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The Sport of Blaming the Victim, and Women

There are few things sadder than listening to sports announcers talk about anything except sports.  "No question about it!"  In fact, even when they do talk about sports, it is not always terribly profound.

For example, two of our local sports show regulars recently explained why the University of Minnesota, whose team results have been something less and average, lately, ought to quit supporting minor sports and women's sports, and concentrate on football, and basketball, and hockey.  I cannot recall whether they counted baseball as of major or minor consequence.

They were perfectly happy to get rid of all "non-revenue-producing" sports.  Women don't matter.  Soccer players don't matter.  Volleyball teams don't matter.  Intramural sports don't matter.  What matters are football, basketball, and hockey.  Men's football, basketball, and hockey.  The U. has excellent women's programs in hockey, and basketball, and a lot of other "inconsequential, non-profit-making sports".

Forget Title IX!  Forget swimmers, and wrestlers and people who want to play friendly games with each other!

But sports announcers sometimes stray off into other kinds of non-revenue-producing topics, too.  I also heard a sterling analysis of what Traymon Martin did wrong that led to his death at the hands of a law-and-order vigilante, in Florida.  Here it is:  Traymon wore a hoodie.  Traymon should have known that a young black man wearing a hoodie was going to be perceived as a dangerous, possibly armed, hoodlum.  Young white men wearing hooded sweat shirts are not seen that way, but Traymon was black, and should have known that he was quite likely to be hurt.  He was inviting danger by wearing a hoodie.

Yep!  I guess they were right.  And it follows that if a young white woman wears a tank top that is just a bit too inviting, she will probably get what she deserves, too.  They didn't say that, of course, because that is what a lot of ordinary white women do:  look attractive.  I suppose that unsteady, old critters like me ought to leave our wallets at home, because an unsteady, old critter with a wallet in his pocket is simply inviting hooded ganstas to rob him.  (Maybe guys like me should have special wallets that indicate there isn't much there worth bothering about.)

What is this!  Young black men cannot wear sweat shirts?  Lots of people wear hoodies, especially in this climate!  Construction workers wear them to keep from freezing to death.  Lots of women are attractive, but that is no invitation to rape and violence.

I suspect that most sports announcers are pretty sensible people, but it is hard to know.  They have to appeal to the people who sit in bars and recite their high school athletic careers, and the statistics of the people who are really good at sports.

I wonder what sports announcers wear that is an invitation to violence against them?  Cheap souvenir jerseys, I suppose.  Jerseys with the logos of women's sports teams on them.  Maybe lacrosse jerseys.  Phi Beta Kappa pins.  Anything gay would be dangerous.  (What would that be?)

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