As a result of statements made by the Reverend Wright, of Chicago, not only is America talking about race; but it has also brought Presidential Candidate Obamas campaign to a halt so that he could give his position on race in America today. This speech was warmly received, but even though his speech gave various examples of race relations, in America, he did not use sports as one of its examples.So Ill give a couple:

On April 1st, I watched a tennis match between Serena Williams and Justine Henin. Throughout the announcers analysis of the match, they kept suggesting what Ms Henin needed to do to win. Interwoven with these suggestions were what the announcers perceived to be Serena's weaknesses. Serena won the first set 6 to 2 and was leading in the second set 4 to 0. During the fifth game of the second set there was a long point that was won by Ms Henin, when Serena was unable to return a shot down the sideline. The announcers spent the time between this point and the start of the next point talking about what a genius Justin was in the way she set up her last shot. Although Ms Henin won that point, she lost the second set 6 to 0 and subsequently the match. At the conclusion of the match, the announcer's analysis focused on how tired Justin looked from all the matches she has played, lately. Their analysis also included what they thought Ms Henin should have done to win this match against Serena. The fact that Serena had just taken the world's number one player's game apart and beat her like she was a government mule never entered their analysis.

When Venus Williams and Lindsay Davenport played in their historic three set Wimbledon Championship a few years ago, the announcers told us how intelligent Lindsay had played in each of the three sets. However, when it came to Venus, they said it was her stamina that won the match for her. To me, Lindsay Davenport and Venus Williams played the best tennis match I'd ever seen and when I heard the announcers describe the match on their usual racial lines I changed the channel.

The announcers that cover Golf use the same technique, in their analysis, when Tiger Woods is playing. When Tiger is at the top of the leader board the announcers spend a lot of their airtime telling their audience what the other golfers need to do to catch Tiger. When Tiger is in the middle of the pack, those same announcers tell their audience what the players in the lead need to do to keep Tiger from catching them and taking the lead. If they hold on to win the match, the remaining airtime is spent telling their audience what a smart and/or intelligent match the winner played.

When compliments are paid to the Williams sisters or Tiger Woods, those compliments seem to focus on their athleticism and not their ability to think. With the Williams sisters, it's always their ability to move around the court and how difficult it is to hit the ball pass them. Or how powerful their shots are. With Tiger the announcers talk about how far he hit the ball or how he's putting well today. What the announcers don't share with their audiences is the intelligence and smarts needed to carry out the strategy to be the champions that Serena, Venus and Tiger have become.

Article Source:
Kenneth Brown
brown6207@bellsouth.net