Maybe Athletes Don't Rule Our Society Afterall
As of late, athletes are being held accountable for their actions. Gilbert Arenas gets suspended, Tiger loses a number of his endorsements, Plaxico Burress is sitting in prison and he shot himself...no one will forget what Michael Vick did. He's PETA's public enemy no. 1.
It seems that finally, enough is truly enough. It could be that the major effect of the ..recession.. has a little to do with it. Maybe the athletes that get themselves in turmoil are tracked as losses. I mean, Vick's stock sure dropped regardless of him getting a second chance. Race can be driven into the argument if a person really wanted to use it. Our president is multi-cultured but since in our society there is a stigma which makes it hard to identify with one's multi-cultural background, you're either one or the other.
When you factor in that many felt that progress would be made socially with President Obama in office, you now see that the opposite of this hope that race relations would improve is happening. While people like myself wish and try to relate to others outside of my race and ethnicity, it is not so welcoming to other people. Athletes aren't exempt from this either. Racial profiling is happening in sports whether direct or indirect. What is ironic to me is that music seems to be the only thing on Earth that can bring unity amongst all people. This unity doesn't even happen in fiction when a writer attempts to ..crossover... I find that fiction can either send a reader in the opposite direction or in a direction that encourages the reader to engage in segregative behavior.
With all of this taken into account, you see that athletes don't run things. Writers don't run things. Musicians mean the most to people. People won't let Michael Jackson rest. The media continues to slander him. These are abilities that I am talking about, talents for goodness sakes. This is supposed to be about inspiring people, yet something is getting in the way. I can't pinpoint it simply because I don't know what is really preventing multiple of millions of people from saying a writer is so cool. In sports, there always seems to be maybe one or two symbols of a respective sport at a given time. Muhammad Ali was the sole symbol during his time. Mike Tyson was the centerpiece of boxing in later years. In basketball, Jordan ruled. Before that, there were actually many greats. Now, Kobe is the most talked about and Lebron James is made out to just be his sidekick.
Here's where it gets really good. Now that Tiger got himself in some trouble, who will be the face of golf? Will he still be or will the insistence that he's now a black man cause him to be put to the side? His skin color and facial features gave away that he was black already. Sure he is multi-cultural, being black and Asian. He was once someone that the Asians claimed. Do they want to claim him anymore? And it is like African Americans are reluctant to claim him now. People used to joke about how Tiger seem not to want to be black. Maybe Tiger grew tired of having to present himself a certain way.
One thing that is for sure is that in sports there are standards of conduct that I assume the athletes get irritated with. Just seeing how Gilbert Arenas tried to laugh off the controversy of him having guns in his locker and him telling the media that he just wanted to concentrate on basketball, it becomes apparent that athletes have to go on the deep end just to have fun. Arenas was suspended due to his joking about the incident, specifically after pointing at his teammates gun style, before a game against the 76ers. Here's a joke for David Stern...the man's alias is Agent Zero. Clearly, he loves him some James Bond, 007...get it.
For what it's worth, athletes are losing their power in society. Good or bad? I can't call it. Can you?
It seems that finally, enough is truly enough. It could be that the major effect of the ..recession.. has a little to do with it. Maybe the athletes that get themselves in turmoil are tracked as losses. I mean, Vick's stock sure dropped regardless of him getting a second chance. Race can be driven into the argument if a person really wanted to use it. Our president is multi-cultured but since in our society there is a stigma which makes it hard to identify with one's multi-cultural background, you're either one or the other.
When you factor in that many felt that progress would be made socially with President Obama in office, you now see that the opposite of this hope that race relations would improve is happening. While people like myself wish and try to relate to others outside of my race and ethnicity, it is not so welcoming to other people. Athletes aren't exempt from this either. Racial profiling is happening in sports whether direct or indirect. What is ironic to me is that music seems to be the only thing on Earth that can bring unity amongst all people. This unity doesn't even happen in fiction when a writer attempts to ..crossover... I find that fiction can either send a reader in the opposite direction or in a direction that encourages the reader to engage in segregative behavior.
With all of this taken into account, you see that athletes don't run things. Writers don't run things. Musicians mean the most to people. People won't let Michael Jackson rest. The media continues to slander him. These are abilities that I am talking about, talents for goodness sakes. This is supposed to be about inspiring people, yet something is getting in the way. I can't pinpoint it simply because I don't know what is really preventing multiple of millions of people from saying a writer is so cool. In sports, there always seems to be maybe one or two symbols of a respective sport at a given time. Muhammad Ali was the sole symbol during his time. Mike Tyson was the centerpiece of boxing in later years. In basketball, Jordan ruled. Before that, there were actually many greats. Now, Kobe is the most talked about and Lebron James is made out to just be his sidekick.
Here's where it gets really good. Now that Tiger got himself in some trouble, who will be the face of golf? Will he still be or will the insistence that he's now a black man cause him to be put to the side? His skin color and facial features gave away that he was black already. Sure he is multi-cultural, being black and Asian. He was once someone that the Asians claimed. Do they want to claim him anymore? And it is like African Americans are reluctant to claim him now. People used to joke about how Tiger seem not to want to be black. Maybe Tiger grew tired of having to present himself a certain way.
One thing that is for sure is that in sports there are standards of conduct that I assume the athletes get irritated with. Just seeing how Gilbert Arenas tried to laugh off the controversy of him having guns in his locker and him telling the media that he just wanted to concentrate on basketball, it becomes apparent that athletes have to go on the deep end just to have fun. Arenas was suspended due to his joking about the incident, specifically after pointing at his teammates gun style, before a game against the 76ers. Here's a joke for David Stern...the man's alias is Agent Zero. Clearly, he loves him some James Bond, 007...get it.
For what it's worth, athletes are losing their power in society. Good or bad? I can't call it. Can you?
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