African American Stereotypes In Sports

Entering the college scene as an African American male athlete where you play one of the two most prevalent sports in urban communities, which is Basketball and Football. Your whole college life circumvents this one sport for some, into a career and a small select few choose another path that focuses on a long term career outside of the sport. Verbalizing with a few college athletes within my friend group, they all had different approaches towards their lives outside these two sports pertaining to where they might end up or where they visually perceive their life chances are taking them. Perpetuating a strenuous amount of questions I asked them, they all come to the conclusion that they all do it for fun, it’s an illusion for them and playing …show more content…
Black people are often related to animalistic behavior, gang affiliation, being poor, and having no valuable education for the high demand of certain jobs. The question is, Why are African American people are viewed that way? Not all Black people uphold to those stereotypes, but in others mind, it’s the first thing that comes up when they’re first interacting with you. As you look further into those stereotypes that were placed upon us by the social injustices in America. Our own black networks still push these stereotypes for a profit. BET, otherly known as Black Entertainment Television projects heavily stereotypical movies and produces TV shows that make Black people look bad as well as making a fool out of …show more content…
I can easily sit here and speak how I feel about the subject of being a Black person in America, but those players can’t because of the ongoing issue that we aren’t good enough to have a say and we should be happy how our lives are in America. It does not matter that slavery was so long ago and it does not matter segregation ended 53 years ago. We are still given grief about how we are not good enough or that we should be happy that we are equal to each other now and we should be happy. How can someone be happy, when all they know is these two sports and instead of helping to better their career, you tear it down once they say something you don’t like. Recently I read a literary journal, the words that were written about these males are seen and treated was eye opening to me. The journal stated, “ African American males are often categorized as a population at-risk in education (Bailey & Moore, 2004; Davis, 2003; Moore, 2000). In many social domains of American society, they hold a peculiar but uncertain status (Austin, 1996). Endangered, uneducable, dysfunctional, and dangerous are many of the terms often used to characterize African American males (Gibbs, 1988; Majors & Billson, 1992; Parham & McDavis, 1987). Such terms often evoke unsettling emotions and perpetuate negative stereotypes” ( Jackson 1). If our system is so equal and so great, Why are Black males are a risk in the educational aspect? Why are Black males depicted in this

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