Is "athleticism" thinly veiled racism?

I don't see the word athleticism as bordering on racist at all. One of the few actually good things we as a society have done in the last 25 years, in my opinion, is break down stereotypes, notably in the sports field. We've seen and continue to see "smart" and "scrappy" kids of all ilks and "athletic" kids, too.

 

I can't think of a single black athlete I've ever heard described as scrappy, hard-working or a "gym rat."

I can't think of a white athlete I've heard described as possessing "God-given talent" or "raw athleticism."

 

Maybe Joakim Noah?

 

Ever hear of Kiki Vandeweghe? I recall TV interviews during which several of his African-American teammates gushed over his athletic ability.

"He plays like one of the brothers," they said with pride.

No one questioned the appropriate nature of those comments.

As for the other example, I'll give you Bob Sanders of the Colts/Bolts. When he was at Iowa Ferentz and others routinely talked about how his hard work, smarts, tenacity allowed him to overcome his lack of athleticism.

 

Yep

You can find the exceptions to the norm, but this pretty much holds true in the writing and talking about athletes.

 

Shane Battier

But you do have a point. It's kind of like how good white players are always compared to former good white players and the same can be said for comparisons of black players. Adam Morrison is the next Larry Bird, etc.

I think Idaho has a good point when he says that there can be a racial context to the discussion without it being overtly racist. Still, as writers, I think it's important we don't get lazy when making comparisons or discriptions and revert to the same tired stereotypes.

 

From trailblazers.com a month ago:

"The ex-UCLA All-American, whose father had been a star with the New York Knicks in the 1940s-'50s and whose mother was a former Miss America, got to be a pure shooter the hard way: He earned it during countless hours as a gym rat, taking about 500 to 1,000 jump shots a day, year-round, since puberty."

 

No, but in general, athletes are considered -- shall we say -- not fixated on getting a perfect ACT score.

 

Like other's have said, it kind of depends on where you are. I grew up in a rural area where 99 percent of the time our high school basketball and football games where a bunch of white kids vs. another bunch of white kids. People still used terms such as athleticism, scrappy, gym rat, God-given-talent. My junior year we had a decent basketball team and people talked about our athleticism because our starting lineup had the state high jump champion, state discus champion, a guy who qualified for the state meet in the long jump and two state medalists in middle distance races. We were all white and shorter than 6-2, but in the context of our area we were bubbling with athleticism.

There are definitely plenty of people that label athletes based on their skin color though.

 

It's not necessarily racist, but it's a code word. People use because it's easy, because they don't know better, because they are trying to say something without saying it.

 

Isms, in my opinion, are not good. A person should not believe in an ism; he should believe in himself. I quote John Lennon: "I don't believe in Beatles; I just believe in me." A good point there. Of course, he was the Walrus. I could be the Walrus -- I'd still have to bum rides off of people.

Ace's first post has a section that says it all for me: If you say football player George Smith has great athleticism, what does that mean? If he's fast, quick, strong, whatever, describe that.

Exactly. There isn't necessarily a need to think of whether it's code for anyone (although I know it can be). Bottom line: It's taking the easy way out as a writer, as Ace points out in the post just above this one. Be descriptive. Be illustrative. Show. Athleticism is a dead word. Bring the description to life, and if a person gives you a quote with athleticsm in it, dig deeper. Get description. Get the person you're quoting to help you enable the reader to see it. If that doesn't happen, the person isn't a good quote. Be a better writer. And if you can't about the person in question, maybe he or she isn't all that "athletic" compared to most everybody else.

 

If you refer to a player as athletic, OK, fine. You are describing an individual. Could use better adjectives, but whatever.

When you describe a team as athletic, you are saying they are mostly black.