Read "Delusions of Grandeur."
Delusions of Grandeur
Summarize this article. How does Gates support his points? What do you make of his argument?
This article was written in 1991. Do you think Gates's argument is still relevant today? Why or why not?
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
6 comments:
Gates supports his points by using the statistics to prove his points. I think his argument would still be relevant today. We live in a world where stereotypes are still very existent and people are just ignorant. People feel just because they see something that is constant in a race or culture, it justifies the whole race or culture and that the stereotype must be true. People don’t give stereotypes the benefit of the doubt and if they did they would be surprised about how much they can learn form each other.
Like flora said, gates proves his points by using statistics of how there are very little african american athletes compared to the greater number of african american doctors, lawyers and dentists. It is very easy for kids to assume that if they are good in a sport, they are going professional but like gates said, becoming a professional is like winning the lottery, very hard. As for athletes who pass classes due to their athletic ablitity, i know a kid named lance stephens who is an amazing basketball player. We both went to seth low junoir high school and no matter how good he was at basketball, he could not pass a class. He failed i think 4 or 5 out of 7 classes in the 8th grade. He ended up passing all of them with a little pull from the gym teachers. In my book, this kid is really lucky
In the article Gates uses statistics to make a point that no matter how successful African Americans are that there is still this idea that that blacks will only be good at Sports. He clearly proves in his statistics that Blacks are dominating in the careers of lawyers, doctors, government positions, yet young kids even adults believe that in order for African Americans to succeed their best bet is to dribble a play or catch a football. In in argument he explains that schools aren't helping to get rid of that stigma either esp when he states that at the University of North Carolina they used African Americans playing sports to depict that part of the student body. and even though its very sad i agree with Gates, because even though the article was written in 1991 i feel that changes haven't changed that much over the past seventeen years. Because i still know people, African American men who are using Sports as their way to get out of their environment and make something out of themselves. They believe that basketball or whatever sport it may be is their token out and they don't give themselves enough credit in thinking that they could be so much more. And the reason for this is because their too busy blaming society and society is part to blame. Because instead of giving these young kids the boost in education we go along with them in cheering on the glorious lives that these athletes lead, making it seem like with the money all the problems go away. I feel like as a society we are giving kids the reason to believe that if you can play a sport and put all your effort into into you can be someone "Great" instead of telling kids that if you put all that energy in education you can be even greater.
this article speaks of the mindsets of african americans that the only way to "make it" is by becoming an athlete. i think this stems from how we as a society put athletes on a pedestal and see that as the ultimate profession. no one sits around on a bar talking about how many lives an african american doctor saved, or how many kids an african american teacher helped give direction to. even though gates showed the statistics that there are more african american proffessionals then athletes, the lives of athletes are more glorious. you also have all these sports channels (espn), and sponsors(nike), and agents that are getting to kids younger and younger with not necessarily their best well being in mind. we are to star struck as a society and to often we forget or choose to ignore people and even professions that are truly important.
This article and the argument presented by Gates is still relevant to today. African Americans, mostly males, still believe that athletics are the only way that they can achieve "success." They are taught, by stereotypical examples, that education is second to playing sports. Doing well academically is not a priority if one can excel in a sport. Gates' statistics, however, show that there are so few black that actually achieve success through sports. There are so much more black professionals than black atheletes. Gates attributes this "sports-over-education" mentality to the lack of quality education being recieved by black youth. They are not being educated properly in school because they are athletes and while this is helping the school achieve higher atheltic stats, it is really hurting the student in the long run. It then falls on the blacks that are successful, in any way, to promote education and its benefits.
I think that Gates' article is still relevant today. There are so many black STUDENTS that are striving to be athletes. They are, however, not paying enough attention to their school work and are also not recieving enough help with their school work. These blacks have no dreams of becoming a doctor or a lawyer. They do not know the realities of being a black athlete. It is a short lived "job" that only few great individulals get to have.
Gates is trying to show that the odds of an African American becoming a successful athlete are extremely low compared to their chances of being a successful doctor, lawyer, politician, etc. Gates brings a bunch of different statistics to show this. However, he explains that despite the facts, many young African Americans focus on sports instead of education because they think that's their best chance at success. I think this is still extremely relevant today. Since people see the athletes and see the fame, they want so much to be like them. They don't see all the doctors and lawyers that are also successful because they're not famous so they don't realize how successful they can be and how they could really do something great with their lives, because they don't see those people around them. The people they see who become their role models, are the athletes, so even though so few actually become successful as an athlete, that's all they see as an option and they focus all of their energy on trying to become like those athletes that they look up to.
Post a Comment