She talked of the fallacy behind the fact, ”There’s still a lot of resistance in terms of who should be listening to what genre of music based on their gender and their ethnicity,”

Then she goes on to comment:

“In black communities, music is so integral in terms of a storytelling mechanism. Back in the blues era, African-American women were actually able to talk about their hardships and sorrows through music, and be very personal. [The same is true of] hip-hop because it’s also obviously a black-centric music form. When I was in my 20s and hip-hop was coming out, a lot of black people felt that if you listened to hip-hop, that means that you’re really black, that you’re proud of yourself, that you know who you are. So when black people listen to ‘white-centric’ music — which is rock ‘n’ roll, country, heavy metal, punk, hardcore — it’s seen that they are somehow not proud of who they are.”

What strikes me as a white person is that I do not have this problematic expectation.  I am not expected to listen to music rooted in white culture and then told that I lack pride in my white culture if I listen to music from other traditions.  My listening to the blues does not lead people to say I lack authentic whiteness.  My interest in world music aligns me with a certain group of hip NPR listening aficionados, rather than labeling me a traitor to my roots.

Were I a white person who had a clear connection to the European countries of my heritage,  I might be expected to appreciate the music of that country’s past.  However, if I listened to other music, I do not think I would be thought of lacking pride in that heritage.

A side note, what would the music of white culture be?  Country? Classical? Gregorian chants?

I do not get this routine from the Philadelphia Mummers parade.  It seems to involve some people dressed as Native Americans and some as East Indians, a call center, a tepee and some commentary about outsourcing.  It could, perhaps, be taken as a comedic statement.  It could be taken as an appropriation cultures and a way to teach the kids involved stereotypes.  Then again, comedy relies a lot on stereotypes.

Golden Flashes baseball advanced to the College World Series, [men's] golf finished tied for fifth in the nation, wrestling was ranked at No. 13 in the nation, men’s basketball topped 20 wins for the 13th time in the last 14 seasons, and the football team is going to a bowl game for the first time in 40 years.

Those teams not only carried the Kent State brand into the national spotlight, but they helped athletic director Joel Nielsen generate over $3.5-million in fundraising for Kent football and baseball alone, most of it over the past 12 months. Fundraising for the other programs remains high as well.

As I read this piece, I wondered about women’s sports as all the above sports involve male athletes. The article did mention both the men’s and women’s golf teams flying around the country to compete, and it did note the renovation of the men’s and women’s basketball offices.  However, the focus of the piece was on football, wrestling, and baseball, sports with no female counterparts that would naturally share the wealth.  Thus, I wonder how the donations the successful men’s sports garner are being distributed so as to fulfill the demands of Title IX.   Nielsen talks of using fundraising to enhance the football program:

“When we arrived, we talked a lot about what it would take to have football success,” Nielsen said. “One of the things we looked at was that we were poorly resourced in football, primarily with our people. President (Lester) Lefton gave us the green light to go out there and talk to football donors, talk to people who wanted to see football be successful. We had about 20 people step up that first year, some significantly. That allowed us to pay some competitive salaries.

I wonder how the school has gone about maintaining equity with women’s sports.  I jokingly wonder if the solution might be found in today’s piece on April Goss a walk-on kicker for the football team.  If she is going to the bowl game and dresses with the rest of the team, that could make it so the football team is no longer a men’s sport but a co-ed sport. But I do not think that really works for Title IX.

She talks of the way humans project gender expectations onto animals.  She looks back at a study of museum dioramas and the goes on to write:

The latest case is a Geico commercial….if you know anything about lions, you know that it’s unlikely that “Karl” is doing the hunting.  Among lions, it is the females who specialize in hunting (and they usually do so in groups, for what it’s worth).

The commercial certainly coincides nicely with what many of us believe to be true about the natural role of human men, but it doesn’t reflect the reality of lion life at all.

Perhaps the people at Geico thought that a female huntress would confuse or distract the reader from their joke.  Or perhaps everyone involved in the project didn’t know this fact about lions; their gender ideology would have masked their ignorance, such that it never occurred to them to look it up.  Either way, contemporary ideas about gender shaped this “diorama” and it potentially reinforces similar beliefs among viewers.

With all the football I watch and all the commercials through which I sit, I should have picked up on this commercial and its projection of gender.  My only excuse is that my background is much more literary and historical than scientific, or perhaps too much football dulls one’s awareness.

Now why is the spokes-gecko male?

1. Environmentalist:  You have blue paint on your forehead just like the blue sky and blue seas which we must work hard to preserve.
2. Political (Democrat): You have blue paint on your forehead.  That is a wonderful color; there are things called blue states and the more there are the better.
3. Political (Republican): You have blue paint on your forehead.  That is a horrible color; there are things called blue states and the fewer there are the better.
4. Patriotic: You have blue paint on your forehead, one of the three colors in the American flag.
5. Celebrity Aware: You have blue paint on your forehead.  Did you know there is a child named Blue Ivy?
6. Multicultural: You have blue point on the forehead.  That paint reminds me of Vishnu an important figure in Indian culture who is often blue in pictures.

I went with the last one, probably because we are getting ready to teach The Ramayana.

Vishnu in the human form of Rama in the Ramayana

(A side note, I had not read about the black Germans who were the result of relationships between French colonial soldiers occupying the Rhineland and German women, and now I feel inspired to look into that facet of history.)

I am reminded of conversations with educators of color who are mid level administrators and find themselves often called by search consultants to be candidates for division head or headmaster positions.  They have to suss out whether they are being called to make the pool diverse or if they are being called because they have a legitimate shot at the job.  I heard many talk of disappointment when they realized they were not a serious candidate, but had thought they were and had invested time and emotional energy in the search process.

That is one part of white privilege I and the white potential hires in the NFL benefit from.  We know that if we are invited to interview for a job, we are not being invited just because a person of our race is needed to diversify the pool.

Chip Kelly, supposedly the top candidate to coach the Browns (from U. Oregon website)

The article made me think about the recent work my students did in reading about the role of race in Cleveland history. They looked into the way the densely populated East Side was the only area open to black migrants coming to Cleveland as part of the Great Migration, while the West Side (a larger area geographically) was reserved for whites.  This split was affirmed through education policy that engaged in various strategies to continue to provide a mostly separate educational facilities.

The legal (and illegal) underpinnings of this split are gone.  However, when I look at today’s news and the current make up of City Council, I can not help but note how history continues to influence politics and representation today.  If there had been no past restrictions as to where migrants of different races could live, what would the City Council look like today?  It actually might look the same depending on the voters and the candidates, but there would certainly be different electoral dynamics.

The article focuses on the University of Massachusetts that moved up this last year, a move that involved playing games far from campus at Gillette Stadium, games that attracted few fans.  The idea may be that this move elevates UMass to the same level as already Division I UConn in New England.

A Nearly Empty Gillette Stadium hosts a UMass game (Erik Jacob, New York Times)

I wonder about the Title IX implications of all this investment, something the Times article does not mention.  The costs of the equipment, coaches, and scholarships involved are immense, and if they are all going to a men’s sport, does that not raise equality issues?  For UMass if they are getting a big stadium for the men’s sport and busing fans there, should not funds be available for a sweet softball venue on campus or the rental of Fenway Park and the provision of buses?  On a more realistic level, if a football team has a coach for every position (running back, quarterback, linebacker, etc.) as well as coordinators and quality control staff, then should not the field hockey team have a similar roster of position specific coaches?

I know that football is unique in that it is the sport an institution can use to show that it is a big time school, and no women’s sport has that impact.  So, there cannot be a way to get equal attention and hype, but at least the move up can be a chance to leverage funding.