Skip to content

Posts tagged ‘sports’

Feb 3

1 Comment

Show Me the Money!!

Wednesday, February 1, 2012 officially marked the first day of black history month, which segmented perfectly into this week’s continuation of the MLK Series for the Study of Race with Part Two of the four-part discussion series, “Playing with Fire: Race and Sport in American Culture.”  This week, Dr. Richard Pierce, Professor of History at Notre Dame, sat down with Jay Alexander, head coach of the Eastern Michigan University Eagles baseball team; Bill Lewis, former football head coach at Wyoming, East Carolina, and Georgia Tech, and former assistant coach for Miami Dolphins and Notre Dame; and Alan Turner, three-time All-American at Indiana University and current Assistant Coach of Sprints and Hurdles at Notre Dame. Read more

Jan 31

1 Comment

Race and Sports, a Personal Commitment

Last week we gave away free t-shirts (V-Necks!!) to the first 100 folks in the door for Playing with Fire: Race and Sport in American Culture. Notre Dame students who attend all four discussions will be entered into a drawing to win a free new Kindle Fire. The location of the four events is warm and comfortable: Legends nightclub, conveniently located just on the edge between the south side of Notre Dame’s campus and the city of South Bend. There is finger food and hot chocolate at each discussion; the events all begin in the evening after classes and practices are over; and each discussion lasts about an hour and a half. Following each program there are chances to meet the guests, which last week meant pictures with and autographs from the likes of Briann January, Doc Gooden, and Rocket Ismail.
Let it not be said that MSPS didn’t make every effort to create a fun, welcoming, safe environment to talk about how race and sports intersect in this country and about how we might be inspired to understand these intersects better in the future.

But here’s another reason why you should consider attending this program:

Because you are committed to the efforts of learning about and responding to racial inequity in American sports particularly and in American society generally. Read more

Jan 23

2 Comments

Playing with Fire: Race and Sport in American Culture

In the words of Professor Tim Davis of Wake Forest University School of Law, one the country’s best known sports law scholars, “Although sport is one of the dominating cultural practices in the social life of the United States, it traditionally was viewed as a discrete social phenomenon largely untouched by the problems of American society. In challenging this traditional portrayal, scholars often characterize sport as a “microcosm of society.” As such, sport has revealed the dominant attitudes and practices regarding race relations in the United States throughout the country’s history.” Read more

Oct 24

2 Comments

Misunderstandings over “Indian” Mascots

Quick post since Asian Allure is rapidly approaching.  (Which you all should go see!  not saying that just because I’m directing…)

I saw this comic a few days ago and want to talk about the controversy over “Indian” mascots for sports teams.

Many minorities — with reason — criticize mainstream America for its offensive misrepresentations of Native Americans through mascots such as the “Redskins,” “Chiefs,” and “Braves.”  These mascots are inaccurate, often border upon insult, and — at worst — are dehumanizing.  That’s why many of us tend to think of mainstream America as ignorant, insensitive, and offensive (as in the above comic).

However, I think that sometimes — for the sake of better dialogue between minorities and the mainstream — it’s worthwhile to step back from our immediate emotional reactions and to think: to try to understand what these mascots truly represent. Read more

Sep 8

3 Comments

No Tattoo for Cam

About a week ago, while doing one of my daily routes of checking out ESPN.com, I stumbled across a rather interesting article related to sports and race.  The name of the article was “Vick, Newton and our double standards: If we’ve learned anything about them this fall, its that a QB’s race is still a factor” by ESPN Sports analyst, Jemele Hill.  This article touches base on the issue of African-Americans believing that white people’s actions, whether good or bad, are perceived differently by the mainstream. Read more

Follow

Get every new post delivered to your Inbox.