Well, today in class we had speaker, Ms. Mia Long, come in and talk to us about African American athletes in reality tv. She first asked us what we thought about when we think of black athletes. There were many ideas that popped up from that question, such as: drugs, cheating, money, fame, drive, to being a “beast” but for Ms. Long her main two topics were television and slavery. She said television because the black main is usually the one presented on the screen for doing an outstanding play but then she switched it up when she said slavery. She used the NFL 2010 Draft for her example to show how slavery was even present there. Ms. Long told us of a couple of quotes that were recorded about the experience at the draft. One was from Travis Stevens, a running back that was drafted, that said it was weird, almost like a meat market. And then you had Mel Kiper Jr., a renowned football analyst, saying that the football players were being “rock hard” and that was a resemblance back to when slaves were being presented during the auction block and how owners would talk up the hopeful buyers. Ms. Long even used the stage the draft picks would stand upon to her defense, saying it was basically a modern day auction block. The draft is there to buy, sell and trade players in the benefit of the owners who make way more than the players who are actually playing the game. Murk and Christian said to Ms. Long that it wasn’t that deep. Stating that times have changed and there isn’t anyone actually looking at it that way, which is obviously false by Dr. Jones having that as her main point. Joe made the point that if this was slavery, then the players wouldn’t want to be there. To me this is true because if the ones being drafted were slaves then I would think with all the abilities they have it wouldn’t be a problem for them to hit a 40 yard dash outta there :). Joe added they go and stay because of the money. Ms. Long was making a statement about how there are only blacks being drafted, which may have come off differently then what she would have liked. Because Brain replied, “Well, blacks are better athletes than whites”, which is true in most cases. I would have made the point that blacks are bigger because we were bread to be that way. During the slave era, all of the tasks that blacks were made to do were heavy labor jobs, so that could be one of the reasons why blacks are fasted and generally bigger, in my opinion that is.
After that small simmer of discussion Ms. Long asked why do we even watch black reality. She told us of her 6 reasons on why we watch. 1) We watch to feel closer. 2) Parasocial interaction, which is the acting in which we know the person personally, ex. “Don’t take about T.O. like that.” 3) Enjoy seeing the worst in people. 4) Feels like we’re better than they. 5) Make heroes and antagonists out of the person. 6) Romance and love triangles. I would agree that all of her examples would be close to the reasons I would watch but after that there wasn’t too much talk on that matter. We then looked at the “T.O. Show” and for me that wasn’t reality. His show was too slow and just not that appealing to me. Maybe if there was a camera crew to follow him all day, after football games and all that jazz then maybe it might stand a chance. It was only until the show about Michael Vick was brought up did the simmering start to flow outside the pot. Vick had a show about his life after the dog fighting conviction and jail time. I take fault at starting the argument by saying that Vick shouldn’t have gotten the time he did for dog fighting. I can’t remember who said something after me but someone said he should have gotten more time for that crime he committed. Michael Vick wasn’t solely charged with his dogs fighting, was my point, because if that was the case my neighbor should be thrown in jail by the way his dogs fight each other all the time. But the fact Vick was paid so much, is a black athlete and made a business/money out of the situation is the reason he was put out to the world like that. So I’m fine with the time he did, because dog fighting is wrong, but I just don’t understand how that could be worse than taking the life of a human and not having to serve any jail time, i.e. Donte Stallworth. I mean I haven’t seen PETA since that happen so I wonder if Donte would have hit that man with his car while he was walking his dog would they have shown up??? So after that well rounded discussion we moved on to another show about a football player traveling around the world talking about a country’s culture and their favorite sport. This show didn’t go over too well with the class by some saying it was just too boring and putting the blame on the host not being lively enough. So Dr. Jones asked what would make a good reality show dealing with sports. Murk said the show needs to just have a host that’s more appealing to start with and Brain added that the show should follow the set-up like the “Hardknock” series that’s on HBO to be a success. I would say that there are too many shows being created that start off focused on the stereotypes of black athletes. Its only until some creative mind comes and wants to break the mold that there will be a successful long running show out there.


By; George Miller
"no dogs were hurt during the making of this post"