No sport does more to perpetuate white racial stereotypes than basketball. They even made a successful movie about it years ago - White Men Can't Jump.
The conventional wisdom is, white players aren't as 'athletic' as black players, meaning they aren't as quick, don't jump as high, etc., and ergo, they aren't as good.
Oh, white players are still very good, just not as good, generally speaking. Considering the best of the best of today's players, it's hard to argue.
I can't help but think of this while watching this year's University of Iowa men's basketball team. Let's just say it has a high proportion of pasty white, almost sickly looking players. I'm talking tall-but-gaunt-looking players.
But very good, dare I say athletic, pasty white, almost sickly looking players. All right, one of them is a bigger guy, which is important, because sometimes four of these whiteys are on the court at once. And a couple of them are Iowa natives, so that's good, too.
So the question is, how long before someone in the mainstream sports media, or even the non-mainstream media, dare to assume verbally or in writing that this Iowa team isn't 'athletic' (Read: black) enough to compete against the best teams?
That mistake is made almost every year with Wisconsin. I guess they'll be able to compete with them, huh?
No comments:
Post a Comment