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Section One: The Fundamentals
A) Keywords
Exercise 1:
Briefly (in 100 words or less) define one of the keywords in the padlet (including one that you. may have added yourself).
| Colourblindness:
The ideology that if all race, culture and ethnicity is treated as equally as possible there is zero room for racism. It banks on the future not accounting for prejudices in that past and advantages or disadvantages certain races, cultures or ethnicities may have due to those prejudices. Colorblindness must add that all systematic advantages are made equal between race, culture and ethnicity in order to ensure equality.
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B) Representing Race
Exercise 2: Notebook Prompt
In about 50-70 words, consider Joel Bervell’s question: why do we feel the need to extrapolate the athleticism of one Black athlete to all Black people when we do not do the same for white athletes?
Try to think of examples when this happens, making sure to reflect on your own positionality.
| I believe that this happens because the narratives are being created by white men. The white reporter may see a black athlete in a racist light, in the sense that they have different or more gifted genes as them. While the reporter compares themselves to the white athlete thinking they started at the same point athletically as the reporter did.
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C) Gender, Race & Sport
Exercise 3: Notebook Prompt
What are some strategies for resistance that Rajack and Joseph identify in their article as a means of pushing back against and resisting misogynoir?
| Self-representation is one strategy that was shown to push back against misogynoir as show through an interview with Naomi Osaka. She reminds the interviewer that she is also Haitian to make sure she is representing both of her origins and not just her Japanese side. This is because of all the media trying to paint her as white as possible, do to tennis’s racial history. She also displays self-representation through her own social media where she resists identity classifications based on race. Much like the assumptions that where made about her base on her Japanese identity. Another strategy that is portrayed through Naomi Osaka is the going against the tennis normality. She does this by wearing bold outfits that are designed by the well known African American artist, Pharrell Williams.
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Section Two: Making Connections
A) Athlete Activism
Exercise 3: Padlet Prompt
Do athletes have a responsibility to use their platform for social change? Why or why not? Please remember to record your response in both the padlet below and in your Notebook.
I do not believe athletes have the responsibility to say anything if they please as they are just people who have a to not be shamed for not doing or saying something unless they are morally or legally obligated to. With that said I believe many athletes should be aware of social issues and know the impact their platform can have on the next generation. As sports reflect societies values and struggles a simple quote on a shoe in the NBA or on a helmet in the NFL can alter somebodies societal views. Therefore I would not consider it a responsibility to use their platform for social change rather I would call it a suggestion for the greater good.
B) Athlete Activism & Feminism
Exercise 4: Complete the activities
Exercise 5: Notebook Prompt
What do the authors of the article call for as a way of challenging how mainstream sports journalism privileges neoliberal feminist concerns? (100 words max.)
| To challenge the bias of mainstream sports media toward neoliberal feminism the authors suggest sports media not being limited to professionally trained journalism with a publication outlet and a target audience, but rather be comprised of all media content about the sport. This will allow for all kinds of feminism to be discussed and take away the safety net of disrupting capitalism and political arrangements.
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C) Corporate social justice
Exercise 6: Padlet Poll
| I believe it is the responsibility for major sports leagues like the NBA and NFL to show support for social movements. If there is a social movement like BLM that has a major impact on peoples lives that include the players, coaches and fans, the league should feel it is their duty to spread awareness about it above potential financial gains. This is because society and sport are very correlated and the impact of a sports league at which many people look up to and watch everyday would create more benefits than most other businesses. The athletes in these leagues also deserve to have a voice with respect to positive change as they play the biggest role in the league, performing on a nightly bases to millions of fans. It is also shown in the story by Ramsey Khabbaz that a league should not be trusted to support social movements. As the NFL had silenced most of the BLM support due to it’s fear of financial loss. Therefore I believe for both the responsibility of supporting social movements along with the obligation to not silence speech or actions that spread awareness of social movements.
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Section Three: Taking a shot
Module Assignment (submit as part of notebook and separately through Blackboard mini assignment #1 portal)
Ted Lasso: Sam
The character Sam in the show, Ted Lasso, is a professional soccer player in England. His background is Nigerian and is displayed as the poster boy for the company Dubai Air. Dubai Air made a large ambassador deal with Sam. Sam is later informed by his father that the company is a subsidiary of an oil company that is exploiting Native Nigeria. The company is using its money on branding and publicity to hide the actions they are taking for profits. The athlete ultimately declines to offer to be the companies poster boy and on game day the athletes on the team cover the company’s logo on their jerseys with tape. This strategy the team uses to speak out and expose this company’s greed and advantage, taking strategies not only publicly shows that they don’t support it, but also shows their disapproval of using the company’s services. This correlated well with Naomi Osaka who much like Sam who was the poster boy for this company Osaka was the poster girl for the sport of tennis. This is shown at the 2018 US Open when “Naomi Osaka was read as being a victim of Serina Williams” (Razack and Joseph, 297). This is due to Serina Williams passionate behavior while competing to be misconstrued as black woman stereotypes, and Osaka to be portrayed as the victim in tennis media as she was very respectful and apologetic in their match. The media tried to hide Osaka’s Haitian background to turn her story into one of white excellence much like how Dubai Air tried to use Sam who originated from Nigeria as the poster boy to publicly hide the real meaning behind their capitalist actions. Also to fight this narrative “Osaka follows in Williams’ footsteps [by] flouting traditional White(’s) tennis uniforms and creating bold outfits for competition” (Razack and Joseph, 301). This alter in uniform is a display of self-representation, Osaka showing who she is and displaying what she stands for becomes resistance toward the narratives the league wants for her much like the display from the athletes in the show Ted Lasso.
