MARCH 8, 2012
The article starts off by talking about who as an athlete is Latino, for example Carmelo Anthony a basketball player many believe is African America but is of mixed descent - Puerto Rican.
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| Melo |
Then it goes into wanting to find some similar source of ethnic pride for the Latino community as a result of the excitement among the Asian Community sparked by Jeremy Lin.
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| Lin |
But what it really focuses on is, why aren’t there more Latinos in the NBA? Is it that, like white men, Latinos can’t jump? Are we not tall enough? The answer is probably fairly complicated, involving numerous factors beyond physical attributes — the most significant of which is, I believe, culture.
Culture seems to play a big role on why there is not an expectation among Latino families that their kids could grow up to be professional athletes. Latinos are not a monolithic group. Whereas Mexican families may not see any sport — except maybe soccer — as a viable career option. They feel that one shouldn't wast time in sports and get a real job to support the family.
This is precisely the reason that the Latino community will probably never witness its own version of Linsanity.
After reading this article it dawned on me that culture and traditions do shape you into what we call stereotypes. We seem to get mad when people shout out stereotypes at us but in reality we are making them stand out by our bias act. But it becomes an issue when the stereotypes become negative.
Stereotyping can turn into discrimination if we misinterpret a bias act in a negative manner.
After reading this article it dawned on me that culture and traditions do shape you into what we call stereotypes. We seem to get mad when people shout out stereotypes at us but in reality we are making them stand out by our bias act. But it becomes an issue when the stereotypes become negative.
Stereotyping can turn into discrimination if we misinterpret a bias act in a negative manner.
Note: combine march madness post!
I appreciate that you found this article, Jenny. It is interesting and adds relevant information to your topic without just listing facts.
ReplyDeleteTo make this more substantive I would do what we talked about in class, namely: providing a bit more context of the article (when was it published? by whom? overall what did you think of it?) and by establishing how it ties into your topic more. As a reader, I know it is part of your topic because it is posted on your blog, but if I hadn't read your first post I'd probably think your topic was race/ethnicity and sports.
Situate this article within the larger framework of your topic. If your topic is issues in Latino/a culture in SF, how does this article comment on, provide insight into, or add new information to that?
Again, this can be inferred but as a reader, it would be helpful to clarify and elaborate these points.