LeBron's Popularity a Race Issue?

http://probasketballtalk.nbcsports.com/2014/06/05/lebron-james-fan-support-has-fluctuated-differently-among-white-and-black-fans/

Posted above, is a link to an article mentioning how LeBron's popularity among black fans is much higher than white fans since the infamous "Decision." The reasoning and statistics are quite interesting. Below is a chart showing this:

Read the rest of the article for more analysis. What are your thoughts?

How Stereotypes Can Hurt: Curtis Malone

I subscribe to the magazine Sports Illustrated, and this week when I opened it up, I was a little surprised to see a story about Curtis Malone. Being from the D.C. area, and knowing a number of people connected to his DC Assault AAU program, including several kids who played on his teams, I was not sure how this type of coverage would look from an outsiders perspective. While it is an interesting piece, and is very similar to many other articles I've read in Sports Illustrated on youth coaches and some of the illegal activities they have pulled off, I think this is one that can hurt the image of African-Americans, especially those from Washington, D.C.
For many outside of the area, the assumption that everyone's involved in the drug game, or gang violence, or other numerous illegal activities, is an assumption made far too often. It's stories like this that the casual reader sees and thinks See, I knew it; that place has always had a drug problem, and it starts right at the top. Malone was a revered local figure, and many couldn't believe it when the allegations against him came out. However, I think it sends a strong message that no matter how good you are doing in life, things can always go wrong. It hurts knowing that some people who read the article came out of it with less respect for African-Americans, especially those involved in basketball, even though that was not the point of the article. Unfortunately, this means that some people still cannot see the individual, and will work to see the proof in stereotypes whenever they get the chance.

Out Of Power: How D.C.'s most prominent AAU leader landed in jail

As an accounting major and future lawyer I am always fascinated by how vast the business of sports is. I recently read an article about Curtis Malone, a prominent AAU basketball figure, who was arrested for selling drugs. What caught my eyes was Coach Mike Krzyzewski' reaction to hearing of Malone's arrest. Peter Thamel writes that Blue Devils coach Mike Krzyzewski was shocked. However, Maryland coach Gary Williams knew what Malone was and refused to deal with him. It seems Coach Krzyzewski  is either lying or ignorant. If coach Krzyzewski is ignorant, it's because he chooses to be. After reading the article, it seems there is another side to the business of basketball and black men are played into it. 

http://www.si.com/college-basketball/2014/08/20/curtis-malone-aau-basketball-drug-arrest?xid=si_topstories

Aaron Hernandez's Fiance Asks Judge to Throw Out Perjury Charges

http://latino.foxnews.com/latino/news/2014/08/22/aaron-hernandez-fiancee-asks-judge-to-throw-out-perjury-charges/

Today, news stations reported that Aaron Hernandez's fiancé, Shayanna Jenkins, asked a judge to dismiss charges alleging that she lied in court when asked over 1630 questions. Aaron Hernandez is a former NFL player who is currently being held without bail because he was indicted on three murder charges. 

My question to the class would be: do we think any of the allegations surrounding Ms. Jenkins perjury are related to the fact that she is a young African American woman engaged to a professional athlete? I could see a jury unfairly stereotyping her as a lying "gold-digging" type, and therefore, automatically expecting her to lie under oath when on the stand. Is she unfairly accused because of her race? Would it be different if her fiancé was not a former professional athlete? Would the media even be covering this if he was not? 

NFL to Punish Players for Racial Slurs

The NFL has always been a place where you "lay it out on the field," people are tackling each other as hard as they can and sometimes situations occur. People get angry and aggressive and say or do things that are in the heat of the moment. A recent issue that is severely taking a toll in the NFL is the use of the N word. Players are calling other players this foul word and some players are getting very upset with this. When football started many players were called the "N word," but this was because racial discrimination in society back then was very high. Now a days, there should be no need to ever say such thing to another player, not even jokingly--because that word is a derogative, degrading word. The NFL believes it can go back into its rule book, Section 3, article 1b and penalize players for saying such thing (15 yard penalty). Do you believe that they should be punished for saying such word? It is believed that many players throw around the word jokingly to other players. How would the referee know what is a joke and what is a serious racial slur? This is going to become a big deal if the game is on the line and the referee calls a penalty for the use of a foul word, when maybe it was a joke all along? This rule has been seen throughout the NFL with many players getting angry and using profanity with referees. I'm very curious to see how this impacts the NFL in years to come.

http://www.cbssports.com/nfl/eye-on-football/24459109/report-nfl-feels-it-can-punish-racial-slurs-on-field-with-existing-rules

Racism of African-Americans, also Asians?

Throughout the NBA you may think to yourself, "how can there be racism in the NBA with all of the African-American players in todays sports leagues?" However, if you look at some of the key numbers you realize that although there are very many African-American athletes, there are very few African-Americans who hold prestigious positions. 9 of the best 12 teams in the NBA are led by White coaches so owners rather hire a white coach than a black one. There are 5 African-American general managers in the league and only 1 black owner, oppose to 28 white owners! And, that black owner happens to be the infamous Michael Jordan. Now, who would have ever thought that there would be stereotypes of Asian athletes? It is believed that Asians are supposed to be good at golf, baseball, tennis, and figure skating, but not at basketball or football. Due to this stereotype, they are often overlooked by college recruiters and professional scouts simply because of their names!
Lets talk about Jeremy Lin. Jeremy Lin was selected as California's high-school player of the year, a prestigious award that only is awarded to one person in the entire state! Jeremy Lin also led Palo Alto High School to a state championship. In regards to college, neither UCLA nor Stanford offered him a scholarship. I recently watched a clip of "60 Minutes," on Jeremy Lin, and he had said "the obvious thing in my mind is that I was Asian-American which, you know, is a whole different issue. I think that was a barrier. I mean, it's just a stereotype." Because Jeremy Lin is one of the few of his kind people tend to think its amazing the things he has achieved, however, if he were to be African-American many people would not think it would be so amazing. This is how society works, and it really is a shame.

Mo'ne Davis

I've watched the Mo'ne Davis story develop as her team's run in the Little League World Series has gone on these past weeks, and it is very interesting. I was watching the first game she pitched, and it was obvious to anyone watching that she not only stood out because of her gender, but because of her performance as well. However, after that performance, I couldn't get away from her. ESPN took her story and ran with it, focusing so much of their coverage on her that it began to look like the same kind of coverage they had with Tim Tebow a few years ago, which was indeed relentless. I was interested to see what they focused on, which was the fact that she was a girl, and obviously in Little League that is an anomaly. However, discussing the fact that she was African-American didn't come up as much as I thought it should, considering the lack of diversity that usually happens in the Little League World Series. Going off of that, there was not as much coverage of the team from Illinois, which was a team from Chicago that competed in the Jackie Robinson Little League. Certainly their story is worth sharing with the world, but we are so focused on one thing that we cannot appreciate what else is going on. Even Davis' own team, from Philadelphia, is one of the most diverse in the tournament, but that is lost in all of the media attention. These teams being where they are is huge for Little League, and it will help the league to grow in the years to come. I just hope other people can see that.