Sports and race

By Martenzie Johnson

There are many examples of media organizations and advertisers presenting stereotypical images of minorities.  Popeye’s and Progressive Insurance presented black women like this and this while KFC thought it was original to portray Asian men as karate experts.

Dr. Scott Brooks explained that the best way to combat these misrepresentations in the media—specifically in the news—is to have more diversity at the decision-making tables across the nation. 

Brooks is an associate professor in the Sociology Department at the University of Missouri and specializes in the interaction between sports and race in contemporary America.

Though the above examples are extreme—and solely advertisements—they represent the problems in American newsrooms.  As Brooks pointed out when explaining “conventionalized images,” we come to expect certain images and stories when we open our newspapers and turn on our televisions:

1.       White athletes are smart and hardworking

2.       Black athletes are naturally gifted/athletic

3.       Asian athletes are timid and respectful

Race, as Brooks said, becomes—or is—monolithic when every group is presented as having specific characteristics.  This is problematic on many levels.

But it is most problematic when these media messages start to affect the athlete.  When a black kid from Philadelphia believes he is only destined to run fast and not think, because the media says so, that is what he or she will do.

As a master’s student at the University of Missouri I hope to study these possible effects.  I want to research what stereotypical images/representations can do to an athlete’s performance.

As Brooks stated in his talk, “sports tell a story.”  The key though is what story the writer can, and will, tell.