For the past years , players from all sports have been hit with the stereotype, “Just Play”. We’ve seen this year that players speaking up for what they believe in is the only way change can be made.

In the past, news anchors and analyst have criticized players for standing up and one analyst messed with the wrong player. Fox News reporter, Laura Ingraham made a comment in one of her shows quoting at Lebron James, “Shut Up and Dribble”. This caused a frenzy on multiple news sources and social media. However, the comments she thought would discourage James only made him stronger. James later developed a talk show called “Shut-up and Dribble” which goes toward players standing up and having a place in their communities.

Through Laura Ingraham’s comments, she touched on a bias that has been going on foe generations and that considers athletes staying in their own lane and not speaking up. This was social norm that was recently broken and we are starting to see different athletes step up. I believe that without Lebron James getting spoke down upon, others would have not spoken up and started a chain reaction.

Stereotypes can be seen as many different types of forms ,and sometimes, we are taught these stereotypes which are hard to break. Change is happening and that change can only happen through everyone, even athletes.

Over the past couple of decades, the United States have been the big brother to other countries when it comes to olympic basketball. Since the start of the Dream Team featuring Micheal Jordan, Magic Johnson, and Larry Bird, the US olympic basketball teams have dominated every country for a long term. Over time, a stereotype was thrown over international teams when it came to US sports.

International teams have taken the lower seed to the United States and it has caused others to doubt the talent of international teams compared to the US. In the article, Why Team USA’s World Cup Defeats were Good for Basketball, it states, “That’s the open secret about the Fiba World Cup: it simply doesn’t matter as much to the US as it does to other countries. There’s a glory of playing in front of gigantic global audiences at the Olympics that just doesn’t compare to playing 8.30am EST games that have been relegated to ESPN+. If there’s one lesson to be learned from the US’s flameout, it’s that the other countries had more invested this time around.

This goes to show that the US took other countries for granted however, it ended up biting them in the butt in the end. Furthermore, this article is trying to say that the stereotype that the US has relied on for so long was indeed a crutch for the US, or seen as a wake up call. Moving forward the US will look to continue to be dominant in these games and not take their competition for granted.

“A type is a simple, vivid, memorable, easy grasped and widely recognized characterization in which a few traits are foregrounded and change or “development” is kept to a minimum. Within this, however, we may make distinctions between social types, stereotypes and member types.” In other words, we make stereotypes that are based off certain thoughts that change.

Within International and US basketball, tension has been created over the years and it has caused many countries and even the US to gain stereotypes that have only been a crutch. Furthermore, the stereotypes have negatively impacted these countries when it comes to international and olympic sports

I decided to choose my fourth blog post on the racial injustices present throughout the movie, Remember the Titans

The movie is based off true events and takes place in Virginia of 1971. During this time in America, racism was present in everyday life, and the impact of racism is what brought the players of T. C. Williams high school together.

The conflict in this particular film is the school board of Virginia starting the integration of black and white students. This of course did not go well causing, more tension and fighting to occur within black and white students. Herman Boone, played by Denzel Washington is forced to bring these group of men together in order to bring T.C. Williams a state championship.

Throughout the movie, the racial injustices of African Americans are shown however, Disney gives us just a small taste of what African Americans were going through during this particular time.

After the scene where Coach Boone gets a brick thrown in his house, Coach Boone and assistant coach, Bill Yoast get into a heated argument. Yoast tried to explain to coach Boone that he put his daughter’s life danger. However, Coach Boone has to explain to Coach Yoast that his daughter got a small taste of what his daughters go through on daily basis.

Furthermore, I believe that in the history of filmmaking, most directors have tried to lessen the impact of racism in America. Even though this particular movie shows and explains why racism is never okay, it still leaves out the true picture of racism and the effect it had on millions of African Americans.

In the article, “Hooks, Artisitic Integrity” it states, “When white males make films with all white subjects or with people of color, their “right” to do so is not questioned. No one asks a white filmmaker in the United States or Britain who makes a film with only white characters if he or she is a white supremacist. The assumption is that the art they create reflects the world as they know it, or certainly as it interests them”. In other words, white filmmakers do not get questioned or limited when directing black roles, and this has had an effect on the black community in the film industry.

Incredible Hulk(2008) did not received good commentary and has fallen to the bottom rankings of the MCU Movies.

The last Incredible Hulk film that took place in 2008 did not receive as good of ratings compared to other MCU characters. For instance, audiences reacted differently to the characters of Iron Man(2008) reacted , Rob Downey Jr.(Iron man) and Gwyneth Paltrow (Pepper Potts) than Incredible Hulk star, Ed Norton. However, what hurt the film so much, was how it told the same story as the previous Incredible Hulk that premiered in 2003.

In the article, “MCU Rewind: The Incredible Hulk Isn’t “Bad,” It Just Ignores Its Characters” it stated, “Thus, they wanted to it to be, at least, a spiritual sequel to their earlier effort, despite recasting all the roles. Unfortunately, this resulted in the film suffering from what I like to call Teen Wolf, Too syndrome, which happens when a sequel recasts the roles and ends up telling mostly the same story as the first film. In this case, the story is: Bruce Banner is the Hulk, he loves Betty Ross, and he is on the run from her father, the silver-haired, mustachioed General Thaddeus ‘Thunderbolt’ Ross. Edward Norton replaced Eric Bana as Banner.”

Hall explains how audiences have the same amount of pull as critics ,and their opinions are what make the movie. In the reading it stated, ““The codes of encoding and decoding may not be perfectly symmetrical … the lack of fit between the codes has a great dewal to do with the structural differences of relation and position between broadcasters and audiences, but it also has something to do with the asymmetry between the codes of ‘source’ and ‘receiver’ at the moment of transformation into and out of discursive form” (Hall 54).”

In other words, I believe that Hall was trying to say that audiences can decode movies/ shows as well. With that being said, if something in a movie does not register with the audience, then there was a problem within the codes of source and receiver.

Furthermore, believe that the producers of Incredible Hulk intended on having a blockbuster movie, however there were some issues with in the movie that ruined the stardom. With the same plot as the sequel and the competition with Iron Man, it was hard to see this movie blossom.

In the Saturday Night Live’s Melanianade skit, othering and racialization is expressed numerous times throughout the clip. In the skit, it is expressed that Eastern European women have to follow a certain set of values or even morals and it is shown in the skit with Ivanka and Tiffany Trump. The skit is also associated with Beyonce’s Sorry ,however Beyonce’s rhetorical strategies were almost made fun of in a way. Furthermore, it was deemed that SNL were undermining the black values that Beyonce tried to present. This something that is seen on multiple media outlets an has been going on for decades.

When thinking about the concept of othering, I first thought about how Ryan Clark of ESPN reacted to NFL fans when Teams decided to stand up for social injustice . Different forms of protest have been expressed in the United States and all have been worshipped except fight for black lives, Clark stated.

Numerous players were confused at the fact that their form of silent protest was frowned upon. Although it is suggested that most fans are against the Black Lives Matter movement, the NFL felt that form of protest was best fit for today’s society.

Furthermore, it is deemed that Black Lives Matter is associated with terrorism ,and that is the problem NFL players are trying to change. The NFL is trying to show that black lives are being under valued and need change needs to be established. Being different is something that isn’t accepted a lot in today’s society and that is something the NFL is fighting for and the media tends to talk down on players when politics is brought up.

Wiedlack, K. (2018). In/visibly different: Melania Trump and the othering of Eastern European women in US culture. Feminist Media Studies, 19(8), 1063-1078. doi:10.1080/14680777.2018.1546205

Throughout the semester, I plan to discuss how multiculturalism is expressed in the sports world. Professional and collegiate players are the very faces of our communities ,and bring an impact to everyone that is watching them. Each sport and each player are unique and that is what brings out the fun in sports. A challenge will be writing stories on sports that I am unfamiliar with, however with this blog, the knowledge I gain about new sports will be worth it.

I’m a member of Colorado State’s football team and have been around sports my whole life. Already having the passion for sports is why I feel the information I provide to this blog will be credible. Growing up, I I realized that athletes are role models and that they establish their own culture.

With my blog posts, I will work on trying to be objective because in the sports world, it is easy to gain your opinion or try to be biased about a certain topic.

This week, I chose to discuss and explain Framing and Individual Blame by Shanto Iyengar. The reading discusses framing and how framing influences how we think and form ideas based off society. However the term framing can be seen as judgment or punishment, numerous Americans watch mass media outlets who tend to frame all the time. Furthermore, news outlets can frame how we view certain issues happening around us.

When thinking about how news outlets tend to frame stories, the protests of the National Basketball Association come to mind. In this present time, athletes of the NBA decided to protest and postpone games after the death of Jacob Blake. When this took place, it was deemed by media outlets that NBA players are worrying too much about political views. In other words, some media outlets pointed out the bad of the situation ,instead of the good. This allows for viewers to frame their beliefs and ideas on what a news analyst states, which is a very common issue in media outlets.

Citations

Shanto Iyengar, Political Behavior, Vol. 12, No. 1, Cognition and Political Action. (Mar., 1990), pp. 19-40.

Being in this news writing class was a great opportunity for me to see where I stand with my writing.  Even though my grades did not reflect the amount of knowledge I gained, I feel that  this course is very necessary. I also believe that this course gives you a great insight on being a reporter. As I’m reflecting, the most helpful skills I gained from this course was using the AP stylebook, taking breaks while doing my work, learning the proper way to use punctuation, listening habits and editing with different purposes.

 The AP stylebook took some time getting used to when I first started this course. I experienced the most difficulty with finding whether to abbreviate a state ,or to write out the full name. However with time, I started to pick up on the rules of the AP stylebook.

    Taking breaks was the most helpful skill I acquired while being in this class. Before I took this course,  I would always try to get all my work done in one sitting ,which resulted in a lot of stress. I became more relaxed with my writing when I looked over the Revision Techniques pdf ,and started taking breaks between my work. I would definitely recommend this writing tip to every writer, in order to stay stress-free.

    The punctuation unit in module one was very useful as well. With the punctuation unit and the AP quizzes, I became more skilled with my writing. Knowing where to place a comma in quotations became easier also. Furthermore, I think that starting off the course with punctuation was a good way to help writers with this news writing course.

Listening habits is a skill I developed through module one. After going through that module,  I learned how to focus on listening better. For example, making eye contact when you are speaking to someone. 

    Although I did not do the best in this course, I still feel that this course has taught me numerous techniques to better my writing. Furthermore, I believe this class was very beneficial to my writing.

On a hot June afternoon, Colorado State football gets ready for their incoming freshmen as they get ready for their first collegiate workout.

Matthew Harvey, a corner back from Slidell, Louisiana, an incoming freshmen at Colorado State University. Before the freshman’s first workout, Harvey was informed by the team trainer, Tony Hill, that he carried the sickle cell trait which is a condition caused by the presence of a single gene for sickle cell anemia, producing a smaller amount of abnormal hemoglobin.

After being told the news by the team trainer, Harvey shrugged the news and went onto the field to complete the workout.

Within an hour of the workout, news fell out that a Colorado State player had passed out and was taken to Poudre Valley Hospital. Later that day, the news came that Harvey was diagnosed with compartment syndrome and acute kidney failure.

“I was fine during the whole workout until, I realized that I felt pain in my shins and I figured it was just muscle cramps. It then got to the point where I could not walk anymore, ” said Harvey.

Hill was present at the workout and felt as if everything was headed in the right direction. “He began the workout fine and he was in the front of every rep. I don’t know what happened.” said Hill. 

Harvey spent almost three weeks in the hospital and it was not until the end of those three weeks when the truth came out. Freshman, Tywan Francis had informed Harvey’s parents on what happened the day Harvey passed out.

“Matthew was not properly informed about what the dangers of the sickle cell trait and high elevation. Before Matthew passed out, the trainer was made it seem as if Matthew was faking and would not give him water until he stood up ,and Matthew was unable to do that.” stated Francis.

After Francis’ testimony, lawsuits were filed against CSU by Harvey’s family. “We dropped off our son thinking he was in good hands and it turns out CSU was not taking any of the health protocols seriously.” said Ronald Harvey, father of Matthew Harvey.

A year has gone by and Harvey has almost made a full recovery. Harvey has been allowed to participate in conditioning ,however Harvey has not been cleared for full participation.

    “After all the trials and tribulations I have been through, I thank God for saving my life. It could have gone a different way and I can’t thank him enough” said Harvey.

Matthew Harvey spent 3 weeks in Poudre Valley Hospital. He 

Suffered from compartment syndrome and kidney failure.

 Photo taken by Mikell Harvey

The right to pro-choice has been a big topic over the years and the recent actions by officials has caused quite an uproar in the United States due to Alabama’s decision to ban abortion

 Alabama high school principal, Chey Jabbia who has been in the school system for many years, was a local expert who was happy to give her opinion on how to rectify this situation. Jabbia is an important person in the education system and she deals with female problems constantly.  “Women already go through enough trouble as it is, it’s a shame that we cannot even have control of our own bodies,” said Jabbia

Jabbia also stated, “ The recent actions that have took place in America have made a negative impact, and officials should take it into consideration.

Professor Lawrence Hall from Southeastern of Louisana had some views on the abortion ban as well. Hall’s solution was to base abortion off of equality. Some people in the United States cannot afford more expensive reproductive care. Furthermore, in order to fix this abortion plan, Hall wants officals to focus on the people in the United States who need abortion the most.

  Pro-choice is something that the United States is tyring to figure out and it will defintelty be a long process. “The topic of pro-choice is far from over, it has actually just begun,” stated Jabbia.

Tiara Harrison, a student at Southeastern of Louisiana has been very active in the community after Alabama’s decision. Harrison has participated in local and states protests and is very focused on fighting for what she believes in. “Abortion is a part of one’s right to freedom, and I’m going to do everything in my power to protect my rights” said Harrison.  

A local mother fighting for her rights at a local rally. Photo by Clarissa Crozier

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The Northshore high school football team began their first summer practice on Monday and have high hopes for the upcoming 2019 season.

Mike Bourg’s Northshore Panthers have struggled in the past seasons and they have high hopes for their new season. With eight returning starters, the Panthers should make a far playoff run. Returners such as, RaShawn Fisher and Carl Jones have been in the program all three years and they hope to bring good leadership to the team.

Fisher explained how he felt about this upcoming season and replied, “ I feel that we will have more experience this season and we should have players that will contribute on both sides of the ball.” Bourg replied, “This year’s team is the most talented team I’ve seen in a long time and they are a very special group. In order to make a playoff run, we will have to stay healthy and just play our game.” Bourg also went into detail about their summer program stating, “ The team had a great spring program and my staff and I are going to bring it up a notch this summer.” Bourg was very confident saying, “ This team has a chance to do something great, we just have to connect all the pieces.”

Northshore’s first game of the season will be August 30, 2019 against Zachary.