Stereotypes

I was watching The Sports Reporters this morning. It's a bit of a misnomer. Perhaps they should be the Sports Pundits. Four guys talk about sports moderated by John Saunders.

I've seen Saunders for years now. He appears to be African American, and if we take the term "American" rather liberally, than he still is. Indeed, Saunders is from Canada. And so his sports desires (many sports reporters were once kids that envisioned being professional athletes when the discovered either they had a greater talent to write, or that injury prevented them from continuing on a promising career) were decided Canadian. In particular, in recalling the hockey event held outside, with snow falling in the stadium, he recalled, as a youth, he and his brother going out on an ice rink, and winning the Stanley Cup.

My admittedly biased mindset generally thinks African American athletes want to either play basketball or football or on the outside fringe, maybe, baseball. But indeed, a few want to be race car drivers, or golfers, or tennis players. Heck, even lily white sports like figure skating or swimming.

Many stereotypes have more than a grain of truth. Interview 1000 African Americans and the numbers would likely bear the biases I have. But it occasionally makes you forget that not everyone is American, and that not every person is inspired by the same sport.