Tuesday, December 19, 2006

A Double Standard?

So there was a fight in an NBA game over the weekend. Needless to say, the reaction was swift and stern. Involved players were suspended a combined 47 games, including 15 games for Carmelo Anthony, who threw a punch.

Some have pointed out that in light of fighting in other sports like baseball and hockey, where reactions are much more muted, this punishment was too severe.

Might the hubbub even be racist? Bill Simmons points out in his chat on the topic,
Chris, Seattle: The fact that everyone makes such a big deal about an NBA brawl and not so much about a MLB brawl smacks of racism, I don't care what people say.

Bill Simmons: Couldn't agree more. Everyone involved in this fight was black, so the players are now "out of control" and the whole thing is "a disgrace." But when a white baseball player charges a white pitcher, it's all in good fun. It's a little weird.
Do we hold a double standard when it comes to black athletes fighting?

3 comments:

Oneway the Herald said...

So Westy, did you make the switch on Blogger? It looks good.

Of course there is a double standard. Just like how most people get nervous when there's a group of black men in the parking lot. Some of it is common sense, and some of it is undeserved.

However, in baseball, the crowd is not sitting in folding chairs 2 feet away. If Darko and AK-47 got into it at the scorer's table, it would still be crazy.

Westy said...

Yep, I made the switch. Hopefully I'll continue to make further improvements. As far as I can tell, it's a nicer platform.

Yeah, I agree, the crowd proximity has something to do with it. But even if it happened in the middle of the court, I still think it would be more hyped.

Racial stereotyping is an interesting topic. If statistically something is predictable by race, how should we handle that? It's something we deal with most days.

Westy said...

Deadspin also notices this.