African Americans are lead to believe that we are put on this earth to be athletic machines, especially in young African American men. They are blind sided by commercial ad’s that create false hopes and wrong messages that basketball is “for the brothers” In a Nike ad makes it all clear stating: ”The revolution is about basketball. To bring on the revolution brothers must leap in the air, not rise up in rebellion. As we once believed. That’s right, stuff a ball in a hole and all will be made right in our troubled black world” (McCall 1994). Stating in the trouble world African Americans face, which is discrimination, racism, prejudice will go away if all black men play basketball.
So many men are sucked into this common misconception because they are made to think of themselves as mule’s rather then intelligent thinking men. They are encourage by the media, which are produce by the whites and most black men are in awe and buy into this self image that leads to self -defeat. And being great and gracious at the sport of basketball black men would win white Americans approval and praise, simply because many African American men strive and yearn to be viewed as something other than the aggressive monsters they are made out to be. Advertisers happily commercialize the lounging white acceptance, by using black athletic stars as pawns to sell hundred dollar sneakers. In the Vietnam War commercials flooded the T.V airwaves with high influential ad to promote military as a great career move, creating the slogan “Be all that you can be in the army.” Years after the commercial African American men everywhere started to sign up, showing how commercials can be very influential.
What is so strange is that white fans adore the famous African American basketball players. Idolizing the young black man on court, like Michael Jordan and downgrade him off the court. The most appalling mockery is that white Americans look at Jordan as race neutral athlete but yet physically he has features that most white Americans fear. Which is skinny bald headed, six foot dark black man, but because of his great skills it somehow blocks white American to see his color. I believe that basketball feeds in to the many stereotypes and contradictions Americans bring to the game. That basketball is an obsession of color, and is a metaphor for race. It is a crude assumption that we do not see because it is embed in our brain, it is also similar the myth the all African American Females can braid hair. It is a deep-rooted belief that blacks are more talented and gifted as athletes than whites. It sad to see that African Americans live up to theses myth and falsifications it just shows the lack of understanding about African Americans. Black stereotypes often limit African-Americans to four categories. Black men are often seen on television as an entertainer, athlete, idiot, or criminal.
So many men are sucked into this common misconception because they are made to think of themselves as mule’s rather then intelligent thinking men. They are encourage by the media, which are produce by the whites and most black men are in awe and buy into this self image that leads to self -defeat. And being great and gracious at the sport of basketball black men would win white Americans approval and praise, simply because many African American men strive and yearn to be viewed as something other than the aggressive monsters they are made out to be. Advertisers happily commercialize the lounging white acceptance, by using black athletic stars as pawns to sell hundred dollar sneakers. In the Vietnam War commercials flooded the T.V airwaves with high influential ad to promote military as a great career move, creating the slogan “Be all that you can be in the army.” Years after the commercial African American men everywhere started to sign up, showing how commercials can be very influential.
What is so strange is that white fans adore the famous African American basketball players. Idolizing the young black man on court, like Michael Jordan and downgrade him off the court. The most appalling mockery is that white Americans look at Jordan as race neutral athlete but yet physically he has features that most white Americans fear. Which is skinny bald headed, six foot dark black man, but because of his great skills it somehow blocks white American to see his color. I believe that basketball feeds in to the many stereotypes and contradictions Americans bring to the game. That basketball is an obsession of color, and is a metaphor for race. It is a crude assumption that we do not see because it is embed in our brain, it is also similar the myth the all African American Females can braid hair. It is a deep-rooted belief that blacks are more talented and gifted as athletes than whites. It sad to see that African Americans live up to theses myth and falsifications it just shows the lack of understanding about African Americans. Black stereotypes often limit African-Americans to four categories. Black men are often seen on television as an entertainer, athlete, idiot, or criminal.
Basketball has a different, meaning for African Americans and for white Americans. White Americans play basketball for fun and on there free time; whereas African Americans play basketball because it is their obsession it is similar to jazz. African American men brought a poetic grace and style to the sport. It is like ballet in sneakers and sweaty socks. Mythologies that black men are blessed with athletic skills and abilities. Many African American men are missing the lager part that basketball is a mental sphere in a sense, African American men claim basketball as their unquestioned domain, basketball to them is like Charlie Parker with jazz. Playing basketball and making it to the NBA is an American dream for African American men. They are lead to believe that the only way to succeed in life is to play in sports; to white Americans basketball is just a leisure time to have to have fun as well as enjoyment.
For African American men basketball is a way of life and a ticket out of the “the hood” and to escape the life of poverty. Basketball is the scholarship to help them pay for their college education; in all basketball to African American man is a way of survival. Psychologically, Black male athletes think that they would have a good chance of playing professional sports if they attend college for at least two years. Therefore, they do whatever is necessary, academically, in high school to gain entry into college.
The media hypes the urgency for young African American men to become an athlete; it is almost like that is what is expected from them. Commercials like Michael Jordan playing in pair of Nikes sneakers and performing all types of superhuman stunts, leading many African American men to believe that they can do the same persuading them to buy the product that was advertises. The sneakers ads and messed up mythology that continue to go deep inside African American men heads, this is mixed in with degrading real life experiences that reinforce the ads and misleading themes. The mythology that endorses the idea that black men are valued most when they are playing basketball...
White Americans see the false myths about African American and it’s culture and becomes easily entertain. Many African Americans can not figure how to put as much devotion and passion for basketball to their intellectual, instead they get stuck on the psychical and fall in to the tricks of what white American society wants you to do. Advertisements and myths are leading African Americans and White Americans to think basketball is what black men are for. This causes many African American men to believe that they are not intelligent and cannot be capable of being nothing else except an athlete. I believe that African American men are persuaded and brainwashed to be amusement to white Americans. For white Americans media portrays young African American men as a “super athlete” they see them as “leaping monkeys. We are viewed as beast but when playing sports, especially basketball we are viewed as humans.
In Social Identity theory it is an individual-based perception of what defines the “us” associated with any internalized group membership. This can be distinguished from the notion of personal identity that refers to self-knowledge that derives from the individual’s unique attributes. African American males especially the youth, tries to identify themselves with a white America perceptions. They strive and yearn to be viewed by playing basketball; African American males believe this will accept them in society.
They are now forced not to accept themselves, and will change be put into a different category instead of the negative categories they are automatically put into. Basketball has become a crucial social space for the development of an African-American identity. African-Americans consider basketball a forum for nurturing cultural identities, interests and meanings. Basketball has becomes a fraction of collective identity, influencing African-Americans' self-perception and the ways others distinguish them.
These personal images may disseminate that group identity and act as continual fortification of basketball's status in Black culture, and the sports share in the "racial label" for Blacks. Such racial labels, shape identity. Most African Americans are lead to believe that they are athletically superior and dominant at sports that any other race.
I think it is important that African Americans stress the fact, that athletics is not everything. African Americans are intelligent are capable of being a productive American citizens without the help of sports, and should not change there identity to be accepted by the dominant culture.
I think it is important that African Americans stress the fact, that athletics is not everything. African Americans are intelligent are capable of being a productive American citizens without the help of sports, and should not change there identity to be accepted by the dominant culture.
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