Friday, October 25, 2013

Interactions Shape Opinions





“..whites talk about minorities in public even in somewhat formal venue of an interview sponsored by a major research university. But I also showed they talk in a very careful, indirect, hesitant manner and, occasionally, even through coded language.” 
                                                                                                                                    - Bonilla-Silva

            This past semester the athletic department brought in a guest speaker to basically talk about the Bonilla-Silva quote above. Because our athletes are very diverse, they figured the speaker would be appropriate and applicable. We had to get into groups and discuss using slang and racial terms. What the presenters discovered was that teams are a lot different than a majority of society. Instead of being hesitant or shy, everyone was upfront and didn’t hide anything. No coded language is used when discussing races. At least that I can see. Mainly because everyone is close enough to discuss the topic and no one thinks they are different than anyone else.
            I’ve played soccer with about every race I can think of. It doesn’t matter what race you are, if you can dribble a back line to its knees you’re good in my book! In my personal experiences, people laugh at discrimination. Teams are like families, and we can joke around, make fun of each other, and accept each other. One of my black teammates in the past commented about how she laughs when she plays against a team and they picture the other team thinking about her speed when in reality that’s her weakness. She laughs at it, and we laugh with it. Stereotypes are never really a positive thing, but if you can’t laugh at yourself or are too offended, then you’re going to have a hard time enjoying life. To me, race is just a huge word for insecurity. People are going to discriminate based on everything and anything. The more a person feels comfortable in their skin, the more little things won’t matter.
            While reading Bonilla-Silva one thing in particular caught my eye and grabbed my attention.  Silva asks the question: “How can whites develop empathy and gain an understanding of blacks if so few of them develop meaningful interactions with them?” This question can go the other way. Discrimination happens against everyone and multiple races can ask themselves the same question. It depends on the situations you were raised in and the opportunities you’ve had that shape your opinion. Maybe it just stirred me up because I don’t believe that quote reflects me personally. Author of An Unsung Coach, Tony Price states, “On the playing fields diversity is what helps a team come together, the successful teams adopt the philosophy of inclusion and appreciation of variety and they figure out how to make those differences work together for a common goal, “winning.”
            I just read an article from BBC sports about a referee not calming down a crowd’s racist chants. “The referee for Manchester City's Champions League match against CSKA Moscow should not officiate again after failing to deal with racist abuse, says Kick It Out chairman Lord Ouseley.” What I got out of the article, beside the main point, was that the players weren’t the problem, it was the crowd. The players weren’t yelling chants or discriminating, it was random people in the stands who aren’t even on the team!
            This class has been eye-opening me to see how much racism is actually discussed and how it’s used in every day society. Part of the reason I wanted to take it was to see what others’ opinions were on everything. Growing up and being an athlete, being exposed to different races, I never judged someone based on skin color, I judged them if they sucked at soccer!



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