Follow up

In response to Jessica, when I think of the way I have stereotyped student athlete’s as being less intelligent then most, I have only ever thought of those who play football, basketball, and only male athletes. I think this comes from the media’s portrayal of athlete’s, and my acceptance of this over the years. Given that, I would say that the athlete’s participating in the less publicized sports are probably less likely to face the same kind of stereotypes, because they have never been criticized for a lack of intelligence, and therefore people don’t think of them in the same way they do those athlete’s who play the more publicized sports. On that same note, I havenever thought of female athlete’s in the same way that I do males, and I think a good majority would agree with that. It seems that people give female athlete’s a bit more credit because for a women to be in a leadership roll, its assumed that she is driven, goal oriented, and determined otherwise she would not be in such a position, and because of those notions (which too have been promulgated by the media, which often times dictates history) female athlete’s are less likely to be stereotyped as dumb jocks.

To answer the question "for student-athletes of color, does the reputation of being student athletes outweigh ethnic stereotypes? Are they intertwined at all?" I would have to say no the athlete reputation does not outweigh ethnic stereotypes. The ethnic stereotype is that if you are a student of color you are an athlete, and if you are an athlete of color, people assume you attained that position because of your ethnicity and whatever athletic abilities are supposedly inherent to your race (a stereotype). This point was raised throughout the blog, and even lead Betsy to question why it is that the most talented athlete’s are of color.

This leads to Katie's question about how whether it is the University or athlete’s themselves that perpetrate these stereotypes, and their response to them. To be honest, I don’t think the athlete’s care about the stereotypes, and that lack of care could be translated into the athlete’s perpetuating the very stereotypes that seek to degrade them. All of them are aware of the dumb-jock connotation that comes with playing a sport, but what really can they do about it? It has yet to get to a point where there intelligence or lack there of has caused disruption on campus or within their own community, so I really don’t think its anything they have gotten tired of fighting, so much as it simply may not be an issue.

Concurrently, the university is just catering to the needs of the demographic of students they chose to recruit. If there is a division between students and athlete’s its not because of the academic resources provided by the university, so much as it is due to the fact that the athlete’s make up such a small part of the university population, but represent the university as a whole. Therefore, if the university chooses to recruit "high-risk" athlete’s then they know that in order for those students to be successful they must set up a work environment that best caters to their needs so that those athlete’s can cater to the needs of the university. The only real reason why there is a division between the athletes and other students is because they are more recognizable figures than most on campus, and therefore like any other minority group, are subjected to immediate scrutiny or praise.

As for my own question after reading all the responses and our experience, I’d like to know if anyone’s view’s on these athlete’s changed, and if so why or why not? Where is it that we get these stereotypes, and why are we, intelligent people well versed in the politics of racism and Burke’s rhetoric of identification, still so willing to continue to stereotype others? Just curious.