Sports, Whiteness, And The Arrogance Of Privilege
Despite the bellyaching from some of our less enlightened opinion makers, social issues have ALWAYS been a part of sports.
For any sports fan, it’s often necessary to hold two disparate thoughts in your head at the same time.
- For Americans, sports have always been an escape from the drudgery of life. From my grandmother, who spoke wistfully of Wrigley Field during the Great Depression, to the young Bulls fans shooting hoops on Chicago’s embattled south and west sides today, sports are, and always has been where Americans go to find reprieve.
- From the beginning, sports have been a means for Americans to work through our most uncomfortable social issues. Baseball was integrated before America was integrated. Muhammad Ali brought the protest of the Vietnam War into America’s living rooms. Even now, our country is having a national debate about violence against women, police brutality and racial inequality because of the actions of professional athletes.
And so, just as it was inevitable that these protests would make their way into the national sporting consciousness, it was equally inevitable that there would be white men there to complain about it.
Most recently, such whining came via the National Review’s Jim Geraghty in a piece called, ironically, I Just Want to Enjoy Watching the Game. In it, Geraghty posits that Colin Kaepernick’s refusal to stand for the National Anthem is so distracting, that it infringes on his enjoyment of the game:
Nobody watches sports because they want to raise their level of “social awareness.” Nobody tunes in to Monday Night Consciousness-Raising. Most sports fans are perfectly aware of the world’s problems. They are much more likely to encounter those problems in their daily lives than any of the well-paid, famous players on the field. I can’t speak for all of them, but I think their mentality isn’t too far from mine.
I just want to enjoy watching the game.
Geraghty continues:
Sports are supposed to be fun. They’re supposed to be entertaining. People speculate whether sports fans will drift away from certain games, particularly football, because of concussions, player strikes, exorbitant salaries, franchises moving cities, too much or too little parity among teams. Yet the game has managed to endure most of those controversies and problems. You know what really will kill it? When it stops being fun. When Inside the NFL becomes indistinguishable from Inside Politics, the people who either don’t like politics at all or who get enough elsewhere will walk away. I don’t want to “stay woke.” I want to take a nap from the troubles of the world.
It’s hard to imagine a clearer definition of “white male privilege” than complaining that your favorite hobby is forcing you to think, however briefly, about life from someone else’s point of view. Unfortunately, for guys like Geraghty, sports franchises and the sports media at large are beginning to recognize that that women and minorities make up a significant chunk of the overall viewership; a group too large to be ignored or marginalized, with social, political, and economic opinions too relevant to be dismissed.
As a woman, I would love nothing more than for sports to be 100 percent escapism. Only, I can’t imagine the freedom of floating away on a cloud of baseball, soccer, or the NFL without society’s problems intruding on my bliss.
For example, for women who have been in an abusive relationship (or know someone who has), it’s hard to enjoy a game every time Aroldis Chapman pitches or Jose Reyes takes the field. For victims of the wage gender gap, watching the U.S. Men’s National Team take the field as the much-more-accomplished U.S. Women’s National Team does the same while making much less remains a tough pill to swallow.
And for the millions of black sports fans in America, how, exactly, do you expect them to tune in Sunday after Sunday in celebration of the flag, when their country treats them as equals in name, but not in practice? Telling a bi-racial NFL player to cease his protest and just play the game is one step removed from telling a minstrel to “shut up and dance.”
Entertain ME. Make ME forget. ME, who has the luxury of being able to forget.
Not surprisingly, responding to Geraghty’s piece brought down the wrath of the privileged white male on Twitter, as is tradition:
While Geraghty and his followers purport to want their sports to exist purely as escapism, it’s clear by their tweets that what they really want is for the voice of white men to remain dominant in the sports world. They don’t want to hear about women, the LGBTQI crowd, or issues of racial inequality.
No, what they want is for professional sports — perhaps now the most diverse industry in America — to continue to reflect only the thoughts and values of white men. Anyone in the industry who voices concerns about social issues is branded a dreaded Social Justice Warrior. (Because the worst thing one can do in life is fight for social justice.)
The great irony of Geraghty’s piece is that, like those longing for the ‘good ole days’ of America, his missive calls for a return to a time in sports that never existed. Social issues have always been a part of sports. Just ask Hank Aaron, Melissa Ludtke, or Martina Navratilova. Better yet, ask Serena Williams, the Minnesota Lynx, or football players at the University of Missouri.
It is undeniable that modern America has not experienced a time of such political and social upheaval since the 1960s. It’s inevitable that the cry for social justice, racial and gender equality, and for peace in the streets will make its way into the world of sports. To expect otherwise reeks of privilege.
Bob Dylan probably put it best:
Come gather ‘round people
Wherever you roam
And admit that the waters
Around you have grown
And accept it that soon
You’ll be drenched to the bone
If your time to you
Is worth savin’
Then you better start swimmin’
Or you’ll sink like a stone
For the times they are a-changin’.
Unless, of course, you just don’t care.
