In Zirin’s article, he makes the argument that money, whiteness, and athletic ability save people from court persecution. Ben Roethlisberger, quarterback of the Pittsburgh Steelers, was accused of raping a 20-year old girl, and was not convicted of any crime. Zirin states that this is because he is white, rich, and is extremely talented at football and that Roethlisberger should “thank the heavens” for his whiteness, wealth, and talent because those three things make him able to get out of tough situations (Zirin 1). The strongest argument Zirin makes is when he compares Roethlisberger to Michael Vick. Michel Vick was not only convicted for dog fighting, but also he had to educate youth on the harms of dog fighting in addition to his punishment. These two happenings seem to show that dog fighting is more important than women, and that being white gets one things he did not earn or deserve, like in the Vick/Roethlisberger example, not being convicted of crimes.
Wise’s argues that white people are rewarded for their inappropriate behaviors through positive reinforcement of being called brave or defenders of the country when protesting political happenings or certain people in office, like Obama for example. He also argues that if black people were to do the same they are strongly sanctioned for their actions and are said to be acting their color. Wise strongest arguments come from a “game” in his article where one is to imagine what would happen in certain circumstances if colored person were to act or say racial slurs just as a white person would and actually has already said about President Obama. His conclusion was that the black person would be punished, when white person would not. One of examples was: imagine hundreds of blacks marching to Washington, armed with guns and spoke of wanting a political revolution. They would not be viewed as “brave defenders of the 2nd Amendment” but instead as acting their color by being violent. (Wise 2) Through the imagination game, it can be clearly seen that black people are strongly sanctioned for trying to protest, while white people are praised when they protest or say racial slurs about Obama.
These arguments are related to McIntosh’s specific example of unpacking the knapsack because she claims that white people are equipped with certain things automatically, for example bank accounts, credit cards, jobs, attorneys and status. Vick was convicted of a crime for dog fighting, while Roethlisberger was not convicted of any crime when accused of raping a girl. Dog fighting is a less serious crime than rape, so this shows that Roethlisberger, a white man, was equipped with good lawyers likely due to color of his skin, in addition to his wealth. These concepts are related to our discussions of White Supremacy because each article displays an example of how a white man escaped punishment while a black man could not. In the Zirin article, this was shown when Roethlisberger was not convicted of a crime, while Vick was, and displayed in the Wise article when white protesters were not sanctioned, while black ones usually are. Classism and Patriarchy are not as relevant to the Zirin article when comparing Vick and Roethlisberger because they both are upper class and they are both male. Therefore, they are both extremely privileged, but Roethlisberger is more so than Vick due to his skin color. Classism applies to the Wise article because white people tend to be in a higher class than white people. Because of this, it makes it acceptable for white people to act inappropriately, and even have their behaviors deemed as “brave” or noble because they are the privileged class. Unfortunately, if these behaviors came from a black person, they would be sanctioned (Wise 2).
Coakley’s argument of black athletic destiny is that young blacks, especially males, feel that they are culturally and biologically obliged to participate in sport. They feel that sports are the only way that they can gain wealth and status. The critiques that socialists make about black athletic achievement is that blacks attribute all of their achievements to biological factors, when if a white person is successful athletically, it is attributed to cultural and social influences. Blacks feel genetically superior to whites, so they feel obligated to successes in the athletic arena. This idea of being biologically superior could cause increases in motivation to succeed, contributing largely to why they are so successful. Studies are not done on NHL hockey players and Skiers from Austria because few are interested in studying the white athlete due to the fact that white successes are attributed to social and cultural factors, rather than genetic or biological ones. Another reason is that white hegemony creates a world where white success is seen as socially normal, so very few people see the need to study them. (Coakely 10).

Correlation and Causation Video

Revisiting Constructions and Ramifications of Race

The last two weeks we have explored the social and historical construction of race in the US. The legal construction of whiteness in the nineteenth and early twentieth used to deny people citizenship and the Federal Housing Act were used to perpetuate structural inequalities. This week, Dave Zirin of The Nation wrote a searing article about the privileged treatment of quarterback Ben Roethlisburger of the Pittsburg Steelers's after being accused of sexually assaulting a young woman in Milledgeville, GA. The NFL Commissioner has yet to make a decision regarding suspension. Zirin makes a compelling comparison to Michael Vick's treatment after his conviction for running a dog-fighting operation in the same state. This same week, white anti-racist writer and educator Tim Wise (see ICON), used a similar argument to indict white conservatives' actions and rhetoric against President Obama. Regardless of your athletic or political affiliations summarize each author's main argument and provide their strongest or most compelling piece of evidence, example, or sub-argument. How are these arguments compatible with McIntosh's specific examples from "Unpacking the Knapsack"? How are these concepts related to our discussions of Patriarchy, White Supremacy, and or Classism?


Next, review Coakley's chapter (on ICON). This should provide a good reinforcement for the remainder of our lecture and compliment the documentary In Whose Honor? that we screened in class last week. Summarize Coakley's arguments about the myth of black athletic destiny. What are the critiques that sociologists make in regards to genetic explanations of black athletic achievements? Why are these studies not conducted on white goalies in the NHL or skiiers from Austria? As always I appreciate your questions in class and critical inquisition of the existing sport studies scholarship. I think it is important to revisit this topic this week since bodily destiny is something that is damaging, but seems real when reviewed out of context. It is also important to remember that correlation and causation are two different relationships. It is important to understand the differences when dealing with codifiable yet flawed constructs like skin color and race. Correlations are relationships of variables that are either positive (both variables increase and decrease at the same rate) or negative (one variable increases and the other decreases). Causation is harder to prove, but often incorrectly concluded. For example, if I die in a collision while driving my manual transmission VW Beatle while eating an ice cream cone one might claim there is a correlation between fatalities driving stick-shift cars and eating. We could collect data on that and try to figure out the strength of the relationship of the variables. However, it would be wrong to conclude that ice cream kills stick shift drivers. However, correlations can lead to proving causation, but there has to be a lot of evidence. This cheeky video does a better job of explaining this I do.

This week you need not post your blog publicly. I would like you to use the following questions as a guide to the last four readings assigned. Some of them are a bit more complicated than others but I think they are all really interesting. Type your answers to the questions and bring in a hard copy for me to next week's class. Next week's lecture we will begin by finishing up the last ten minutes of the video as it concludes by discussing the absurdity of colorblindness in a structurally and historically racially stratified society. In our lecture we will discuss structural inequities in sport as well as racial representation in sport through the media. These readings touch on all of these themes to a degree, but also push us to consider how identities, even racial ones are a bit unstable and how we often do not have control over other people's perceptions, reactions to, and appropriations of identities.

Sam Regalado "Roberto Clemente: Images Identity and Legacy"
How does Roberto Clemente contribute to providing Latin ballplayers a mouthpiece in which to disrupt the status quo in baseball?
How are race and class defined differently in Puerto Rico in the 1960s?

C. Richard King and Charles Fruehling Springwood “Body and Soul: Physicality, Disciplinarity, and the Overdetermination of Blackness”
How does intercollegiate sport act as a space that reflects white supremacy through racial signification? Where do white, black, and red bodies fit in this world according to the authors? Where and how is power located? How is this connected to the hegemonic political and or economic structures? The media?

Katherine M. Jaimeson “Occupying a Middle Space: Toward a Mestiza Sport Studies”
What is the population that Jamieson is studying in her research? What do they have in common? What is variable?
Identify and explain the modes of consciousness that Latinas utilize in their collegiate softball environments.
How does this article enhance your knowledge of the fluidity of “subjectivities” (identities)? Do you have an experience with a fluid identity or performance thereof?

C.L. Cole and Dave Andrews “America’s Son: Tiger Woods and America’s Multiculturalism”
Explain Berlant’s concept of “American Citizenship”? What does it hinge on or require? What threatens it?
How is this post-immigrant American image mapped onto Tiger Woods without being threatening to white America?
How did Nike refute Wood’s self-proclaimed multiracial status through the Hello Word?
How did the Hello World fail to challenge the racial relations in sport?
How is anti-affirmative action rhetoric and the fall out of the Hello World campaign used to recode Woods as a multi-cultural sign of colorblindness?

Race as a Site of Power in Sport

What is Sage's critique of the the myth of upward mobility through athletics for black men? How is his critique of intercollegiate sport as a "mixed blessing" related to an athlete's power in a sporting system that uses amateurism as regulatory ideology (98)? How does the "ol boys" network or the lack of African American administrators in intercollegiate sport relate to your understanding of hegemony? Keep in mind the four ways that consent is maintained.

Peggy McIntyre lists several examples of white privilege. Briefly respond to a time where you have benefited from one of these privileges or explicitly been denied these privileges. How is Peggy McIntyre's arguement in "Unpacking the Knapsack?" rejected by SI writers in the article "What Ever Happened to the White Athlete?"

Gender and Sex Inequalities

The cult of manliness, the Victorian Era, and Play Day Era all worked to demonstrate the former struggle of gender. The women referred to as the "New Women" (Cahn 344) began challenging the Victorian gender arrangements and began to participate in male only activities, which included sports. As men hold the more masculinity aspect, naturally they are assumed to be better then the woman, but as the woman began to join in the everyday life and activities of the men, the women were criticised that they may become more manly women and lose their femininity. Which may also damage the woman's internal organs and threaten their possibility to have children in the future. Sage also mentioned how organizations were put directly towards men, an example of this would be boy scouts. When the Play Day Era came about, it was to help women be able to be more involved in the sports and organizations and give them more of an equal opportunity. It wasn't just in a central location either, teams all over the nation were forming to help get women more involved. An example of this came into reality is the 1932 Olympics when women were allowed to participate, since before this year, it was prohibited for women to participate. The Victorian Era, almost challenged and helped the women and equal opportunities and it supported them in not only sports but gaining recongnition as human beings in the nation. A main cause of the downfall of women and their recognition is the way the

media plays into factor, as they tend to put a main focus on men's sporting events.

Mike Messner points out the men and women are different in sports since athetics focus on a main thing that men have, which is their masculinity. But that the gender and sexuality are very different when analyzing sports, since it is assumed that atheltic men are straight. Unlike the male assumption, as a women athelete, their sexuality is not assumed right off the bat.

During high school Messner chose to try and demonstrate his masculinity by picking on the weakest link. By doing this, it allows others to see how strong and passive he is, instead showing weakness as a male athelete. But in fact, it just shows what it has come to to live up to our stereotype that has been set on our gender.

Pistol Pete

Kriegel, Mark (2007). Pistol: The Life of Pete Maravich. Free Press. ISBN 0743284976.