God, Sports, and Racism

I have been considering a few topics to write about for this next entry in my great blog experiment. Thanks to Monday Night Football, the topic was kind of chosen for me.

After watching some football games this weekend, I was struck by the prevalence of God in sports. Probably second only to the now cliche "Hi Mom" is the ritual of thanking God after scoring a touchdown. We see inter-team prayers after a game. We see it when someone is injured severely, like when they are paralyzed and taken off the field on a cart. We see people praying for that last minute, game-winning field goal.

God isn't limited to football, either. Sammy Sosa and others give praise for home runs and pray for luck in batting. They even sing God Bless America during the seventh inning stretch.

It seems bizarre that at a professional level we say it is okay for athletes to invoke their Creator, but at the high school level it is taboo to open with a prayer. Isn't a prayer that nobody gets injured, for principles of fair play and sportsmanship, more important than a prayer to hit a home run or score a touchdown? Separation of church and state, a topic I'll be visiting frequently, is entirely too ubiquitous in its application. Call me a traitor, but I'd much rather sit through an opening prayer than to listen to the National Anthem one more time. (The only thing worse, in my opinion, than the national anthem, is the pledge of allegiance, whether God is in it or not.) If people are afraid of prayer at school advocating a state religion, then invite interfaith organizations to arrange the devotional aspect of sports events. That way a spectrum of faiths will be represented, and nobody will be favored. Of course then the atheists will complain that their children are being polluted by references to God. Separation of church and state doesn't require elimination of church from state, no matter what non-theists would have you believe.

The other sports-related thing of interest, and what inspired me to write on this topic, was the recent flap over the steamy intro to Monday Night Football, a blatant advertisement for one of the most disgusting ideas for a show I've heard of. It was an ad for Desperate Housewives. The thing that struck me was a line in Gail Shister's column for the Philadelphia Inquirer. She said:

Also, some objected to the racially stereotyped overtones of a white woman
seducing a powerful black man.

You can find the complete article at http://www.philly.com/mld/philly/entertainment/columnists/gail_shister/

This got me wondering what wouldn't have been a racial stereotype. Black woman, white man? Black woman, black man? White woman, white man? Is it the inter-racial aspect that automatically conjures up the image of stereotypes? Was it the "powerful" part? What if she was seducing Erkel? What if the powerful black man was seducing her? Would that be better? What if they were playing cards instead of insinuating sex? What if it was inferred that they were a married couple? Would that have been better or worse?

Basically, I think it points out the unquestioned aspect racism in this country. We have a racial history that is largely unacknowledged. We have issues that are taboo. Cornel West, in Race Matters, points out the mystique of fear around African American sensuality and sexuality.

Whoever thought up this whole ploy should be on a reality show called Desperate Advertisers which shows the lame things people think of to stick advertising in places it shouldn't be, to use sex to sell anything, and to demean themselves beyond any semblance of respect.

Ironically, the only reason they want you to watch Desperate Housewives is so that you'll be subjected to the advertising they broadcast during it. The show itself, like all others, is merely a delivery device for commercials, like candy-covered dog food.

Maybe someday soon there will be a TiVo with my name on it.