Henry Louis Gates Jr Analysis

For starters, Mandelbaum is very long winded his chapters go on forever. There are certain ideas that he can convey in 5 pages but instead, he chooses to do so in 15 pages. His writing style is so plain that it makes following the chapters that much harder. The information that Mandelbaum presents about in relation to the sports of baseball, football and basketball are good I just wish his chapters were shorter. Information can get lost quickly if there are 80 pages of information to read about one sport. Aside from that, I learned a lot from his chapter about basketball. In chronological order, Mandelbaum writes how the game of basketball shifted from a sport that was primarily white to primarily African American. The first African American player to enter the NBA was in 1950. By the 1980s four out of every five starting players in the league were black. Mandelbaum makes the argument that African Americans were needed in the league or else the game would not have been as developed as it is now. “The game as it developed would have been far poorer in every way without them” (Mandelbaum,248). The same time that the professional game was developing so too was the street game. In chapter 4 I learned about the “winner-take-all” market. According to investopedia.com, this is a concept in which the best performers are able to capture a very large share of the rewards, and the remaining competitors are left with very little.” The chances of most African American making it to the NBA is very slim, according to the book chances are 135,800 to

pioneers, and Rhoden acknowledges the good events and also describes the impact of the bad events. The highs and the lows, the strengths and weaknesses, the good points and the shortcomings are all crucial in understanding integration and where the athletes stand as history

In recent history it has been evident that some of the most popularize sports in America have been dominated and overran by African American and other minority athletes. In turn when the coaching and management positions in sports are analyzed and broken down, the number of minority coaches and managers in sport are almost non-existent and have been since those sports organization became established.

What really is in a name? Apparently, there is a lot. In Henry Louis Gates, Jr.'s story, "What's in a Name," there is a telling story about a young boy learning the powerful pain and humiliation in the racist practices of American society. Gates illustrates how racism can perpetuate prejudice that aims to take away individual identity and put entire groups of people down. Yet, the fact that Skip was willing to never look Mr. Wilson in the yes again shows that Gates himself was not going to just take the racism any longer, but was willing to fight it in his own unique way.

In “Delusions of Grandeur” by Henry Louis Gates Junior, Gates elaborates that Black youths should be given the opportunity to pursue a career that doesn’t involve being drafted into a professional sport. Gates brings to light the mishaps of the schools in the black communities that don 't push for scholarly students for chances at aspiring to go to college. He also speaks upon African Americans should not be seen just as athletes but are able to further in an education as a doctor, lawyer, engineer and much more. Today Black professional athletes should not be more respected than black professionals such as doctors, lawyers and educators.

In the collegiate world of sports, basketball has become an increasingly recognized sport among African Americans, predominantly males. The hope of any young basketball player is that one day a scout will come and recruit them into stardom The question that presents itself as a problem to the lucky few who are chosen to go professional, is whether or not an education is more important than a million dollar shoe deal, “The NCAA's (1998) annual six-year study reported that only 33% of Black male basketball players graduated, (Chronicle of Higher Education, 1999). Individually, basketball reported the lowest graduation rate in all divisions,” (Robinson, 2004:1). Basketball players have become so idolized in the eyes of young

The topic of race in sport, particularly African Americans in sport, has long been a controversial yet, widely discussed matter. Human and social issues are never easy subjects to discuss or debate, and racial differences tend to provoke very strong reactions. To begin, we will explore those whom claim that black athletes excel in sports as a result of their biological make up. Of all players in the NBA, more than 75% of them are black; of all players in the WNBA, more than 70% of them are black; of all players in the NFL, more than 65% of them are black (Hoenig, 2014). Evidently, black athletes make up a vast majority of these sports in the United States. Athletes must be of elite caliber to have the ability to play at this level, so this

To fully understand where these struggles stem from you need to be fully aware of the cultural influences that African American students face. As African American males grow older they face the unfortunate reality of being the only group in the United States experiencing a decline in life expectancy (Noguera 2003). With a fact like this looming over the head of African American student athletes it becomes easy for one to see why African American male student athletes place such and emphases on playing professional sports (Zeiser 2009). They see the gain from professional sports being immediate and the gains from academia being a longer process. “There is considerable evidence that the ethnic and socioeconomic backgrounds of students have bearing on how students are perceived

Black student-athletes are taught to value sports over academics at a young age because it is seen as the “only way out”. Black student-athletes are heralded for their athletic prowess from middle school up, so they begin to focus less on their education and more on their sport. Unfortunately, so do the teachers. Black student-athletes are more often than not just given passes, as schools value what their athletic abilities could do for them over the academic success of the athlete. Even normal black students can be seen the same way just because of the perception that they might be an athlete. The sad truth is that the athletes that don’t make it to the professional level are left without the education needed to be successful.

These days, teachers pass school athletes in order for them to continue playing. They don’t care whether or not if they do the homework or actually understand what is being taught, as long as they keep the school wining in that certain sport then they will pass. Henry Gates stated, “The failure of our public schools to educate athletes is part and parcel of the schools’ failure to educate almost everyone”. Most young black athletes can’t read or write but they still get passed year to year. It’s know that 26.6% of black athletes at the college level earn their degree, which means that they didn’t have enough pass knowledge to continue to excel in higher education and they still didn’t make that goal of being a professional athlete.

Several times throughout the article he seems to have a tone that hurts his credibility and arguments, by saying “It is ludicrous to argue that the Power 5 programs cannot afford this.” This harsh, unintentional bashing at others who do not believe in what the author is saying hurts his claim and argument by talking down to his audience; as if they do not know what they are reading. Another remark he makes is, “the appeal of college athletics, in no small part, is that the players are students at the universities, so they would still have to take classes. But their loads should be reduced during their years of eligibility, and once their playing days are over, they should be able to finish their education free. That’s only fair.” Here the author is almost stating that regular non college student athletes are not at the same level of importance as the athletes, possibly making some readers frustrated that these athletes get the easy road throughout college. Also, by saying they will be able to go to college free after playing, makes students going to school after graduating for a higher degree feel unimportant and unprivileged compared to the

Horatio Lloyd Gates was born January 1st, 1727 in Essex, England to the house keeper and butler to the Duke of Leeds. Horatio joined the British army at age 22 and fought for 24 years until leaving to Virginia. Horatio Gates left England just after the war was finished and when he had his first son, Robert to which he wanted to move to Virginia and buy a plantation. Horatio later leaves to fight in an army once again but this time its the Revolutionary war and he fights for the Patriot cause.

Everyone has a contribution in this world to make, even African Americans. DuBois continually stressed this to his fellow black community in his book The Souls of Black Folk. What they learn in schools will help the students determine what they will do further in life. If they choose to be the “talented ten” and choose academics, the black world will need them. African Americans need other African Americans to fill all occupations that a white man would. “Who

Henry Louis Gates, was a highly educated writer who wrote the essay “In The Kitchen”. Gates remanences when living in Piedmont, West Virginia, his mother did many people’s hair for quick cash in her kitchen. The people went to have “the very kinky bit of hair at the back of your head, where your neck meets your shirt collar” straightened, Gates states. The kinky hair in back of their heads, referred to as the kitchen in his culture. It was impossible to get rid of the kitchen, it was permanent, only possible ways of fixing costed much to afford. The way Gate’s mother was able to tame the kitchen was by using a “hot comb”; a pair of prongs, heated on top of the stove. Gates despised the kitchen because the politics of “good” and “bad” hair it

In text “In the Kitchen”, writer Henry Louis Gates Jnr shows how the importance of culture, pride and appearance construct the identity of many African Americans. Gates text is centred around the “kitchen”, a word with a double meaning, the kitchen is the basis for the whole text where pride is centred and hair conditioning takes place. Gates uses elements of writing such as textual form, figurative language, idiom and tone to establish construct the identities of the African American society through the narrator’s eyes. In this academic essay, I will be giving examples for these elements of writing and how Gates has used them to shed different lights on the narrator’s story, letting the reader experience increasingly of the African American society.