The NBA has traditionally been viewed as a progressive
organization. According to the Institute of Diversity and Ethics in Sports it
received an A+ in racial hiring practices. The majority of players are black,
and most of the highest profile players do a great job in being vocal leaders
when it comes to racial issues. During the Donald Sterling incident two years
ago, the league reacted swiftly and correctly by stripping him of his ownership
of the Clippers and banning him from the organization for life. This being said
it is currently implementing a dress code that is inherently racist.
In October if 2005 former commissioner
David Stern implemented this dress code in order to clear the then thuggish
image the NBA had taken on. At the time many players tended to dress according
to the hip hop culture that many of them were very much a part of. The
ignorance within this rule is often overlooked. David Stern was simply blindly
associating hip hop style and culture with crime and gangs. So, he made every
player wear suits and ties to every pregame or postgame interview, on the
bench. Players who don’t adhere to this rule get fined thousands of dollars.
This type of subtle ignorance kind
of embodies how our society is today. An issue like this doesn’t really get
much attention, because society doesn’t really find problem with it. NBA fans
and players alike stem from all different types of demographics. All of them
should be able to express themselves through how they dress however they see
fit. The fact that hip hop culture has these blind connotations associated with
it isn’t fair. Either way the rule should absolutely be changed and players
should be able to dress however they want, regardless of cultural biases that
may exist.
I think now that Adam Silver is the commissioner some of these questionable practices will be curtailed. You're even now seeing some of the outrageous outfits NBA players like Russell Westbrook and Dwyane Wade have been putting together recently. David Stern was infamous for many different reasons, but now that there is younger blood in the commissioner's chair I think we'll see the NBA go a very different, very positive direction.
ReplyDeleteI am not very familiar with sports, so I had no idea there was a dress code in place to solve the "issue" of players wearing clothing reminiscent of hip-hop culture. This reminds me a lot of dress codes that are enforced in other places, like work and school, where even the way that you wear your hair can be considered a violation. For example, a lot of Black natural hairstyles (dreadlocks, braids, afros, etc.) are considered to be dress code violations in a lot of places. These rules fail assume that people who like to dress in hip-hop clothing and own their natural hair must be idolizing criminal and gang activity, instead of embracing their cultural roots.
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