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Old Tweets and Young Pro Athletes
Aug. 9th, 2018 11:36 amhttps://www.bostonglobe.com/sports/2018/08/09/not-tolerable-how-offensive-tweets-are-spurring-evolution-sports/NrTl05JONs16iMPuKFHpCI/story.html
Just to be clear: I’m not going to stop reading the Globe or end my paid subscription just because I complain about the Globe. The Globe is my local paper. I am going to support my local paper (Also, the other local choice(s) are even worse).
But oh, this could be so much better!
There are sports which are prone to racist tweets among pros from their high school years. And there are sports which are not so prone to racist tweets among pros from their high school years. This article glances off that fact, and provides a skeletal explanation for what the difference is. It’s just a little too thin. “Maturing younger” is so much less important than having better role models. And the racial diversity of the sport among its youngest, way pre-pro players, is even more important. The message here should be emphatically, if you are an adult who is on the path to a pro sports career for the kiddos, better not let an environment of racism, homophobia or sexism develop among the young’uns you are coaching, raising, supervising, etc. A big chunk of that is appropriate modeling (don’t _be_ what you don’t want to _see_); another chunk is consequences that are not inadvertently rewards among the peer group.
Over the long haul, until pro sports either end gender separation, or truly treat gender separated sports teams as equal (yeah, that’s not gonna happen), sexism is going to be a problem in men’s team pro sports. Perhaps we could at least create a more supportive fan community to enable players to at least be more open about their orientation, as a way of denaturing the homophobic tendencies. It is a chicken and egg problem, to be sure.
Personally, I loathe (most) pro (team) sports. But I do grasp that these are communities that are very important to their members and participants. I think that what is being done by hauling out old tweets demonstrating appalling beliefs that participants in these communities (once) h(e)(o)ld is a worthy thing: as people get to their mid 20s and older, they mature enough to not display those aspects of themselves that are reprehensible. Some of them still hold those reprehensible beliefs. Forcing a reappraisal of those reprehensible beliefs — by the person who once said them and may or may not have ever believed them, and by the people who _still_ hold those evil thoughts close to their hearts and still see the player as a hero for having once articulated them — is an important part of social change for the better.
Just to be clear: I’m not going to stop reading the Globe or end my paid subscription just because I complain about the Globe. The Globe is my local paper. I am going to support my local paper (Also, the other local choice(s) are even worse).
But oh, this could be so much better!
There are sports which are prone to racist tweets among pros from their high school years. And there are sports which are not so prone to racist tweets among pros from their high school years. This article glances off that fact, and provides a skeletal explanation for what the difference is. It’s just a little too thin. “Maturing younger” is so much less important than having better role models. And the racial diversity of the sport among its youngest, way pre-pro players, is even more important. The message here should be emphatically, if you are an adult who is on the path to a pro sports career for the kiddos, better not let an environment of racism, homophobia or sexism develop among the young’uns you are coaching, raising, supervising, etc. A big chunk of that is appropriate modeling (don’t _be_ what you don’t want to _see_); another chunk is consequences that are not inadvertently rewards among the peer group.
Over the long haul, until pro sports either end gender separation, or truly treat gender separated sports teams as equal (yeah, that’s not gonna happen), sexism is going to be a problem in men’s team pro sports. Perhaps we could at least create a more supportive fan community to enable players to at least be more open about their orientation, as a way of denaturing the homophobic tendencies. It is a chicken and egg problem, to be sure.
Personally, I loathe (most) pro (team) sports. But I do grasp that these are communities that are very important to their members and participants. I think that what is being done by hauling out old tweets demonstrating appalling beliefs that participants in these communities (once) h(e)(o)ld is a worthy thing: as people get to their mid 20s and older, they mature enough to not display those aspects of themselves that are reprehensible. Some of them still hold those reprehensible beliefs. Forcing a reappraisal of those reprehensible beliefs — by the person who once said them and may or may not have ever believed them, and by the people who _still_ hold those evil thoughts close to their hearts and still see the player as a hero for having once articulated them — is an important part of social change for the better.