The document provides discussion questions for a course on race and sports. It includes 5 questions requiring written responses on topics like racial disparities in coaching opportunities, the use of Confederate and Native American symbols at universities, and the portrayal of racial minority and female athletes in media. Students are asked to draw on assigned readings to outline arguments, provide examples from films viewed, and suggest strategies to address issues of gender and racial inequity in sports. Response lengths between 250-500 words are specified for each question.

1. SPM 3012
Module 2 Discussion Questions
Please provide written responses to each of the questions posed
here. Please use correct
grammar, spelling, and punctuation. Submit your responses
through the Assignment feature of
the E‐Learning course website by attaching your response
through the provided tab.
See minimum word counts as listed at the end of each question.
(50% points content; 50% points writing per question)
80 points total
Race
1. In an attempt to be competitive, university athletic programs
are comfortable enough to
court and recruit racial minorities into their once segregated
programs. However, they
often fail to extend these same opportunities to qualified
minority coaching individuals.
In comparison, a few of professional leagues have done well in
making such
opportunities available to racial minority groups.

2. a) Using information from Cunningham and Eitzen, outline six
arguments that can be
advanced that account for the disparity regarding opportunities
for minority coaches.
b) Which of the six explanations that you have outlined would
likely be the most
helpful for a SEC college athletic director to realize and
consider when recruiting
African-American coaches to coach for of his or her programs?
(10 points; 250 word minimum)
2. Eitzen cites two primary ways in which school symbols can
be racist: 1) symbols of the
Confederacy, and 2) the use of Native American names and
ceremonial acts.
a) Regarding the use of symbols of the Confederacy, outline
TWO opposing positions
on the use of such symbols at Ole Miss.
That is, using arguments from the Eitzen chapter (regardless of
whether you agree
with each position or not), outline a) ONE rationale arguing that
the use of these
symbols is important and useful, and b) ONE rationale arguing
that the use of the
symbols is harmful and racist. (80 word minimum)

3. b) Regarding the use of Native American nicknames and
ceremonial acts, outline a
total of FOUR opposing positions on the use of such symbols at
thousands of our
high schools and numerous colleges.
That is, using arguments from the Eitzen chapter and the
Understanding the Harm
documentary you viewed (regardless of whether you agree with
each position or
not), outline a) TWO rationales arguing that the use of these
symbols are important
and useful, and b) TWO rationales arguing that the use of the
symbols is harmful and
racist. (170 word minimum)
(10 points; 250 word minimum)
3. Both Cunningham and Spaaj et al. suggest that racial
minority athletes, regardless of
their success on the field or court, are often the victims of racial
vilification by society.
The three stories that were assigned to view demonstrate the
magnitude of the
problem.
For this response, craft a 250-word essay that could serve as a
short news story
appearing in a public outlet (e.g., USA Today) that describes
the magnitude of the

4. problem.
In your essay, be sure to include the following insights for your
reader:
a) Define the term racial vilification in your own words (using
insights from Spaaj).
b) Briefly outline THREE specific examples of the practice of
the racial vilification of
athletes from the stories you viewed during this module.
c) Provide at least one direct quote from the LeBron James
interview you viewed
that outlines how these types of behaviors in sports reveals the
level of racism
that still exists in our society.
d) Close your essay by providing your opinion of what can be
done to address this
issue.
(10 points; 250 word minimum)
Gender
4. Branded brings light to the issues that surround how today’s
female athletes are
portrayed in the media. In Let ‘em Play, the narrator identifies

5. that, at time Title IX was
passed (in 1972), “Women were judged by beauty, not by
academic or athletic ability”
(10:40 in the video).
Considering the social context of how women were viewed in
the 70’s, and the
representation of female athletes in today’s media, apply the
four (4) frames of gender
equity that are presented in the Shaw and Frisby (2006) position
paper.
Your response should include a detailed account of issues
regarding the portrayal of female
athletes in the media (print, TV, movies, Internet,...), and
should develop a strategy to
address gender equity in accordance with each frame (4 frames).
Organize your response in the following format:
1. Past and present issues regarding how females and female
athletes are portrayed
in the media.
2. A suggestion for how to resolve the issues regarding the
manner in which female
athletes are presented in the media through the lens of frame 1,
“Fix the women”
(e.g., tell the athletes who earn their living on media
endorsements that they
shouldn’t pose in photos that objectify them).
3. A suggestion for how to resolve the issues regarding the
manner in which female
athletes are presented in the media through the lens of frame 2,

6. “Value the
feminine”.
4. A suggestion for how to resolve the issues regarding the
manner in which female
athletes are presented in the media through the lens of frame 3,
“Provide equal
opportunity”.
5. A suggestion for how to resolve the issues regarding the
manner in which female
athletes are presented in the media through the lens of frame 4.
(20 points; 500 word minimum)
5. A common conception of Title IX is that universities must
sacrifice men’s sports to
comply with the educational amendment. As supported by the
Staurosky (2011) paper,
though James Madison University cut multiple men’s and
women’s sports in (public)
efforts to be in compliance with Title IX, the university could
have implemented an

7. alternative scheme/budget to be compliant.
Choose one of the following for your response (you can draw on
all of the readings or
videos from this module):
a) Justify why supporting women’s sport programs is important.
Provide an alternative
solution to the budgeting/fiscal decisions that athletic
departments make in regard to
funding men’s and women’s sports (consider NCAA allotments
for scholarships and the
payment of student athletes). You will likely need to do some
outside research to
support your position.
b) Justify why Title IX is no longer necessary and provide a
fiscal/budgeting solution for
supporting both women’s and men’s sports. Include a solution
to issues surrounding
Title IX, including the payment of student athletes and the risks
and benefits that
accompany your solution. You will need to do outside research
to support your position.
(10 points; 250 word minimum)
Class
6. Legendary film critic Roger Ebert once labeled Hoop
Dreams one of the best films of the

8. 1990’s and “The Great American Documentary”. Ebert and
many of his contemporaries
wrote glowing and powerful reviews of the film over the past
two decades. A recent
review by Grace Wang (who was an Ebert correspondent) was
published in 2009 and
started with the following description of the movie:
Hoop Dreams (1994) is more than a story. It observes, dissects,
and records the life of
two teenagers in inner-city Chicago, Arthur Agee and William
Gates, with such breadth
and depth that it becomes a microscopic examination of human
lives. Yes, the teenagers
are African-American. Yes, the place is in a particular kind of
neighborhood with a
particular kind of demographic. Yes, the times is late 80s and
early 90s.
Wang’s review ended with the following analysis:
I think Hoop Dreams carries a special significance for those
who are
American….regardless of your nationality, the themes are
universal: the struggle and the
triumph, the pride and the insecurity, the hope and the
desperation, and the love…love
of family, love of friends, love of your team, love of pursuing
one’s dream. That
transcends.
Source: https://etheriel.wordpress.com/2009/11/10/hoop-
dreams-the-struggle-and-
the-triumph/
https://etheriel.wordpress.com/2009/11/10/hoop-dreams-the-
struggle-and-the-triumph/
https://etheriel.wordpress.com/2009/11/10/hoop-dreams-the-

9. struggle-and-the-triumph/
This film review, and others like it, have effectively outlined
the many ways that Hoop
Dreams provides valuable lessons on the struggles of life in
American society. The movie
effectively documents poverty, drug use, domestic abuse, talent
development, the
American dream, the dashing of the American dream, bearing
the burden of others’
American dream, family and friends living dreams through their
children, parenting,
friends, money, and dealing with adversity.
Through a sport sociology lens, the film depicts a few of the
myths that Eitzen outlines
regarding achieving social mobility through sports participation.
The documentary also
allows us to get a personal and up close portrayal of the youth
sport system and how
talent was exploited by and developed in the inner cities in the
US. The film also
demonstrates White and upper class privilege, and the
stratification of social classes
through sports participation and access to education.
For this discussion question, you will need to write your own
film review that is similar
to the review described above, but from a sport sociology
perspective. You will choose
THREE of the themes outlined (in bold) below to focus your
review. Your review will
include a 175 (minimum) word summary of each selected theme.

10. Your “review” should include a) specific examples from the
movie that demonstrate
each of the three themes you selected and b) at least two
definitions, statistics, or
quotes from any of the other authors you read during the Class
in Sports unit.
In other words:
1. Craft your review around THREE of the themes (below) that
were reinforced
throughout the movie.
2. Use the THREE labels as “headings” in your review.
3. Include specific examples from the film that describe each
theme.
You can refer to the review linked above for examples of the
types of
evidence to include from the Hoop Dreams story to make your
arguments.
4. Make sure to include at least TWO definitions or statistics
from the readings for
each of the three themes you selected to focus on in your review
of the film.
a. EXAMPLE 1: According to Eitzen (2016), only 3 in 10,000
high school
seniors will get drafted by an NBA team.
b. EXAMPLE 2: Chaplin (2016) suggests that “social change
and mobility are
based on individuals’ opportunities for introduction and
exposure to

11. knowledge and experience outside of their social class location
that can
change and shape their pursuit of interests and quality of life”
(p. 358).
(20 points; 500 word minimum)
POTENTIAL THEMES FOR A REVIEW OF THE FILM HOOP
DREAMS
*Hoop Dreams is about the importance of having life chances.
*Hoop Dreams is about the myth that a professional sports
career is possible.
*Hoop Dreams is about the myth that sport provides a free
education.
*Hoop Dreams is about the myth that sport is a way out of
poverty for racial minorities.
*Hoop Dreams is about compromising academic pursuits at the
expense of dreams of playing
professional sports.
*Hoop Dreams is about the success of a few reproducing the

12. belief in social mobility to many.
*Hoop Dreams is about the exploitation of racial minorities by
those in more affluent and
educated social classes.