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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 is exactly what it sounds like in its generic term, not being able to see colour. But when talking about colourblindness in race, it refers to not looking at the colour of people’s skin and seeing everyone as equal. It sounds great, a way to exclude racism by seeing everyone as equal and not making changes because of the colour of someone’s skin. But in reality, not recognizing the racial discrimination that does occur towards people of colour can add to the racism they face. There is a big difference between recognizing and educating on the racism that people of colour face then to just turning a blind eye to it.
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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.
| There is racism embedded in many different cases from the past that is often overlooked now. In this case,I think why people extrapolate the athleticism of one Black athlete to all Black people, is because of the racial stereotypes that white people put in place a long time ago, and mentioning it to things like Black people couldn’t afford to have coaches or training facilities, that their strengths at these sports stem from their genetics and the upbringing that Black people had to go, and ignoring their individual success.
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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?
| As mentioned in the article, a strategy for resistance to push back against and resist misogynoir is comedic resistance against misogynoir. Using comedic responses to push back on media sources and comments, comedy is often used as a static to draw people in, and when using it as a form of resistance against misogynoir, it is a way to stand ground. Another strategy mentioned in the article is self-representation in the mainstream media, and the way you want to be represented and standing up for yourself.
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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.
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I do not think that athletes have a responsibility to use their platform for social change. Athletes often have a large following, but most often being an athlete is their job, their job is not to inflict social change. With that being said many athletes use their platforms to their advantage to promote social change. It can be a great way to get traction on important issues, but why I do not think that athletes have a responsibility to use their platforms because, there will always be some backlash, and sometimes if the backlash is very bad that could cost the athlete their job. Athletes are often sponsored or represent a team and anything they say or do with their platforms represents those sponsors or team, so it can be tricky for athletes to use their platform for social change I applaud the ones who do but I do not shame the ones who don’t because I do not think that is their responsibility. |
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.)
| The authors of the article call on mainstream sports journalism “to tell stories differently.”. Because feminism in sports media is often overlooked, we need to write stories the same way that stories that gain lots of attention get written, and to “illustrate feminism’s historical legacy.”
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C) Corporate social justice
Exercise 6: Padlet Poll
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I do not think sports leagues bear a responsibility to support social justice movements like BLM. I understand the importance and why it is so beneficial to support social justice movements like BLM in sports leagues that have a big following to spread awareness. At the end of the day, an athlete that is coming to play in the big leagues are there because they are top of their sport, they are wanted because they are exceptional at their sport, not because of their support of social justice movements. In the NHL there have been many teams and players who choose not to wear pride jerseys during LGBTQ+ awareness games, because of certain players’ religious beliefs, and in cases like the Chicago Blackhawks having Russian players and Russia putting in place aint-LGBTQ laws, so for the safety of their players they didn’t wear the jerseys. If athletes want to choose to support social justice movements then I think that is fantastic, but they are in the public eye because they are the best in their sport so it should not be the responsibility of these sports leagues to support social justice 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)
