Deion Sanders: (Synopsis) - White guys CAN run!
Interesting story in the vein of the Good White Guy Basketball Player theme: "Not Just a Shooter"...
Troy Apke is turning heads at the combine, with a 4.35 40-yard Dash (along with a 41 inch vertical).
Deion Sanders was impressed, but couldn't tell you exactly WHY he was so impressed:
“Oh man, he can run,” Sanders said, stopping the conversation he was having with NFL Network analysts Mike Mayock and Rich Eisen. “Why are you surprised Deion?” Mayock joked. “You know why I’m surprised. I can’t say it on TV. But he can run run,” Sanders said. Yes, that’s (presumably) a joke about Apke being white and running fast. “You don’t see that much. Let’s call it what it is,” Sanders said.
Along with some of the comments made yesterday about the guy from UCF with one hand, the commentary by some of these talking heads makes me shake my head.
LOL Outrage about everthing!
Context is dead these days, the thing is if you hear the actual video/audio cut, and not reading the transcription of uttered speech, there's literally ZERO malice in his statements.
To simply state something is rare or common, no matter who it implicates or generalizes to, is not, IN ITSELF, a "bigoted" or "prejudice" or "racist" or "sexist", etc. statement to make.
But those types of stories sell themselves, so you don't need to pay journalists/writers/researchers to write anything useful today to sell media, controversy sells the best, manufactured or not.
But to be honest, Sanders is just keeping it real here
One is more socially acceptable than the other, but it is the same thing.
One is "White people are comparitively slower."
The other is "Black people are comparitively dumber."
Well-spoken isn't exactly the same as intelligent.
Dialect is as much a function of cultural origin as mental ability.
In this case, the presumed dialect is actually more Scottish than African.
Shouldn't be. They're both disparaging, though I'm not at all offended by what Deion said.
when people argue that "cracker" and "the N word" are the same thing
"not at all offended"
And that's the difference. You and me most of the board won't be harmed by a false perception that white guys can't run. We laugh it off, we don't care because it doesn't hurt us. A prevailing perception that african americans don't speak well has to be combated b/c it can materially affect lives - lost opportunities at school, work, etc.
Is it a bit unfair to call out one and not the other? In a vacuum, maybe. But we're walking around in a world where most of the people look like us, and don't have a history of harming us. If you step into the other shoes it's pretty easy to be OK with laughing one off and not the other.
This.
Being stereotypically slow at running doesn't limit your job prospects. Being stereotypically dumb has been shown to systematically do exactly that.
I'm sure every single sport considers speed in their evaluation of prospects. Sport is a business, a very well paying business as well. Do you not think most talent evaluators assume white kids are too slow for RB and DB positions? It's farily well known those same talent evaluators used to assume blacks couldn't cut it at QB for the opposite reason.
Both stereotypes are harmful to those who are in professions that value that which is being stereotyped.
and although ~70% of NFL players are black, white players hold a majority in 5/12 positions.
Quarterback, the highest-paid postition, favors white players 81-18. Tackle, the next highest, favors blacks by a 55-42 margin.
I'm not sure where you're getting your numbers. White players hold a majority in 3 positions, QB, C, and TE (this one is pretty tight at 55/45). Center is the second lowest paid position thats regularly on the field (RT is lowest).
Quarterback is definitely the highest paid position and there are far more white quarterbacks. From there, in descending order, WR, DT, DE, LB, CB. All of those positions have more black players at around am 88/12 ratio. LT is next, with a pretty narrow ratio.
Additionally there are around 100 QBs in the league at any time. Most of the positions I listed as being next highest in salary have between 200 and 300.
Yes, they consider speed, but they're not making assumptions about it. They actually test it.
the point you're trying to make in that one isn't the same as the other but your reasoning is off a bit I think. Particularly when you say we walk around in a world where most of us are white. Are you sure about that? I mean, the biggest nation from a population perspective iby a very wide marjin s China and they aren't white. I wouldn't be surprised if collectively the minorities almost outnumber the white population in many parts of the USA and Canada. My point is I don't think that particular aspect of your reasoning is accurate.
If you said most of the power in the world is controlled by white people I'd agree with that but I'm not sure we make up the majority of the worlds population.
It is just super fun not to get outraged about what Deion Sanders says. It is fun to not get worked up, not to compare stuff, not Fox/MSNBC everything. Not giving a @#$% is fantastic.
What if a black athlete scored really high on the Wonderlic and a white reporter made the comment "black guys can read." It would be all over the national news.
The differnce here is, Sanders is part of the protected class.
Snowflake
EDIT: Comment I replied to got caved. I hope that gets fixed with the new site, so it doesn't look like we're replying to the wrong people.
I for one hope there are more black people who are well spoken than white people who can run a 4.35 forty. LOL. My god people lighten the fuck up. Deion was surprised a white guy could run that fast. So what!! There are not that many people who can run that fast. In a way he is showing respect to apke by acknowledging him. Why are people always trying to make stuff into more than it is. If deion was standing next to me and said I didn't realize white people could run that fast. It would just be funny to me and nothing more. I don't really care for Deion Sanders but this is way past over sensitive. He meant no harm and Deion is not evil. LOL.
His comments don't bother me. Deion knows fast.
Fast is fast in any color!
That was part of the problem with his comments.
Deion was surprised that "fast is fast in any color".
you missed the point.
Anyone running a 4.3 is worth noting. Noting his race? Not so much.
Right. It's the equivolent of expressing suprise that a black QB scored well on a wonderlic test.
White people can run fast and black people are smart. Stop buying into stereotypes.
It's like the "throws like a girl" phrase. PIsses me off everytime I hear it.
It's not just Deon. Mike Mayock apparently has no filter either.
BTW I don't really care that Deon said what he did. If anything it problably helps break the sterotype (white guys are slow) in the first place.
The fact that its surprising that one white guy runs a 4.35 is the exception to the rule, proving why the stereotype exists.
It exists for a reason, a real world experience reason. And is correct. I'll stop there.
For example, women didn’t have the “constitution” to be lawyers so they weren’t admitted to law schools, or college before then. Now they are in the majority and in my legal career (over 27 years) this stereotype has been debunked. When Ruth Bader Ginsberg graduated from an elite school, she was offered work only as a legal secretary.
African Americans weren’t “smart enough” to be president, ahem, Obama, although how many were denied academic/professional advancement bc of race so the pool of available candidates was limited?
LGBTQ aren’t interested in marriage.... and so on.
The social construct validates the stereotype not genetics.
Yeah, but we are just talking about pure speed.
Its blindingly obvious to anyone with a functioning brain that the pool of fast black people greatly outweighs the pool of fast white people. Does this probably cause a few white guys to slip through the athletic cracks because of stereotypes? Sure. But overall, the stereotype holds true and that is why most CBs, WRs, RBs, etc. are black.
Of course, MGoBlog is not the place for discussion when it comes to other stereotypes that are equally as obvious that people go hard out of the way not to see to the point of detriment to society.
Dammnit. Double-post.
My bad.
According to this comment you made:
"Does this probably cause a few white guys to slip through the athletic cracks because of stereotypes? Sure. But overall, the stereotype holds true and that is why most CBs, WRs, RBs, etc. are black. "
Are you okay with a few black guys (QB's) slipping through the cracks because of stereotypes?
I'm probably being a little unfair, so I'm sorry. But I think you get where I'm coming from.
Stereotypes are inherently unfair.
Obviously, it would be best if everyone were judged as individuals. For the most part, this is what happens.
Stereotypes may be unfair, but that's life. I also believe that there are opportunities out there for players who may be unfairly judged. For instance, Florida wanted Denard to be a non-QB (forget what exactly). He was able to come to Michigan and play QB.
are based on literally hundreds of years of observation. It's just foolish for example, to take the POV that there are not a greater percventage of great athletes among African americans than caucasians. Real world observatiuon shows this quite definitively.
Ah, but what is the root of the stereotype? American blacks generally underperform whites academically from systems designed to oppress one group and uplift another. It was once illegal/deadly for blacks to be literate so lower class black culture came to not value educational achievement.
Bet you didnt' know Nigerians living in America do just as well scholastically as whites? Bet you also didn't know that affirmative action prevents asians from comprising 70% of Harvard's student body. Different cultures. Exclusion caused lower class black culture to evolve separately and distinctly from the mainstream which is why in many ways it is opposite. The wire touches on this theme. I could go on but there've been many omissions throughout history because a narrative needed to be maintained.