The Social Construction of SportsCenter
I was watching the morning loop of SportsCenter (a show which has its fanatical fans, but which, unsurprisingly, others think has jumped the shark) while trying to pump enough caffeine into my system to get through this morning's lab/ lecture, and they ran highlights of Maryland's 108-58 shellacking of Hampton. One of the highlight clips (Steve Blake passing behind his back to Drew Nicholas) was described by the anchor as "Blake dishes some tasty love to Drew Nicholas." To which I had two reactions: 1) Can they show that on tv? and 2) I bet that would've sounded cool had Stuart Scott been the one to say it. In reference to Nicholas, he also stated that "Long Island homies are the craziest," which really sounded about as dorky as it looks in print.
I can't help thinking that there ought to be some lesson here about the social construction of race, especially given that the anchor in question was, like Scott, African-American (I can't recall his name, and ESPN no longer seems to have a list of its anchors on their site in any sensible location, so I can't find it...). Scott's unending stream of hip-hop style catchphrases is pretty entertaining (though not everyone thinks so), but he's about the only one on the network who can carry that stuff off (though, sadly, he's not the only one to try...).
I'm not sure what that lesson is, but it seems like there ought to be something...
Posted at 2:36 PM | link | follow-ups |