culture

Race & Sports 1

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How does Zirin argue that sports have functioned historically to define social categories? Cite examples and explain.

Throughout the history, there have been many different functions of sports, many of which directly related to social categories including class, race and sex.  Sports were outlets to escape the realities of work and war, prepare young men for battle, keep these same gentlemen out of pubs and away from other so-called negative activities and assert oneself in a larger community.  With this, there are many distinctions between good sports and bad sports and which sports minorities and women were allowed to participate.

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A linguistic look at Hey Arnold!

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Arnold is the prototypical 4th grader.  He’s a football-headed, jazz and baseball-loving boy who lives in the city in a multi-racial boarding house with his grandparents, pet pig and numerous others.  Okay, so maybe he’s not the average kid.  The great part of Hey Arnold is the fact that his life is ordinary in the most extraordinary ways possible.  Arnold’s everyday life brings him into contact with people from all different kinds of races, cultures and dialects.  For example, Arnold hangs out with his African American best friend and lives with an Asian American and a man from the former Czechoslovakia.  Language plays an extremely important (albeit sometimes subtle) role in the television show.  While the majority of dialects can be described as Standard English, differing dialects symbolize much more.  In the ten episodes I have assessed for this project, (“6th Grade Girls,” “The Baseball,” “Gerald vs. Jamie O,” “Heat,” “Snow,” “The List,” “The Haunted Train,” “Operation: Ruthless,” “The Vacant Lot” and “Baby Oskar”) there are many varying dialects.  From the superstandard English of nerds and the covert prestige of the working class to African American Vernacular English, code-switching from English to Spanish and Asian, Czech and New York accented English, the show presents many different dialects while also often using them in stereotypical ways.

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Race relations during World War II and the ensuing attacks on African Americans in the Zoot Suit Riots

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The conk haircuts, the wide-brimmed hats adorned with long, flashy feathers, the shoulder pads on the jackets that extended to the knees, the baggy pants that narrowed at the bottom – all of it was a form of expression, a form of protest.  Protest against the discrepancy of fighting for freedom overseas during World War II, while not sharing in the same “white” freedom described in the Preamble to the Constitution of the United States and experienced in their own country.  Zoot suiters used their bodies as a form of expression against the norms of the era.  Their consumerist lifestyles upset many and the media quickly demonized African Americans as criminals.  The rumors and negativity that surrounded the zoot suiters calumniated in the Zoot Suit Riots of Los Angeles, California in which servicemen attacked young minorities (whether they were donning the zoot suit or not).  In the media and popular opinion, the victims were made out to be the perpetrators and the sailors were seen as heroes fighting those who were considered to be distracting from the war effort.  While history has often shown the Zoot Suit Riots in a more or less racially binary way, it was actually a very multiethnic experience.  Here in lies the true significance of the zoot.  While many groups were being oppressed, they also came together to express themselves and fight that very oppression.  Zoot suits were a terrific early example of African Americans using their bodies, clothing and language as a form of civil disobedience during a time in which ethnic youth came together to share in a culture all their own.

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The Power of the Zoot

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Long coats stretched below their fingertips and sometimes to their knees.  Loose fitting pants had narrow cuffs to make them look even baggier.  Shoulder pads made them look stronger.  Conk haircuts, long chains and wide-brimmed hats adorned with flashy feathers gave them swagger.  Everything about the zoot suits of the World War II era made a statement.  They made a statement about the “Double V” campaign – about the oppression of non-white youth even while many of them were fighting for fellow Americans’ freedom overseas.  They made a statement about rebellion – about fighting the status quo of hard work and supporting the war-front labor.  Mainstream America also perceived statements about violence, juvenile delinquency, laziness and utter disregard for the war effort.  While non-white youth tried to make a statement through their style of clothes, music, language and culture, they were also criminalized and made out to be deviant persons because of their leisurely, consumerist lifestyles.  This criminalization culminated after the Sleepy Lagoon Trials in the Zoot Suit Riots (particularly the ones that occurred in Los Angeles).  During this time, racialized groups – including those not even sporting the zoot style – were symbolically castrated by being beaten and de-pants by men in the military.  Ethnic women were sexualized and harassed despite the fact that many riots were spurred by rumors of Mexican and African American rape and violence against white women.  Despite these horrible incidences, non-white youth were made out to be the perpetrators, whereas the actual instigating service men were portrayed as victims.

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