Zirin: Racism In Sports
One of the points that Zirin touches on plenty in this piece is racism in sports. As the reader gets proceeds through this book, he or she will realize that racism hasn’t evaporated and some might say that it has gotten worse. In the first chapter, he speaks about the racism that occurred in baseball with black and brown players. He highlights Roberto Clemente who is widely recognized as one of the greatest player in baseball history. Zirin states that Roberto had an older brother named Matino who he says “was the better ball player”. His dreams were cut down by Jim Crow laws. Zirin says that even the press was extremely racist towards Clemente while doing interviews with him. They would mock his accent and the way he spoke English, being that
…show more content…
In chapter five he talks about the NBA and how its culture has always been intertwined with hip hop. In the early 80’s, basketball saw a rise in participation because of the economic state of our country. Hip hop artists were very fond of basketball, even making songs about the game. Even Michael Jordan who was the game’s biggest star, was brought out with Public Enemy on Saturday Night Live in 1991. (p.108) Towards the mid 90’s and early 2000’s another star was born in the NBA and he was very much into the hip hop culture also. However, hip hop was a very fun story telling genre in the 80’s. This was not so much the case in the 90’s, this kind of music was now called rap, even though it stemmed from hip hop. Rap glorified violence, drugs, and degrading women. This, the NBA wanted nothing to do with, and Allen Iverson was the pioneer of bringing this culture to the NBA. This was not a racial problem, it was a culture problem. There are even two different types of pioneers to these cultures. You have Michael Jordan, the bald headed guy with the big smile who everyone seemed to like. Then you have Allen Iverson, a guy who had been to prison at 17 years of age, had cornrows, and wore clothes three sizes too big. To properly make the contrast Zirin put an example in his book on (p.112). Iverson had just made a huge play on Michael Jordan in his rookie year; the media then asked him what it
In chapter five he talks about the NBA and how its culture has always been intertwined with hip hop. In the early 80’s, basketball saw a rise in participation because of the economic state of our country. Hip hop artists were very fond of basketball, even making songs about the game. Even Michael Jordan who was the game’s biggest star, was brought out with Public Enemy on Saturday Night Live in 1991. (p.108) Towards the mid 90’s and early 2000’s another star was born in the NBA and he was very much into the hip hop culture also. However, hip hop was a very fun story telling genre in the 80’s. This was not so much the case in the 90’s, this kind of music was now called rap, even though it stemmed from hip hop. Rap glorified violence, drugs, and degrading women. This, the NBA wanted nothing to do with, and Allen Iverson was the pioneer of bringing this culture to the NBA. This was not a racial problem, it was a culture problem. There are even two different types of pioneers to these cultures. You have Michael Jordan, the bald headed guy with the big smile who everyone seemed to like. Then you have Allen Iverson, a guy who had been to prison at 17 years of age, had cornrows, and wore clothes three sizes too big. To properly make the contrast Zirin put an example in his book on (p.112). Iverson had just made a huge play on Michael Jordan in his rookie year; the media then asked him what it