Today in class we did the following:
1. Thesis
2. Harlem Renaissance/Stereotype Discussions
3. "White Man"
4. FX 4 LIFE!!!!!
Homework:
1. Definitions and examples for tomorrow.
2. Read the article that follows this post and answer the questions.
3. 3-D Projects due Wednesday
“America’s Racial Double Standard”
Following
the NFC Championship game last weekend, Richard Sherman gave an interview to
Erin Andrews. He yelled to millions watching in their living rooms about
being the best and shutting down opposing receiver Michael Crabtree.
However, following his interview, he somehow morphed from a football player who
had just reached the pinnacle of sports achievement into a racial stereotype.
Suddenly he was
“classless,” a “thug” from Compton, and any manner of other negative terms that
one can substitute
for the N-word. Sherman
was no longer human, but a racist caricature.
Black
people exist in a “damned if we do, damned if we don’t” space within American
conversation. If a black person does something that’s seen as
negative, that negative behavior is used as yet another example of how “we”
are. Negative behavior, so it goes, is just inherent in “us.”
On the flip side, if
a black person achieves something positive, the positive achievement is often
dismissed as either undeserved or the result of an innate gift the achiever
can’t take credit for. Many people believe President Obama only got
into Harvard because of affirmative action, and just as many believe he was
only elected into office (twice, no less) because he is black. In sports,
the success
of white athletes is
most often attributed to “smarts” and “hard work,” but the success of black
athletes is often attributed to “natural ability” or “God-given” talent.
In 1999,
when Brandi Chastain whipped off her shirt to celebrate the U.S. Women’s World
Cup win, photos of her celebration landed her on the covers of Newsweek, Sports
Illustrated and Time magazine. She described her spontaneous action as “momentary
insanity … the greatest moment of my career, and I lost control.” However, when the black men of the
2000 Olympics gold medal 4×100 team removed their shirts in celebration, they
were called a “disgrace.” And Serena
Williams was harshly criticized for doing a popular L.A. dance when she won her Olympic gold
medal (and, as Gawker’s Cord Jefferson notes, called a “thug” when she argued with an ump).
When Ryan Lochte
represents the U.S. on the international stage wearing grillz, it’s a fashion statement — all anyone wonders is “can he pull it
off?” However, Trayvon Martin is called a “thug” for wearing the exact
same thing (google “Trayvon Martin grillz thug” and the same for Ryan Lochte).
And Richard Sherman, the high
school salutatorian who graduated from Stanford with a 3.9 GPA, has now been
reduced to an uneducated unsportsmanlike “thug” in the American lexicon for
giving a passionate interview that some people didn’t like. Black hockey player
Ray Emery was subjected to similar dismissiveness. When he was involved
with a fight with fellow goalie Braden Holtby, he was widely called a “thug,” a
moniker never attributed to any of the dozens of white players who fight at
nearly every hockey game. And white players who break the hearts of
opposing team’s fans with game-winning plays never get the kind of vitriol that
was directed at Joel Ward for scoring the winning goal in a playoff game.
…
Simply recognizing that black people are viewed
and treated differently from whites in America is not “playing the race card”
(which is insulting to suggest, by the way). It’s simply recognizing
that, though we’ve made strides in this country, we still have work to do when
it comes to breaking down barriers in people’s hearts and minds. When white
fathers don’t cringe when their daughters bring home black men, when a young
black kid wearing grillz is called fashionable before he’s called a “thug” and
when Richard Sherman can yell about being the greatest, just as Ric Flair
yelled for 30 years, then maybe we can begin thinking about that elusive
“post-racial” society. But, for now, I hope Richard Sherman is able to
back up those words in a few weeks … with a Super Bowl ring in hand.
Beanie Barnes is a former collegiate athlete,
socio-political commentator and entertainment industry professional. She holds
a B.A. in Journalism from the University of Nebraska and an MBA from Yale
University.
1.
What aspects of Barnes’ arguments do you agree
with? What aspects of her argument do you disagree with?
2.
Compare Barnes’ interpretation of stereotypes of
African Americans in the 21st Century with the stereotypes we
discussed in class. What has changed since the 1920s? What hasn’t?
3.
Which school of thought would Barnes fall under
had she been writing during the Harlem Renaissance (art as art, art as
propaganda, back to Africa)?
