I found it interesting in class that we were asked the question does racism still exist in today's society. And at first I couldn't say that there was. After reading this article by Major "Cool pose" I have realized there still may be racism around us today. The first thing I noticed in today's society is that there are very view black head coaches. I think in college football there are close to 120 division I-A teams and there is only around five black coaches today. Now I know there was more then just five head coaches that were qualified to run a football program. I found that as a shocking number. And with thirty-two NFL teams only seven of them are black head coaches. They also made a big deal during the Superbowl that when the bears and colts played a couple years ago that it would be the first time an African Amercian head coach had won a super bowl in history. Which means it took over forty years for that to take place. I really don't understand how there is such a few number. But, it real does go farther then that. If you look at all the major positions in football, what position has most of the power? The quarterback position. Which has more whites controlling this position. They have more power to decide whether the wide receiver or running back get the ball. And these positions are more dominated by blacks. These positions also have to do more work. There might be a fair amount of assistant black coaches, but once again who has most of the power? The head coach.
To continue, I have also noticed that in the NBA more and more European players are coming over and getting drafted and taking starter jobs away from other players. Then a sport that has almost no black athletes is the NHL. When I say almost none, I can say there isn't one player I can name off the top of my head that dominates the sport. Jerome Inglina might be the closest. Next to him though I couldn't name any. I can see how there can be thought that racism still exist today. There are plenty of examples in sports that I have noticed and pointed out. When it comes to "the cool pose" I think it is just a personality thing and shows there individualism as a athlete. The style an athlete brings to the court is what diversifies them as a person.
4 comments:
This is a crazy topic that has come up in a few of my sport management classes. I can't believe the numbers that coinside with this. However, you should take a look at Turner Gill, the head coach at Buffalo. He is an African-American and he has gone through a lot just because he is an African-American head coach. To hear his story and to look at his success as a coach is a shame.
I wanted to say a couple things in response to your comments. Let me start with the notion of "cool pose." While it might seem to be just an "individual" way of behaving in sport, I believe Majors is saying that it reflects a larger societal trend in which African-Americans have few options aside from sport. That is why he said it was an example of "agency operating within constraints." Some people have suggested that the influx of European players in the NBA reflects the League's desire to bring more white players into the league. Larry Bird even suggested a few years ago that he thought the NBA needed more white stars to attract more white fans.
This is always an interesting discussion. It is one that usually leads to why there as so few women in top positions in athletics as well. But many positions are based on who you know, and black coaches did not have the opportunities they do now so they can not reach out to others from the past. Also the white athletes in positions of quarterback etc...is called stacking and has always been a problem even today. Even with the Rooney Rule to interview minority coaches in the NFL they still find ways around it. In college they name a person a coach in waiting so they do not have to interview for the job after the coach steps down. It is a problem and hopefully someday we will figure it out.
I would agree with Larry Bird that we may need more white fans. And by bring in more European players this may work. Me personally I don't really care for the NBA. I do like watching Kobe play, but thats about it. I have no real team I follow. I think the NBA is jsut a sport that needss to be allowed to be a little more physical. Also, I hate players who pretend to get run over. It is embarrassing to watch.
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