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Unit 4: Discrimination in Everyday Life-NBA

Discrimination in everyday life can sometimes go unnoticed. In terms of the National Basketball Association, it is pretty obvious how much the NBA discriminates against players in different ways. Whether it is through refereeing or salary, there is frequently discrimination of African Americans. Nearly 80% of the league is African American. Moreover, all of the labeled "super stars" (Kobe Bryant, Dwight Howard, LeBron James, Dwyane Wade, Carmelo Anthony, Kevin Garnett, Amare Stoudemire, etc) are African American. This is just one of many reasons ensuring that the NBA discriminates. In fact, Pay for US White players is about 16% less than non-White players, after controlling for personal characteristics and performance.

As a whole, the league has become very one-sided. For example, players like Dirk Nowitzki and Steve Nash are considered super stars, however their jerseys do not sell as much as Kobe Bryant for example. Why is this the case? Is it because they are white? Does the NBA not promote them as much as they promote the African American players because that is what they want their image to be? Or are the African Americans simply better athletes? These questions are difficult ones to answer because they are not so cut and dry, "good or bad" and, instead, often have areas of grey.

On another note, Kevin Love, Minnesota Timberwolves star, does not necessarily get what he deserves and is therefore discriminated against. He gets a $78 million/5 year contract by the Timberwolves. In comparison, Derrick Rose, Chicago Bulls star, has been in the league the same amount of years as Love, yet he now has a contract for $98 million/5 year contract. So what is the dilemma here? Love is certainly a great player, but it's obvious he isn't getting what he deserves even though he is just as much of a factor for his team as a player like Oklahoma City Thunder's Kevin Durant. Since they average more per year than Love, discrimination is at definitely present in the NBA.

All in all, the topic of discrimination in the NBA is extremely interesting and controversial. Perhaps teams look at the race of their fan base when choosing players, because it makes sense to fill their seats, they would want players that their fans can relate to (AKA race). On another note, when it comes to NBA player salaries, white players earn about 16% less than African American players.

Why aren't there more Asian players in the NBA? Is it related to skill, or does discrimination play a larger and more dominant role?

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Unit 3 Blog Post

In Unit 3, we focused more on and discussed how difference, regardless of where it stated, is extremely complicated. Therefore, I have learned that identity is then in turn complicated as well. It forces people to assess how they identify themselves and how they are viewed or identified by others. Being identified by others is also known as "mapping" where, for example, a Japanese man could be called Chinese when he is in fact Japanese. "Mapping" occurs all the time even though it may not seem so obvious in some situations. For example, in the movie Crash, when two black men run over an Asian man, they said they ran over a China man. This is one of many examples of "mapping". In Crash, race, gender and ethnicity are all very complex. Moreover, in the film Crash, a hispanic man did his job and changed a lock on the door, but explained to the persian owner that he needed a new door anyways. The persian man did not like that and thought the hispanic was cheating him, stealing his money, etc. Later on in the movie, the persian man comes back after this man and tries to shoot him. This is an example regarding the complications of identity. The persian man identified the hispanic as an uneducated. Moreover, Sandra Bullock yelled to her husband in front of this hispanic man that she wanted all of her locks changed again in the morning, infering that hispanics are not trustworthy and will break into her house/make a copy of her key, etc. 

Overall, Unit 3 was a complicated, yet interesting one. Looking forward to Unit 4.

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Unit 2 Assessment: Smells Like Racism

Smells Like Racism

  “If you’re not white, you’re black” (141). I strongly disagree with this statement. There are plenty of people in the world that are neither white nor black. “New York state's Asian Indian population, meanwhile, grew by a healthy 24.6 percent over the 10-year period, to 313,000” (http://newamericamedia.org/2011/05/census-asian-indian-population-explodes-across-us.php). Here is just one of many examples proving that there are other races in world. The chapter states, “the combination of white American refusing to acknowledge anti-Asian discrimination, and minority America minimizing anti-Asian discrimination, foists a formidable burden upon Asians: to combat our own internalized racial alienation, and to fight extrinsic racial classifications by both whites and other minority groups” (143). A lot of Asians have immigrated to America and have succeeded in many fields such as entrepreneurship, technology, and education. Charles Wang is America’s most successful Asian entrepreneur ever. He was born in Shanghai and moved to Queens New York when he was eight years old. Wang was later honored by the Los Angeles Chinese Historical Society of Southern California in “Celebrating Chinese Americans in Sports”. He is just one of thousands of Asians who has become an unbelievable and mind-blowing hard worker. I agree with the book when it says, “we need to be more sophisticated in our analysis of racism, and less equivocal in our condemnation” (143). Instead of immediately judging someone based on race, we should get to know the person. Do not judge a book by its cover represents this idea perfectly. As I continue to explore different issues in race, class, and gender, I will further my thoughts and opinions on different cultures and how they are interpreted in everyday lifestyle.

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Unit 1 Assessment

After considering the various chapters in this unit what does difference really mean to you? What did you take away from this unit about difference that you may not have considered before? What seems to be the connective thread and broader complications of “difference”? Most importantly, why is difference such a difficult concept to organize and put in a “box” so to speak?

After considering the various chapters in this unit, I am starting to realize that understanding difference in complex and blurry, as I am sure the rest of our units will be as well. Difference is such a difficult concept to organize and put in a "box" because we all come from different places and backgrounds, which make up who we are and help us define difference. For example, in chapter one of Racial Formations, "the Phipps case illustrates the continuing dilemma of defining race and establishing its meaning in institutional life" (13). This demonstrates exactly my point in that it is difficult to define race, which leads to the difficulty of what difference truly is. Moreover, I believe that each and every human being defines difference slightly different than each other due to where we come from and our cultures. Having said all of that, to me, there are two parts to difference. Physical difference and social difference. Physical difference would be considered race: white, black, etc. Social difference would be difference in language, religion, region, etc. On the other hand, for society, gender means difference. "The society in which we live channels, guides, and limits our imagination in sexual as well as other matters...People fall in love with individuals, not with a sex. Gender need not be a significant factor in our choice, although for some of us it may be" (68). These are vital points when attempting to define difference. This goes back to my original point in that difference means a bunch of different things to many people. I think the biggest thing that I took away from this unit that I did not consider before is the lens in which a human sees through. I have learned that there are numerous amounts of lenses to view such debatable topics such as difference. 

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Expectations for RCG

I am looking forward to RCG this semester! I hope to learn more about the issue of discrimination in the world because I have always been interested in understanding where people come from and how it can separate us. For example, why is it that an Israeli has a more difficult time interacting with an Asian than he/she would with another Israeli or vise versa? I am excited to learn about events like this throughout this semester. 

RCG Moment: Over winter break, and for the past five or six years now, I have noticed that everywhere I go, the women's public restrooms have a longer line than the men's. The men, including my dad and brother, always seem to make fun of us women in that we take a longer amount of time to use the restroom. Is this a gender issue? If so, why? I want to get to the bottom of this!