Los Angeles Clippers Protest “Racist” Owner Donald Sterling
When people think about the game of basketball many fanatics will likely think about their favorite player or team, yet other will probably think of basketball as a selfish sport. But few people’s first thought will be about has basketball is one of the few sports that most of the ‘Star Players’ are African Americans.
The
opposite is true when it comes to the owners, “only one majority owner is
black” ( Tognotti, “NBA Owners Are Almost Always White, Even Though 80 Percent
Off The League’s Players Aren’t”). There has always been tension between owners
and players, perhaps because of different upbringings or different personal
values, but there has been no bigger disagreement than that of Clippers Owner
Donald Sterling. Sterling says in a recorded argument to a woman he was
involved with not to broadcast in her instagrams that she is walking with black
people (Hanna, CNN).
Following
these statements from Sterling the Clippers basketball players began to form in
protest against their owner. In a playoff game the Clippers gathered at half
court and threw their warm up jerseys onto the ground, the jerseys which were
turned inside out so that the team logo was not visible. This was an act that
stated the players were not going to let this action done by Sterling go
unnoticed.
Many
more forms of protest would follow. Many players, both African-Americans and
non alike would form a “Band of Brothers” by literally wearing black arm bands
and black socks during games to show that they were in support of eliminating
Sterling from that N.B.A. The color of the bands were significant because it
was to show that this wasn’t just wrong because Sterling didn’t like the female
walking with a particular person but a particular race. The wristbands reminded
people that this was a white owner who hated African-Americans. It was
important for the Clippers to be the first team to protest since they were the
ones when Sterling owned. And they would be able to report on a personal level.
The
Clippers had the perfect stage to protest from with millions of people watching
and the media covering the story leading up to the game the Clippers performed
the protest on national TV. During a NBA playoffs game in Los Angeles. Many
believed the team should protest by sitting out the playoffs but the team knew
that it would hurt their fans more than the owner. They knew by wearing the wristbands
and socks along with taking off their warm up uniforms their message would be
seen by millions of people. The sign they were applying was not only standing
up for blacks but for all who have faced racists. They believed a team unified
in a goal was much stronger than a few individuals. And using a thought-out protest
rather than an unorganized and hateful protest would last longer and be focused
more strategically.
WORKS CITED
Tognotti, Chris. "Bustle." Bustle.
N.p., 1 May 2014. Web. 23 Feb. 2016.
<http://www.bustle.com/articles/22864-nba-owners-are-almost-always-white-even-though-80-percent-of-the-leagues-players-arent>.
Hanna, Jason. "Donald Sterling
Purportedly Says Jealousy behind Racist Comments." CNN. Cable News
Network, 11 May 2014. Web. 23 Feb. 2016.
<http://www.cnn.com/2014/05/09/us/nba-donald-sterling-audio-recording/>.
In this rough draft you give us a couple of key things that I can clearly pick out. You give us the rhetorical situation, the contexts behind the events and what seems to be a specific part of the protest that you use for your object. That is the first problem I came across when trying to follow how you wanted to structure your essay. I couldn't be sure what your object of analysis was, even though I leaned towards the black wristbands the players wore to protest the Clipper's owner. You mentioned this a couple of times which is why it seemed the most likely but you also mentioned a couple more things they did, like not wear practice gear and certain socks, which made me a little confused as to what you meant the essay to be about.
ReplyDeleteWhat I liked about you essay is that you gave us a lot of context so at no point was I unable to relate your points back to a starting protest. The amount of time you spent setting the essay up with detail on the larger protest helped bring the topic into focus, but without a central "object" there can be no true further analysis that will suffice in this short essay.
Now overall I think your essay needs a huge rewrite because it was missing a huge component of the assignment, which was to relate the "object" to how ethos, pathos, and logos were used with it. After you've made a clear thesis including the object of choice (it looks to me like its the wristbands but I can't be sure) then you can move on to walking us through how through the media coverage you mentioned, ethos, pathos and logos were influencing the message.
Lastly I think in order to refine how you portray the events of this protest through the object you should also spent more time with your audience and the identity that was connected to this object. You gave me a general idea of who the identity was but I think a little more explanation would help your analysis.
You give alot of Interesting Key points i liked them but whats the whole story u need to go into more detail. with this interesting Subject. I think you should explain a little more and take out the boring stuff. i like this essay but it just needs to be polished
ReplyDeleteI thought this paper was very good in identifying the problem and then going into a bit more detail about it. I think you did a good job of starting out with something, and showing that the problem was sort of bigger than simply one instance.
ReplyDeleteWith all that being said, I feel as though you might've spent a little too much time on the problem, and not enough on the solution or even exactly who the audience was. For me, while I did understand that the underlying theme was racism, I did not get the sense of the exact audience. In the first two paragraphs, you talk at length about the owner. However in your opening, as well as your conclusion, you seem to imply that the audience is much bigger particularly when you write "people" and "many". I also don't feel you incorporated ethos, pathos, and logos well but you can refer to Frank's comment for that. I also was wondering where the paper's main theme or thesis lies. The beginning hinted at it, but I'm not quite sure it was really expanded well.
In terms of revisions, I would say zero in on a thesis and focus on it. For me, I was kind of confused as to what the point of the essay was at times. I would also encourage you to state where the protest used ethos, pathos, and logos and show us how. Finally, I would also maybe structure it differently so you can give yourself enough time to talk about the rhetorical strategies, and not focus too much on the backstory of the protest itself.
Okay, introductory sentences totally lost me. It was a little choppy and had some grammatical errors. Just re-word it a little bit.
ReplyDeleteI was a little confused on what your thesis was, I couldn't find it. Also, what is the specific protest you are analyzing? His direct quote? The protests that followed his quote? Just clarify that a little more
For organizational purposes you may want to consider really quickly laying out who Donald Sterling is and his comment, and then the specific protest that followed. Then lay out a clear thesis, and then you can into more explanation of what happened and the protest/backlash that followed the comment.
And where were your rhetorical strategies? That was what the whole assignment was about and you did not seem to include it anywhere. You will get a bad grade if you do not talk about it and analyze ethos/pathos/logos. The protest is important, but its not the whole paper, as a reader I didn't need a three page explanation on the protest, a paragraph would have sufficed. Also who was the intended audience?
For my revision plan I will work on the following;
ReplyDelete• Break down the Ethos pathos and logos into separate paragraphs, and how each was in work in the protest.
• I will more specifically identify the "Identity" of blacks
• The Audience is sports fans
• Incorporate the wristbands more often and how the wristbands played a big role in the protest.
• The thesis is the armbands, it’s the object within the protest
• Use roredrobe instead of jersey, armbands and socks, how each unfolded and how the sequence was played out.
• Put the thesis first and then lead with background knowledge of the protest
• Using more evidence for my claims and citing those.