I did my short study on the ESPN
Insider web page. My research found that there were twenty-two minorities and
twenty-seven whites in the extent of my findings. I jumped onto the ESPN
Insider web page and took into account any colored person I saw and any white
person I saw. Then I moved my mouse over each tab (NFL, MLB, NBA, NHL, NCAAF…etc.)
and counted how many coloreds and whites I was able to see in each tab.
My findings
lead to a pretty balanced out representation of coloreds to whites. Being that
now day’s sports is more diverse this is not shocking to me. In this sports magazine
I feel that even if they wanted to be racist they couldn’t because such a huge portion
of athletes and costumers are minorities. Being that this is an online website
I understand that the pictures, topics, and stories can change several times a
day. Today during my research the first thing that I saw was the biggest
picture on the page, and that was of a minority baseball player. The headline
is CUBA, Opening the Next Great Pipeline in Sports. This article talks about
how there is now a new Pipeline to Cuban players in baseball.
What seems to
be a very diverse ESPN page actually holds an underlying issue concerning the
types of sports we are allowed to play as a race. The interesting thing I saw
was the on the Professional level of the NFL and NBA the race was exactly equal
but on the college level basketball and football were all colored. The messages
that are being sent here is that at the professional level things are diverse
but at the college level there are a lot of colored athletes. This also sends
the message that the NBA, MLB, NFL, college football and basketball are sports
that coloreds can play in. On the NHL, Nascar, and Olympics tabs they had only
white people. It is true that there are not many colored people that participate
in these sports but still the message being sent furthers the notion. Certain
sports are meant for certain races and maybe ESPN isn’t trying to send that
message but regardless it is being sent.
Your post reminds me of that one Gatorade (maybe it was Powerade) commercial that has all of these athletes that don't fit with the sport their playing. Theres an African American guy playing hockey and says "not the right sport?", then later flashes him playing really well all because of this power drink for athletes. According to your blog, this TV commercial supports the opposite of what you say ESPN's message is and is perhaps making a social commentary upon the 'freedom' of playing sports (a freedom that has social boundaries).
ReplyDeleteChristie Herwig