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Essays about racism in sports
Essays about racism in sports
Sports and social class
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Chazong Lo
Written Task 1
Dec 2015
Rationale:
Effects of Racism in Sports
In the year of 2014, there were 89 reported racial incidents according to ESPN. The issue of racism continues to grow and to find the effects that it has, we interviewed Boobie Miles, a former high school football player at Permian High school who was a target of racism. Boobie Miles was a character in the ethnography, Friday Night Lights that outlines the football season of 1988 along with racial issues that Odessa, Texas has. We asked Boobie Miles how racism affected his football career and life afterwards. Boobie Miles was raised by his uncle L.V. Miles in Odessa. L.V. brought Boobie into the sport. Boobie played for a football team that L.V. coached and
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How did that make you feel? Miles: It put a lot of pressure on me. Teams like Notre Dame and Houston sent me letters. Interviewer: During the preseason you injured your knee. Was this a major turning point to your season? Miles: Yes, at first I thought it was a little knock but it turned out I needed surgery. The injury that Boobie Miles acquired was a torn anterior cruciate ligament(ACL). A serious injury that changes athletes forever. Boobie and his uncle L.V. opted to use a knee brace and go through rehab to be able to play. Interviewer: What made you continue to play even though you had an injury? Miles: The pressure. The pressure to play for the team and the pressure to play for football teams after high school.
Interviewer: Do you regret playing with an
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I felt that i could recover.
Interviewer; In the game that you returned you limped off the field. Did that worry you?
Miles: Yes, but by next week I felt like I was ready to play again.
Interviewer: The game the week after you returned, you didn’t receive that much playing time, how did that much playing time. How did that make you feel? Miles: I was angry. Last season I rushed over 1000 yds and they didn’t give me a chance to be back on the team. From this point Boobie Miles would be the victim of racial abuse. He was left on the bench and was racially abused by fans of his own school.
Interviewer: When did you start getting racial comments?
Miles: After I picked up my injury. interviewer: Do you know why?
Miles: At the time in Odessa, Texas, racism was very noticeable. Only a few minorities could get into schools like Permian nonetheless get onto the football team. I guess when I no longer could produce for the team I no longer received respect from anybody. It's like slavery still existed. If I couldn’t produce then I wasn’t needed.
Interviewer: How did racism in Odessa affect your football
African-American players are often negatively affected due to the prevalence of racism in the town. Ivory Christian, for instance, is a born-again Christian with aspirations to be a famous evangelist, but he is unable to pursue his dream due to his commitment to the football team. Because of this, the townspeople have unrealistic expectations of him and assume that he will put all his time and energy into football. Furthermore, there is a greater pressure on him to succeed...
Even though the Permian Panthers had won a state championship the community wasn’t fond of black people. They wanted a state title but not all the recognition to go to Boobie Miles because he was a black running back. “He responded without the slightest hesitation. ‘ A big ol’ dumb nigger.” (Bissinger, 49) There are multiple accounts of harsh and unneeded racism thought the book. “ They started chanting something. Some said it was ‘Oreo Oreo!” The expectations of how the season will go is a huge conflict in Friday Night Lights. Two weeks before the season starts there is a watermelon feed for the players and families to come support. People would come to the Watermelon Feed with their children as if they feel it’s important for the little ones to see this spectacle at a young age and be awed by it. Even though people struggled financial and economic hardships, the lights of a Friday night game ignite their hopes and dreams of a better
...t of the season. Not being a starter gave me the determination to work harder and in the end it all paid off. This experience has made me realize that I can do anything as long as I work hard.
One of the major stands that were made during a black athlete’s tenure during his or her sport were their statements on racism. Racism in America was an ongoing situation in the 1900’s that seemed to have no resolve before black athletes took a stand. One prime example can be Jackie Robinson who became the first African-American athlete to play baseball in the modern era. Jackie grew up in one of the most racist towns in Pasadena, California and came from a poor family as his parents were sharecroppers and...
Bo grew up in a town named Bessemer Alabama and was born on November 30th, 1962. For Bo, life was all about making it to college. That was so because out of the 10 children his mother, Florence Bond, had, not one had made it to college. Bo was the only child to attend college. As a child he excelled in baseball, Football, and Track, two of which he went professional in. Having been such a freak athlete Jackson earned a choice of almost any college in the country on an athletic scholarship. He knew he had a lot to choose from and could attend any college or university, but he wanted to stay within his home state so it was down to two schools, Auburn University and the University of Alabama.
Months before, a white football fan in a dusty little town watched #35 as he sprinted down the field; the fan did not really see some black kid, they saw a Mojo running back. Just like so many other fans, they cheer for the black and white jersey, not particularly caring about the color of the body it’s on. The fans saw #35 as the future of their much-exalted football team; the color of his skin seemed irrelevant. As long as he wore the jersey and performed every week like he should, they celebrated him as the Great Black Hope of the 1988 season. Now, injury has taken him from the game that he devoted his life to, and he is no longer #35. Instead, he is just another useless black kid who will never amount to anything in the rigid society that
Bill Russell grew up in an extremely racist time in America in an extremely racist state. Born in Louisiana and raised both there and in Oakland, California; Russell and his family battled the every day hardships that most black people faced at that time. But Russell always had a set of morals and guidelines that he led his life by, many of which he learned from his father, who he says was his hero and biggest role model. These morals revolved around independence and a very classic “ I will not allow anyone to impose their will on me.” (Page 56, paragraph 1) These morals followed and shaped him in his playing and coaching career.
A few hours passed and it was approaching 12:00: game time. As I was getting my equipment on, all the possible things that could go wrong flashed threw my head. As I finish putting on my pads and other equipment, I heard a voice from behind me, "Just stay focused man, and play like you have been.” It was RJ, trying to help me focus and give me motivation. Walking into that dark tunnel with the light at the end is like an exhilarating wave of nerves and excitement. Approaching the end of the tunnel, all I could hear was the crowd screaming and yelling. From there on, as we ran onto the field, another person took over, and I didn't know the outcome of what was about to happen.
He was born in Mobile, Alabama called “Down the Bay” on February 5, 1934. His real name was Henry Louis Aaron. He was the third of eight children. His mother’s name was Estella and his father’s name was Herbert. His dad was a tavern owner and a dry dock boilermaker’s assistant. His mother did not have a job until Hank was older. He lived in a town where there was segregation. Hank lived where it was rural and it was a lowly populated town. The town was fueled by a migration of farm workers looking for city work. Hank took an early interest in sports. Although the family had little money, and Hank took several jobs to try to help out, he spent a lot of time playing baseball at a neighborhood park. He had jobs such as mowing lawns, picking potatoes, and delivering ice. He started to love the game when his father’s local team formed out of the tavern he opened next to the family house called The Black Cat Inn. He played baseball with the local kids in the wide open fields. Until too many children to take care of at home, his mother worked in one of Mobile’s white households, where work was available for blacks as maids and cooks. Hank and his family moved to Toulminville, right outside of Mobile, at the age of eight.
Shropshire, Kenneth L. 1996. In black and white: race and sports in America. New York: New York University Press.
My knee injury took a big toll on my preseason of my sophomore year going threw physical therapy instead of playing in the games . Baseball is a hobby of mine ,never played threw high school, but have always had love for
Miller, Patrick B. Wiggins, David K. Sport and the color line: Black athletes and Race relations in Twentieth-century America. 2004. The Journal of Southern History 70 (4) (Nov 2004): 990.
It was simple, at first thought, my career was over. As I was rushed to the hospital, I thought I was never going to play football again. The pain was so unbearable, that every bump in the road would sent a shooting pain throughout my leg. I was for certain that I would never return the field again.
Since the end of Jim Crow laws and the signing of the Civil Rights act and the Brown vs. Board of Education law, much of society believes that racism, especially in sports have ceased. However, racism is still embedded in the cloth of American society. Racism in society and in sports may not be overt as it
It was the start of summer 2002, and the Mid America Youth Basketball (MAYB) national tournament was taking place in Andover, Kansas. Along with the rest of the team, I was excited to play some basketball for the first time since the middle school basketball season was over. Our team, Carlon Oil, had been together and played every summer for the last four years. We were a really good team, with an overall record of 65-4 over those four years and were hoping to continue our legacy. Lonnie Lollar, our coach for the summer, was also the coach of our high school basketball team. I had a history of groin injuries, and every summer it seemed that I would have to sit out at least a game on the bench icing my groin. But this summer was different, and I along with everyone in the gym wouldn't have expected my summer to end with a injury such as a broken leg.