Racism in Athletics

Racism in Athletics is no new issue. First off there has always been people who are afraid of what's different. In class, we discussed how racism is in sports, examples, and what should be done about it. Needless to say this is a controversial topic, and the class was divided. It's tough to talk about such a touchy subject. I'm glad we did. I can usually tell a lot about people and what they believe in. I saw that in our class, we have a variety of people. The variety includes sex, age, weight, color, height, intellectual level, athletic knowledge, and so on. When racism came into the subject, people we hesitant to talk about it. I have experienced racism first hand my junior year of High School, while playing soccer. We were at Rossford, which is a suburb of Toledo. On our soccer team we had white, Hispanic, Asian, Spanish, and Indian people. The whole game Rossford was saying racist things and doing dirty play toward my non white teammates. I got a yellow card earlier because I was protecting to people on my team by throwing a punch to shut up these racist comments. It was totally worth it to me, but the comments didn't stop. We won seven to zero, and as we were going through the whole "good game thing" to the one I punched I said no hard feelings. He then said fu** you and your (racists name) teammates, that's when my goalie and I got really pissed and pushed these two guys. A huge brawl broke out and was eventually stopped. My parents were proud of me for standing up for my teammates. My mom was not mad at all that I got in a fight. There is one thing that bothered me throughout this whole situation, and that is: Rossford had black, Asian, and Mexican players on their team. What could they have felt like when their own teammates were making racists comments toward their own nationality? To this day, I have no regret for fighting to protect my teammates and more importantly my friends!

Women Sports Recognition

What exactly does a women's athletic team have to do to get national recognition? It is sad to say, but apparently physically hurt and be a total jerk to other women, during a game. Elizabeth Lambert of the New Mexico Women's Soccer team did just that. She was caught on tape elbowing a BYU player in the face, kicking a women while on the ground (with no attempt at the ball), and worst of all pulling a BYU forward down to the ground by her ponytail! What is wrong with this chick? We will find out eventually, she is seeing a psychologists for the hair pulling incident. She was recently suspended indefinitely from the New Mexico team. She had two separate quotes that I would like to mention. The first one is "I think the way the video came out, it did make me look like a monster. That's not the type of player I am, I'm not just out there trying to hurt players. That's taking away from the beauty of the game. And I would never want to do that." How else did she want to look, the video evidence doesn't lie, it was down right brutal! The second quote is "I am deeply and wholeheartedly regretful for my actions. My actions were uncalled for. I let my emotions get the best of me in a heated situation." She is sorry now that she got punished, but not during the game. Also, she created the "heated situation" she spoke of, no one during the game from BYU retailed. Is that what it takes to get national attention in the world of women's sports? I sincerely hope hot, but as of now, that's the way it looks and that is very sad.

Racism at Indian Wells

We have talked about the Williams Sister's protesting The Indian Wells Tournament every year since the incident. The incident started when Venus Williams forfeited her semifinals match right before she was supposed to take the court (that was when the announcement was made, that is). Serena makes it to the finals to play against Kim Clijsters. Serena, 19 years of age at the time, was about to play when her father, Richard Williams, and sister Venus entered the stands to watch Serena play her finals match. Upon their arrival, there were racists comments yelled by fans were directed toward the Williams family. Richard Williams stuck up his fist, like the the two black people did in the 1968 Olympics. That probably did not help the situation, but due to the things being said, I am a fan of what he did. Eventually, the match starts and Serena is booed the entire time, especially when she messed up. Racists comments were made toward Serena, while she was playing. Due to her mental toughness, even at age 19, she won the Indian Wells Championship. I am 100% in favor of the Williams' Sisters protesting Indian Wells. I am very strongly against racism and racist people. That being said, I respect the Williams family, and am sorry that they had to go through it one time, which is one more time then they should have.