Posted on 03/20/2014 11:41:56 AM PDT by nickcarraway
A couple of years ago, the basketball team I root for, the University of Michigan, had a player named Zack Novak. Everybody loved his story. He was slow and pudgy coming out of high school, recruited by nobody, and offered a spot at Michigan. Turned out he could play, at least some. He was only six foot three, but he played power forward, compensating for his lack of size and skill with unrelenting effort. He graduated from the business school and became team captain. If you watch college sports, you know the kind of player I’m talking about. Right: a white guy.
If you ever watched a Michigan game, you knew Novak’s story, because the announcers talked about it every time. And it was very easy to see: Watching him hang in there on the low block against opponents five or six inches taller every game was a constant miracle. He was a gritty, hustling, tough, smart overachiever. Racial stereotyping in sports coverage is a decades-old phenomenon. In Novak’s case, nobody minded because the stereotypes were completely true. But watching every single game Michigan plays has given me some perspective on how race continues to inflect coverage in sports-media.
The player for Michigan the announcers like to talk about now is a kid named Nik Stauskas. He's also white. He’s not especially gritty or tough. He’s an incredible scorer with good height, phenomenal shooting range, and an ability to unleash dunks or acrobatic layups. The thing the announcers mention every game — the fact that is incorporated into the shorthand notes they use to define a player's story line — is that Stauskas worked hard in the off-season to gain muscle.
That’s true. Though it’s also true that Stauskas remains really skinnyand shows no special grit. Also, in contrast to the easy stereotypes of white players, I’ve noticed he makes a lot of mental errors with his passes and sometimes lacks effort on defense. Watch him on these two plays letting opposing players run right past him on the fast break for a layup:
He seems like a nice kid, and he’s still a great player. But mainly he’s just a remarkable talent playing in a great offensive system. Michigan fans have a running joke about announcers marveling that Stauskas is (they say this nearly every game) “not just a shooter” — unlike the stereotypical white player, he has the athletic ability to fly past defenders and soar into the air. The announcers are sufficiently aware of his ability to acknowledge that he is not just a shooter, but not aware enough to realize that the fact they need to mention this is a joke on their eyes.
The thing is, there is a player on the team this year who’s almost exactly like Zach Novak. His name is Jordan Morgan. In high school, he was pudgy, slow, and small. No major conference programs except Michigan offered him a scholarship. But he physically transformed himself and has become, like Novak, an amazing overachiever. As a six-foot-seven center, he’s almost as undersize for his position as Novak is. He won’t shoot unless he’s within a couple feet of the basket, and often not even then, because opposing players can often swat away his shot attempts. Instead he spends most of every offensive possession throwing his body around the court, setting screen after screen to open up shots for his teammates.
He uses leverage, smarts, and unrelenting effort to gain every inch of advantage fighting against opposing centers. Morgan is a fifth-year senior who already graduated with a degree in engineering, and is studying for a master’s degree in manufacturing engineering.
But the announcers don’t talk about this stuff even one-tenth as often as they did Novak. And when they do, they don’t use terms like “gritty,” “unselfish,” “scrappy,” and “smart.” My explanation is that it’s because he looks like this:
Jordan Morgan #52 of the Michigan Wolverines reacts while taking on the Duke Blue Devils during the third round of the 2011 NCAA men's basketball tournament at Time Warner Cable Arena on March 20, 2011 in Charlotte, North Carolina.
Yeah, he’s black. Now, don’t get me wrong — I don’t think anybody wants to suppress the story of an undersize, pudgy engineering nerd who made himself into a gritty, overachieving captain on a Big Ten champion team and who is also black. I bet the national media would love a story like that. I suspect they just don’t see it.
The gulf in physical talent between Novak and other players was glaring. Now, look at Morgan, with his gigantic biceps. If you don’t know him and you are using a simple heuristic, you probably think he’s a pretty good athletic talent, even if if is a little short. You don’t think about the fact that he gained that muscle after intense weight training. (Announcers never mention it.) And so one player is surrounded by a narrative of hustle, smarts, and toughness, and another player with the exact same qualities is not.
The situation is far better than it was three or four decades ago, when announcers would liken the skills of black players to animals. Today, they have some awareness of racial stereotyping. What’s left, I think, is far more characteristic of how racial bias typically works. Bad intent does not come into play. White people simply have certain preconceptions, and preconceptions make you see the things you expect to see and miss the things you don’t.
“there will be Asian players”
Richard Park (born in Korea) had a several year career.
You’re right about diversity in the NHL. It’s the only pro sport I know of that has Native Americans and even Eskimos. They try to make minorities out of Euros in general and Russians in particular though. It’s a truly odd phenomenon.
I'm the most racially sensitive.
No! I am the most racially sensitive.
Actually I don’t watch basketball. The 2 hand held drive for several yards followed by a blocking call has placed the game in the exhibition category. Remove the backboard and raise a bigger hoop to 15 feet and let’s see some shooting in this non-contact sport.
Perhaps Chait should have a lengthy debate with Jimmy the Greek. LOL
The leftists still run sports television. They are racists. No news here.
Julie Chu played on 4 women’s Olympic hockey teams — women’s college player of the year 2007. Harvard.
That’s not a whole lot different than the way we talk about black conservatives, is it? A small, slow white guy who makes a college team through hard work and dedication is as rare as a young black man who overcomes cultural disadvantages, gets off the progressive plantation and makes something of himself.
I love ‘em both!
It's a fun game that will get me out of the house in about an hour. Rec ball at the high school tonight. But those 40-50 year old kids are killin' me!
White players in proportion to the population........
I’m just happy we can keep movin’ on!
What? You got a lot of money riding on this or something?
OMG! It just occurred to me! You’ve thrown in with 0bama and his picks! That’s the ONLY explanation for your anger, LOL!
*SNORT*
I watch basketball as a human being not a “white” human being. To bad this idiot writer can not do the same thing..
True...
Thank you. I was looking for a point. Like the Flying Dutchman, seeking port...
I don’t care at all about Univ. of Michigan, so I’m super racist.
The women basketball game is better, especially my UConn Huskies.
Thanks. Freepers make the world go ‘round! :)
And it’s Bush’s fault.
Ya got that right, sister!!
Jonathan Chait is a commentator and writer for New York magazine. He was previously a senior editor at The New Republic and a former assistant editor of The American Prospect. He also writes a periodic column in the Los Angeles Times
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