Media and Its Role in the Perception of Black Athletes

It has been interesting to watch this LeBron James situation unfold throughout this NBA season and see the amount of vitriol that has been thrown his way for his "decision". However distasteful it was, i don't think it merited half of the amount of hate it garnered. Its almost like hating on LeBron is just like getting skinny jeans now, it's just what the "cool" kids do. While James is getting tarred and feathered like a criminal, Ben "Strong Arm Love" Roethlisburger, who for the 2nd time has been accused of forcing himself upon an unsuspecting and obviously unwilling young woman, barely got any heat, and the media remained quite as a church mouse on his situation. And if holding a franchise hostage was the charge put on James that made him so hated, than no one is more guilty of that than Brett Favre who for the last 4 NFL seasons couldn't decide if he was coming or going only to skip training camp and show up in the locker room two minutes before the first game.

This all goes along with the overly negative news coverage that black athletes get and now in this new age of twitter and facebook and 24/7 news cycle, where people have more of a forum to hang themselves, this will only be exacerbated where any little public mishap or even bad words said between the lines will not fail to make it to Youtube. If LeBron when to the bathroom, the media felt it was necessary we know for how long and if he went number 1 or number 2. You see for most, blacks and thuggery go together like white on rice and the media to an extent fans those flames. Is it a coincidence that with the "decision" ratings for the nba where up 30%? Its the old "car crash" mentality. It's always amazing to see how scared people get when a fight breaks out in the NBA, when for the most part no punches are ever thrown, and all that ever happens is too dudes starring at each other looking to see who can "mean-mug" the hardest. A "Malice in the Palace" incident with Ron Artest going in the stands to retaliate against a fan who threw beer at him happens about as often as Glen Beck has a good idea.

Ironically the Sport with the most thuggish behavior is hockey a predominantly white sport, where the players are actually allowed to fight and constantly look like over grown 7 year olds because they are always missing their front teeth. Not only do the players fight, but those crowds at those venues cheer them on, encouraging them and enjoying the proceedings. Interestingly enough though, people still don't watch hockey. I am in no way saying that black athletes do not do anything wrong, but they also don't always do wrong. The media has a purpose and its in how they frame the argument. they would rather say 1/5 black athletes have a criminal record than tell you that 4/5 don't. This not only creates perception but helps foster it and unfortunately perception is reality....even when it isn't.