fun story, but it seems to have subsided in recent weeks, mostly due to the fact that his team is in shambles. Their team quit on their coach, in turn causing him to step down from his position, and the Knicks just can't win a game. Seemed like a perfect situation for the NBA at the time, though. Extremely marketable player in the biggest sports market in the country, he has a couple huge games but then he just seemed to have faded off in recent weeks. To me, it's one of the more intriguing sports stories of the year.
In terms of racial discrimination's existence in sports today, I think Chapter 13 shows how it still does exist, especially at the collegiate level. As Eitzen and Sage point out, only 4 out of 119 D-1 college universities in 2006 had an African American president, as well as a mere 3 Latino presidents out of those 119 schools. Additionally, college athletics most popular sport, college football, had only 2.5 % black head coaches, and only 0.8% Latinos. These numbers are clearly indicative of the prevalence of racial discrimination in college sports today.
As for professional sports, I would have to say both yes and no as far as racial discrimination goes. Although in Chapter 13, the authors state that in 2005, only 6% of head coaches were African American, in the NFL this past season (2011), 7 of the leagues 32 coaches were African American. That is almost 10 times the percentage of African American head coaches that coached during the 2006 college football season. (22% in the NFL in 2011, compared to 2.5% in college football in 2006.) As for another major pro sport, the NBA, in 2005 37% of head coaches were black. These numbers indicate that there are a large number of African Americans landing head coaching positions at the highest levels of their sports.
Where the racism in professional sports really lies, is inside the doors of team front offices. When the New York Giants hired Jerry Reese to be their general manager in 2007, he became only the 3rd black general manager in NFL HISTORY!!... as hard as that is to believe. Additionally, out of the 4 major pro sports leagues (NFL, NBA, MLB, NHL) only 2... yes 2, team majority owners have been African American, according to Frank McCoy of The Root.com. These numbers clearly demonstrate the prejudices within team front offices against African Americans in professional sports today.
In my first response I commented on how cultural and social factors play a role in the type of sports athletes choose to play (Eitzen & Sage, 2009). Here are more examples.
Thanks Earl, glad you agreed. I think the Kenyon’s are a great example of the cultural aspect. If I were a child growing up in Kenya I would probably be interested in distance running.
Brad, I see your point and agree that there are other sides to the argument that were not included in chapter 13. I wonder if they researched the African Americans who played in the NBA to find out where they grew up, would there be any similarities. Could the physical surroundings be an indication of what sports children choose to participate in?
I teach in an Urban School area and most of my students live in housing projects. Most of my students love basketball. The housing projects have a limited amount of grass space and I have not seen any with baseball fields. Could it be that the children who live in these areas don’t have the area to play baseball. However, each of the projects has paved basketball courts. Perhaps it is the design of the property that indicates what sports children play. Did the majority of the players in the NBA come from areas which were similar to the housing projects? Maybe there are fewer whites in housing projects. Perhaps this is one reason why the NBA is dominated by African Americans.
I disagree with the theory of stacking from Loy and McElvogue in Eitzen & Sage, (2009). I think the best person plays the position period!
As for the over-representation of African Americans in both the NFL and NBA, while I do not think African Americans are biologically superior to Caucasians in terms of athletic ability, I do think that the African American culture has played a major role in their development in athletics. As Eitzen and Sage discuss in Chapter 13, black subculture places a strong emphasis on "athletic prowess." The authors state how unique forms of dance, music, and art may have influenced the moves, speed, and agility of African Americans, providing them with the skills necessary to be very successful in both football and basketball.
Additionally, I have to agree with Aimee, who mentioned how both football and basketball do not take much money or equipment to play (not touch football anyhow). Since these two sports are inexpensive to play, and since there are so many poor black youths in urban communities, these have traditionally been the two sports played by these youths on the playgrounds and in their neighborhoods. With such strong numbers of participants in these two sports, it is relatively easy to see why there is such an over-representation of African Americans in both the NFL and NBA. Where as in a league such as the NHL, these poor black youths do not have the means or capabilities to afford hockey equipement and access to hockey rinks. Hence, the reason why you see so few African Americans represented in the National Hockey League.
I believe that the evolution of racism in sports has modeled that of society. Until about 1950, U.S. racial–ethnic minorities typically were excluded from sport. Since then they continue to be excluded in some sports and are underrepresented in leadership positions (Eitzen & Sage, 2009). While African American athletes are underrepresented it is tough to ignore the way that things used to be. The societal perception towards African American athletes has evolved dramatically from the 1950’s and huge gains have been made. By no means is it perfect but the reality is that attempting to correct a society based on power takes generations to change. The glass is half full.
Eitzen and Sage call it “stacking” in the NFL or NBA I would call it drafting or pick the best athletes to make the best possible team to compete and achieve the ultimate objective: winning. Winning equals money. Our society is based on power, which is derived from capitalism, so there would be no reason not to pick the best possible athletes to fill those positions. More African American athletes are involved in football and basketball has a direct relation to the opportunities that exist for those young athletes to develop during youth sports. Consistent exposure and opportunity to develop the skill set to be successful at alternative activities; like hockey, golf, NASCAR, lacrosse, and rugby, seems to be the underlying lack of diversity in those sports not racism. Eitzen and Sage do a good job explaining that the problems have structural foundations on p.292.
It makes sense that the inner city would bring out more athletes have basketball skills than in any other sport. I would have liked the authors (Eitzen & Sage, 2009) look more deeply into the reasons for why black players dominate that sport. When I was coaching basketball we took our team out to Indiana to play in an invitational tournament, the interest in basketball in the mid-west is intense. I would expect that more players from the Heart Land would be playing in the NBA if it is a matter of exposure to basketball. Why not examine when white players are not represented? That goes back to being politically correct.
Kenny, I have to disagree with what you said about Jeremy Lin and the Knicks. Until last night the Knicks had won six in a row under their new coach. Lin stats look very good in two games this week including 18 points in two games. Last night he was held in check like the rest of his team. So many gifted athletes never get a chance to play on a professional level despite having great potential. The only reason Lin got a chance to play was because the Knick were desperate for a point guard. Big players are so scarce that they get an opportunity to play. Smaller players have to convince their coach and teammates that they can help the team. We can’t know why Lin did not get significant playing time until this year. But is hard to believe that race and going to an Ivy League college did not hold him back. I hope this whole story gives more players a chance for game time no matter their race or background.
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I would like to mention some of the current issues that would go along with what we have read in chapter 13 (Eitzen & Sage, 2099). I was moved by Dr. Bernice Johnson Reagon’s presentation on racism. Her use of music and stories was inspiring. That is a perfect example of what a great storyteller is. Although her stories were all based on facts and truth and revolutionary in the activist movement of African American Issues, I think the one I witnessed a week before could get some lessons from Dr. Reagon.
Something in the media that is important is about the young African American teen in Florida that was shot and killed because he was wearing a hoodie and looking suspicious. It’s easy to take a stand or a position on racial issues but this could be an example of a bias that exists still today. I will never know what it feels like to be a minority or discriminated against at that level but I wonder if the bias and suspicion that the cop felt when he shot that boy exists within the larger population.
I believe we take for granted what we have. We live in a safety net which is comfortable to us and can make harsh realities such as the boy in Florida seem far way. We have to realize that in sports and other facets of life racism is still apparently present and closer to home than we might realize.
Throughout all this very intriguing discussion I can’t stop focusing on the “sports opportunity structure” that John C. Phillips argued that Eitzen and Sage (2009) discuss. African Americans are not found in expensive facilities. A lot of sports cost a ton of money and the majority of African Americans or Latin Americans are not growing up in a lucrative areas (Eitzen & Sage, 2009). New Bedford is an exact example of that. As Rick said our students love basketball. I have students that get angry when we are not playing basketball, which considering how much they usually play you would think they would be sick of it by now. They eat, sleep, and breathe basketball. Why…because that is what is available to them. At the middle school I am working at we have a large population of Hispanics and bilingual students that are coming over from Cape Verde. Guess what sport is available to these students and what their culture thrives on…soccer. In the beginning of class while students are still in the locker room we let the students warm up with a soccer ball, basketball or football. If you are to take a step back and look at who is using what you would see the Hispanic students playing soccer, and the African American students playing basketball. The girls that come over from Cape Verde love volleyball because that is what is available to them and highly played in their culture. It is the ways of a child’s culture and the environment that they grow up in that pushes them towards these activities. The Hispanic students that end up staying in New Bedford for many years end up really liking basketball too. Why…because it is their new environment and there are barely any fields available to play soccer on anymore.
To answer Jen's second question about over-represenation of blacks in the NBA and NFL, I would like to refer to Chapter 13th, page 13, where the authors talk about social structure constraints. According to Eitzen and Sage, blacks are skilled in the sports that are available to them (2009). Many African Americans do not have access to private clubs, but are involved in sports through their community (Eitzen and Sage, 2009).
Let's face it, football and basketball do not require much for equipment, and many people can play using one ball. Most schools have access to football fields and basketball courts, even in poorer sections of towns/cities. Along with social structure constraints, what young black children observe also has an effect on their desire to play basketball and football. Most of their heroes are the athletes they see on the televisions and advertisements who are successful in the NBA and NFL (p. 309).
This has been a fabulous discussion. The close connections to the Eitzen and Sage text has really made this a very sophisticated discussion. One point that occurs to me as I read about your views regarding racism today in professional sports. That is, what happens when racism and sexism actually work together in sport? An interesting fact related to how Title IX has helped White girls and Black girls is that Black girls have not gained nearly as much as White girls since 1972. White girls have far more chances to participate in sport than do Black girls. We will look more closely at this in a few weeks when we look at data about access to sport/physical activity in the US. Black girls are steered into track and field, basketball and volleyball. Rarely do you see Black girls in lacrosse, swimming, and skiing. This group is potentially one of the most underserved groups of youth in the United States. Latino girls suffer some of the same limitations.
Thank you for all of your comments. I agree with Dr. Rosenthal on sexism-racism link. It is true you rarely see female minorities on lacrosse, swimming, and golf teams. I still believe it has a lot to do with the access to the sport and the financial support to play them. Again, thank you for the great discussion this week.
To weigh in about African Americans dominating the NBA and NFL, I think Rick is onto something with his observation about living in underpriveliged urban areas. Children that grow up in these areas are surrounded by surfaces that are made of concrete. They have no field space to use and I think that this has a lot to do with the fact that you don't see as many African Americans in the MLB. It almost seems as though people embrace their surroundings and the fact that so many inner city kids only have access to basketball courts at the city park has a lot to do with why they get into basketball at a young age instead of baseball.
The fact that minorities are still less likely to be in "leadership positions" (Eitzen & Sage 2009) is amazing to me. It is still rare to find a black general manager of a team, as evidenced by the statistic that Jared shared about Jerry Reese becoming only the third black GM ever in 2007. In recent years we are seeing way more African American coaches, and especially in the NFL it makes me wonder how much of this has to do with the Rooney Rule, where when a team is interviewing a coach or GM they have to interview at least one black candidate. I think that this would be a very interesting topic for discussion!
Dr. Rosenthal mentioned a very good point about racism and sexism working together in sport. I also agree that white girls have gained much more in sport compared to black girls. I was seriously shocked when I looked at the graph in Eitzen & Sage (2009) scholarship athletes in division 1 schools by race/ethnicity and gender in 2005 on page 301. There are 24.8% black male division 1 athletes compared to 5.4% black females. It is hard to compare race in this graph because the population numbers are very different. However, looking males to females in this way it shows black females are at a major disadvantage.
Brad you bring up an interesting point about basketball in the heartland. It is curious that more players are not representing that area in the NBA. Rachel I think you make a great point about how cultural influence sways athletic interests in your school. Consistent exposure and availability promote understanding of the game as well as the development of the skill set needed (2009).
Eitzen & Sage make an interesting connection in regard to the black athletically superior male being comparable to the successful hustler or rapper; he is something of a folk hero (Eitzen & Sage, 2009). The media really plays right into this race-linked cultural difference. Dr. Rosenthal's comment about black women being underrepresented in sports sparked an interesting connection for me related to the Ch. 13 reading. It seems that the media focus on the black folk hero character, which is publicly applauded as a super hero, could enable black male dominance and further disadvantage black women in sport?
Sean, you mentioned the under representation of black females in sports that Dr. Rosenthal mentioned and I cant help but blog about what Eitzen and Sage mention towards the end of chapter 13. They say that black women are victims of double jeopardy because they are both black and female (2009). The authors then go on to talk about various statistics about black women in sports.
This discrimination comes from the owners who think that fans will not back a black head coach, or because the black players did not play a position that required decision-making (2009). If owners are hesitant about deciding to utilize black males in administrative positions, then they will most definitely be hesitant to hire a black female for that position. For more black males and females to get leadership positions in sports, owners need to just give them a chance. I feel that once an owner gives more black males and females more opportunities to show that they are more than capable to lead teams from administrative positions, more owners will follow suit.
I agree with the many comments made about how blacks succeed at basketball due to the fact that this is what they are exposed to in the inner city. Eitzen and Sage also discussed the Latino population and their connection to baseball. Baseball, boxing and soccer are sports that are most prominent to Latinos (p. 295). As stated by Eitzen and Sage, 29 percent of MLB players are Latinos. The reasons seem similar to that of African/Americans and basketball. Baseball is very popular in their culture, it’s inexpensive, and they can play year around to practice their skills. For every LeBron James and “Dr. J” Julius Erving in the NBA there is a David Ortiz and Roberto Clemente in MLB.
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