Why is it that we assume the black kid HAS to be good at sports?
Black-American are generally stereotyped as more athletic than any other race.
Before practice, a few kids on my swim team went into the gym at the Recreation Center and to play basketball. Usually, the court is fairly empty, however tonight it was occupied by five teenagers.
The five boys on my swim who are generally more serious about playing basketball approached the 5 strangers and asked if they wanted to play. The ten boys chose one swimmer and one stranger as captains. Automatically, the first captain took the black kid...and so did the other captain.
NOW THESE WERE COMPLETE STRANGERS.
They had no idea what talent this kid may or may not possess, but since he was black he was automatically picked first.
The problem was... the two black kids were the most talented of all 10 players! They were faster runners, they stole the ball from the opposing team multiple times, and made almost every shot they took. Now, these two boys fit the black-american stereotype perfectly. Does that mean that the stereotype is actually an accurate description?
I think that what you're talking about is definitely something to consider. At my old school there was an African-American guy in my grade and a Black-American guy who came to visit the school for a day. One of them was the fasted runner our class and played basketball. During gym, he always got picked first, of course, they actually knew he was good at sports and he wasn't a total stranger, but he was still picked over one of the white guys in our class who was also very athletic. One day, a Black-American guy came to visit our school and during recess the guys in my grade automatically invited him to play football them and really wanted him on their team. I think it's really interesting how they just assumed that he'd be good at playing sports because of the color of his skin. Of course, I don't believe in that stereotype, but maybe it developed around a small truth, it could be something as small as their genes that come into play.
ReplyDeleteIt seems like we have very similar stories! I find it very interesting how quickly people can make assumptions about complete strangers. I think this may have started by noticing a few athletic Black-Americans and that put the idea into people's heads. After that, once someone saw another athletic black-American they figured it must be true and it became a stereotype that many people are aware of.
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