After looking at the title of the poem “Ex-Basketball Player,” I assume it is about a former basketball player and his life now. After I read the poem, I find out that John Updike, the author, starts the first paragraph by describing a town. He tells about the trolley tracks and some of the stores, including a plaza and a garage. Then, the author goes on to introduce a character in the poem, Flick Webb, who helps in the garage in town. In the second paragraph, the author explains that Webb used to play for the town’s high school team, the Wizards. The author says, while scoring three hundred and ninety points, Webb was the best on the team. In the third paragraph, it tells how Webb now works in the garage shop. Sometimes he dribbles an inner tube around, but everyone remembers his past glory days on the court. As the poem comes to an end, bringing up the last paragraph, the author tells how Flicker Webb now spends his days. He hangs out at a luncheonette, plays pinball, and smokes thin cigars. Throughout this poem, there are connotations being used, an attitude portrayed, and a shift that occurs in the story being told.…
First, I would change is for Walter not to grow up in segregated times. During this portion of his life, the blacks lived on one side of the town and the whites lived on another side of the town. I would make him grow up in a non-segregated time.…
According to the article “The Real Story of Baseball’s Integration that you won’t see in 42,” by Peter Preier, Martin Luther King said that Jackie made his job easier for him since Jackie was a catalyst for Martin Luther King. He set the stage not just for future black athletes but for other political activists. Jackie and his wife showed a lot of civil disobedience which Martin Luther King believed in. Furthermore, Jackie is only one man and he cant do all the changes and that it requires a lot of effort from groups of people to make a change. However, he did break the color barrier to have more black players and coaches on teams and that raw talent and hard work should be acknowledged instead of color. Unfortunately today, baseball isn’t…
What’s the first thing that comes to your head when you hear that someone took a knee while the National Anthem? Would you say, kneeling while the National Anthem is being played as “disrespectful?”, or “unpatriotic?” On August 26, 2016, Colin Kaepernick took a knee before a football game. In the article “Colin Kaepernick and the Question of Who Gets to Be Called a ‘Patriot’ ” written by Wesley Morris, Wesley Morris feels like Colin Kaepernick is showing a certain type of patriotism that’s not accepted in modern day society.…
A twenty year old college student, Allison*, whom describers herself as a “Black, but not really Black” woman, met with me to discuss what she is experiencing in today’s society (name has been changed). She brought up the recent kneeling of athletes during the national anthem, specifically during the NFL games. “It’s really frustrating that so many people just don’t get what it’s all about,” she began. “It’s not about the flag, the anthem or the troops. I just wish people could see the bigger picture of this entire thing.”…
“Ex-Basketball Player,” by John Updike is the poem that struck me this week. It is about a man who once had great potential but never followed through with it. Flick Webb is the focus of this poem; he was a basketball star in high school quite some time ago, but nowadays he merely pumps gas at a local station.…
Nia Allen is a bright and bubbly day student from right here in Pennsylvania. She started at Linden Hall as an eighth grader. Since then Nia worked hard in her classes during all five years that she has been here. While the schoolwork took up a large part of her time, Nia also spent a lot of hours outside of school training in competitive gymnastics and volunteering for the Special Olympics. As an athletic person, Nia also joined the Warwick Track & Field team for her final year.…
As the United States evolved, the amendment effected arenas and situations where it never could’ve anticipated. One of the areas includes the First Amendment rights to free speech which is entering into sports. First Amendment rights and sports are becoming increasingly in conflict and are being brought into question. The Actions of NFL quarterback Colin Kaepernick refusal to stand during the Star Spangled Banner demonstrates his interpretation of the 1st amendment. His deterrence to participate was because, the anthem itself has an unexpected connection to slavery. His exposition shows that Sporting events directly affect law enforcement and first amendment rights validating that no one has the right to provoke you from simply expressing your opinion when protesting at a sporting event.…
In The Five Dysfunctions of a Team, Patrick Lencioni uses his power of organizational storytelling through a fable in order to model the complicated world of teams. In this book, Lencioni tells a story about the leadership crisis of critical decision making, Kathryn Peterson, the new CEO of Decision Tech, goes through in the rebuilding of a team in shambles. Lencioni describes the five dysfunctions of a team hindering them from reaching its full potential of success. He incorporates a simple, yet powerful triangular model divided up into five parts with the “Absence of trust” being the foundational base of the model and “Inattention to result” being at the high peak of the model. This book will illustrate how to overcome the lack of trust among…
“I'm not concerned with your liking or disliking me... All I ask is that you respect me as a human being”.This quote explains that Jackie Robinson worked for respect and wasn’t concerned with his popularity. Jackie Robinson impacted the citizens of the United States because broke the color barrier, changing the game of baseball, and how people thought of black people.…
Conflict theories attempt to examine economic exploitation and capitalist expansion as well as identify racism, sexism, and nationalism which twist the meaning and purpose of sport. Cultural theory is also a useful tool when considering the sociological impact involving Kaepernick’s protest and kneeling during the national anthem. Coakley explains how people in positions of power represent their own personal interests by upholding certain structures and practices, in this case standing with hand over heart for the Star Spangled Banner (Coakley, 2017, p. 526). When an individual or group of people challenge the interests of those in power positions, they are portrayed in a negative or harmful manner, in this particular case – unpatriotic. Many dislike using a conflict theory when studying sport because it addresses issues which may be difficult to discuss, such as social issues of racial inequality and police brutality.…
On September 7, 2016, in Montgomery, West Virginia three athletes on the West Virginia University of Technology’s volleyball team mimicked professional athlete Colin Kaepernick and knelt during the national anthem. These girls, in an attempt to show their beliefs, crossed the boundary between standing for what they believed in and disrespecting the country in which they live. It is not only disrespectful to the country but also discourteous to the brave men and women who served our country. Many people die every day to preserve the rights given to us by this great nation, but we take for granted the rights that we have been given because most do not know what it is like to live without these rights. There are many other examples of other athletes disrespecting the Anthem. Professional athletes need to use their resources to educate American citizens about the equalities of life, not by disgracing the flag and the anthem which represent unity. This accomplishes the opposite of what they are trying to do. Instead of all life mattering they are perpetuating a racial division within our…
To start off, the Negro National Anthem during the graduation symbolizes unity exhibiting how the graduating class stands as one even through Donleavy’s harsh words. Specifically, for graduation Henry, class valedictorian, chooses to lead Marguerite Johnson and her class through the song “called the Negro national anthem. All done in the same position and most often standing on the same foot” (3) The Negro National Anthem represents unity and pride in the African American culture. African Americans remain all in the same boat towards freedom and success as well as showing pride and confidence towards their race. As well as this, personification shows how even after feeling defeated, African Americans [are] on top again, “[they] have survived. The depths [have] been icy dark, but now a bright sun [speaks] to [their] souls” (5). Even after feeling pounded to the ground, together African Americans feel a sense of pride in their race. A void of dark sadness remains replaced with immense jubilation. All in all, both symbols and figurative language enhance acts of unity and…
In the novel “Football Factory” written by John King, we follow a group of Chelsea hooligans in the present England. I think of this novel as an extremely realistic and kind of frightening novel. Together, we follow the main character’s life as a football hooligan. The life of the main character is filled with violence, alcohol and sex, in which his lovely friends accompany him. Through the novel we are bound to listen to his friends’ nasty thoughts and actions. At some point in the novel the main character and the boys watches the film Clockwork Orange, as they have done so many times before. The Clockwork Orange is basically just a couple of guys giving beatings and rapes women for the fun of it. This makes me think of…
Maybe I am the idiot here but someone explain to me what the National Anthem has to do with racial injustice. Some people have said that they aren't going to stand for a flag of a country that oppresses black people. Ok you know what that actually makes some sense to me. Here's my rebuttal.....is this country free? Can you do whatever you want (as long as it is within the scope of the law)? Can you vote? Can you drive a car? Can you walk outside wearing whatever you want? Do you have the right to speak? Where is the oppression? Racism exists and I am not denying that, but it exists on both sides. People are always going to hate other people. We live in a real world people not fantasy land. That shit is what it is, and it will never change. This is why we have Democrats and Republicans, Christians and Atheists, Pro Life and Pro Choice. People are always going to disagree but that's what's great about this country......WE CAN!!!! What is so unjust about paying someone 6 million dollars a year to go throw some footballs? You talk about using your platform.... how about using your platform to make some actual change you believe in. Go be a cop or a politician or a soldier and fight for change. You kneeling for the flag then going home and sitting on your $20,000 couch isn't a solution. Its creating a bigger problem. Don't just talk about the changes; go out…