Sean Preston
Professor Zimdars
Adv. Mass Comm. Theory
3/7/2016
Racial Coverage in Sports
Throughout the years sports in
America have slowly adjusted to allowing people of color into the
spotlight. Before 1947, no African
American man was ever allowed to play in Major League Baseball. Today, it would be impossible to not notice
the shift in racial makeup of the organization and American professional sports
as a whole. White people only makeup
around fifty percent of the organization.
Although these statistics prove that colored people are equally capable
of being superstars in sports, American media consistently uses every
opportunity they can to apply rhetoric that puts these humans into a negative
light.
Dana White, president of the UFC is an extremely successful
man and philanthropist. The UFC, under
his control, is in charge of their stars, who they choose to promote, and so
on. There are many fighters across the
world that come from varying cultures, backgrounds, and ethnicities. In recent years, an African-American fighter
named Jon Jones has emerged and is widely considered based upon his record as
one of the greatest fighters of all time, if not the most successful fighter in
UFC history. He has been in the news for
many different things from a hit-and-run to his self admittance of substance
abuse. Jon Jones has never been caught
using steroids, but has suffered mental health and addiction issues. His only loss ever came from a
disqualification over illegal elbows back in 2009. Because of his personal issues, the media has
torn him apart and tried to paint this image of him as if his whole life is in
ruin. Some have even discredited his
accomplishments and blamed cocaine use for his success. This raises the question as to whether or not
the media would be so interested in tarnishing his image had he been a white
fighter.
A lot of these
articles posted have often tried to discredit what he has done both for the UFC
and for mixed martial arts as a sport.[1] Headlines such as, “Jon Jones: ‘I totally
have a drug problem,” and “Jon Jones claims he was not a coke head,” make one of the
all time greats look terrible. Again I wonder if they would have tried to put
him in this negative light had he been a white American or of European
descent. It seemed the UFC tried to cut
ties with Jon Jones rather than defend their star. However, the main issue is not the UFC’s
response to his problems, it is the media. “UFC’s Jon Jones: Why I fled crash
with pregnant woman,” an article by the New York Post is reporting a false
quote that he never actually said himself.[2]
When
you actually listen to the fighter Jon Jones speak, it proves that he is a
classy and articulate person despite his struggles and mistakes. In his response to Conor McGregor’s recent
loss at UFC:196, Jones had nothing but positive things to say about the
defeated featherweight champion. On the other end of the spectrum the UFC is
pushing fighters such as Conor McGregor and Ronda Rousey to be the face of
their organization. Only one of them
deserves this push. Daniel Cormier, a
colored veteran with only one loss, has little to no coverage from the UFC in
comparison.[3]
Conor
McGregor only has 8 UFC fights to date and is the top paid male fighter in the
organization. Even in his defeat to Nate
Diaz on March 6, 2016 he still was paid over one million dollars whereas Nate
Diaz was only paid five hundred thousand.
Conor McGregor is pushed by nearly every sports media outlet because he
is not a classy fighter and talks recklessly about everyone and anyone. The UFC recently put Conor McGregor and
defeated former champion Ronda Rousey on the cover of their video game UFC 16.
Conner even recently challenged the retired greatest of all time boxer Floyd
Mayweather to fight him out of a pure ego trip.
To his defense, his knowledge of how the media works aids him in gaining
their coverage and grants him a significantly higher paycheck.
The
problem again is not that Conor McGregor lost and is still being paid more than
his Mexican-American counterpart in UFC:196, it is the fact that the media is
responsible for the creation of heroes and villains in sports. Quite often they choose a white person to
represent the hero and jump on any negative point they can to completely
tarnish a person of color’s public image despite their past accomplishments. Floyd Mayweather, no matter how ignorant he is,
has been a huge target by the media in recent times for his trash talking. Conor McGregor, on the other hand, has been
praised for his antics in these press conferences and on social media.
Cam
Newton, quarterback of the losing team in Super Bowl 50, the South Carolina
Panthers, was torn apart by the media simply for walking out on a press
conference following a defeat in the nation’s most watched sports game of the
year. [4] I came across an article titled, “Cam Newton:
A Disgrace to the NFL! Peyton Manning: A Hero for the Ages!”[5] which a primary example of
people not allowing sports figures of color to be human and make mistakes
without completely trashing their public image.
Overall
the media has been historically responsible for how the public views people in
the spotlight. These sports stars are
heroes to many people, and the media has created or destroyed the images of our
idols based upon race. People of color
are more likely to be judged and trashed in American media than white people
even today.
Bibliography
"Former NFL Players Rip Cam Newton For Postgame Press Conference (Video)."NESNcom. 2016. Web. 07 Mar. 2016.
"Conor McGregor Isn't a Great UFC Fighter and Never Has Been." For The Win. 2016. Web. 07 Mar. 2016.
"Cam Newton: A Disgrace to the NFL! Peyton Manning: A Hero for the Ages! Video!" Cam Newton: A Disgrace to the NFL! Peyton Manning: A Hero for the Ages! Video! Web. 07 Mar. 2016.
"Jon Jones: I Totally Had a Drug Problem." FOX Sports. Web. 07 Mar. 2016.
"UFC’s Jon Jones: Why I Fled Crash with Pregnant Woman." New York Post. 2015. Web. 07 Mar. 2016.
[1]
http://www.foxsports.com/ufc/story/jon-jones-i-totally-had-a-drug-problem-112715
[2]
http://nypost.com/2015/11/25/ufcs-jon-jones-why-i-fled-crash-with-pregnant-woman/
[3]
http://ftw.usatoday.com/2016/03/ufc-196-conor-mcgregor-hype-trash-talk-nate-diaz
[4]
http://nesn.com/2016/02/former-nfl-players-rip-cam-newton-for-postgame-press-conference-video/
[5]
http://thesop.org/story/20160208/cam-newton-a-disgrace-to-the-nfl-peyton-manning-a-hero-for-the-ages-video.html
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