Jena Six

The Jena six is about six black students in Jena Louisiana who were arrested after beating up a white student. The white student received a concussion along with many bruises. The six black students were charged with second degree murder and conspiracy. Their sentence could be up to 100 years without parole. This fight did not come out of nowhere though. One of the black students sat underneath a tree at school and the white students did not like this. The next day the white students hung three nooses from the tree but said it was a joke and did not get into trouble. The black students were getting beat up at white parties. Also, a man came up to them at a gas station with a loaded gun. The boys wrestled it away from the man and took it to the police. The black kids got in trouble for stealing the gun away from the man. I chose the Jena Six because it is a current problem happening in the world today. It something that should not occur and it caught my attention when I heard about it and I wanted to learn more about it.

The article “Drawing the Color Line,” it says that white people received much less harsher punishments than the black slaves. This is still happening today. People are taking their personal views of what they believe in and putting it on people in the court system. An example in the reading says, “Six servants and a slave of Mr. Reynolds started to run away. While the whites received lighter sentences, Emanual received thirty stripes and to be brunt in the cheek with the letter “R” and to work in shackle one year or more as his master shall see cause.” This relates to the Jena Six because they are receiving harsher punishments than anyone else. The white kids who beat up the black kids at parties are not being charged for anything. The man who brought in the gun did not get charged but the black kids got charged with stealing. The Jena six are being treated unfairly because of the racism.

I think it is wrong and I believe they should receive a new trial. The city has an all white jury. The Jena six should be released or everyone should be trialed fairly like the white kids who beat up people at the parties should be charged along with the man who brought in a loaded gun.

John Amaechi

Amaechi becomes first NBA player to come out

By Chris Sheridan
ESPN.com
(Archive)

Updated: February 9, 2007, 6:30 PM ET

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In a groundbreaking revelation that began to reverberate around the NBA on Wednesday, former player John Amaechi has become the first professional basketball player to openly identify himself as gay.

John Amaechi

ESPN Books

Amaechi's book will be available in stores Friday.
Amaechi, who played at Penn State and spent five seasons in the NBA with Orlando, Utah and Cleveland, comes out in an upcoming book entitled "Man in the Middle" to be released later this month by ESPN Books (owned by the Walt Disney Company, parent company of ESPN).
Martina Navratilova, perhaps the most famous openly gay athlete in the world, praised Amaechi's decision and said it's imperative for athletes to come out because of what she called an epidemic of suicides among young lesbians and gays.
"It's hugely important for the kids so they don't feel alone in the world. We're role models. We're adults, and we know we're not alone but kids don't know that," she said. "He will definitely help a lot of kids growing up to feel better about themselves."
Three years after his playing career ended, Amaechi become the sixth professional male athlete from one of the four major American sports (NBA, MLB, NFL, NHL) to publicly discuss his homosexuality.
Former NFL running back David Kopay came out in 1977; offensive lineman Roy Simmons and defensive lineman Esera Tuaolo came out more recently. Glenn Burke, an outfielder for the Los Angeles Dodgers and the Oakland Athletics in the 1970s, and Billy Bean, a utility player in the 1980s and 1990s, have also come out. Former major-league umpire Dave Pallone has also said he is gay.
Burke died of complications due to AIDS in 1995.
"What John did is amazing," said Tuaolo, who came out in 2002. "He does not know how many lives he's saved by speaking the truth."
Tuaolo said coming out would be a relief to Amaechi.
"Living with all that stress and that depression, all you deal with as a closeted person, when you come out you really truly free yourself,'' Tuaolo said. "When I came out, it felt like I was getting out of prison."
Amaechi, a 6-foot-10 center, averaged 6.2 points and 2.6 rebounds before retiring from the league in 2003 after his contract was traded from Houston to New York. He never played for the Rockets or Knicks. He is currently known in Britain as a television personality and for helping fund the Amaechi Basketball Center in Manchester.
In the book and in an in-depth interview with ESPN's "Outside The Lines" to be shown Sunday, Amaechi speaks and writes candidly about his pro career, his relationships with teammates and coaches and how he began to live more openly gay while he was playing for the Jazz -- frequenting gay clubs, both in Salt Lake City and in other NBA cities.
In the book and in his interview, Amaechi called Jazz owner Larry Miller a "bigot," said former teammate Karl Malone was a xenophobe and said coach Jerry Sloan "hated" him.
Granderson: Not impressed
Mark Kreidler
Another retired athlete comes out? ESPN The Magazine's LZ Granderson won't be impressed until an active player does so.
Story
Sloan, who was asked after practice Wednesday about Amaechi's allegations that the coach had made homophobic comments and treated the player crudely, said he did not know about Amaechi's sexuality when Amaechi was playing for the Jazz.
"We didn't see eye to eye on a few things," Sloan said.
Sloan later released a statement through the Jazz's public relations office.
"I have coached more than 100 players during the past 19 seasons, and it has always been my philosophy that my job is to make sure Jazz players perform to their maximum ability on the floor. As far as his personal life is concerned, I wish John the best and have nothing further to add," he said.
But Amaechi also spoke fondly of former teammate Greg Ostertag, who he said was the only player ever to ask him if he was gay (Amaechi answered: "You have nothing to worry about, Greg"), as well as another former teammate he calls "Malinka" (Russian for "little one") who Amaechi felt was aware and accepting of the fact he was gay. Amaechi's publicist, Howard Bragman, confirmed to ESPN.com that the player was Andrei Kirilenko.
Outside the Lines
Sunday on "Outside the Lines" (ESPN, 9:30 a.m. ET), John Amaechi speaks about his pro career, his relationships with teammates and coaches, and how he lived as a gay man while playing for the Jazz. Motion ESPN Video
"Some time after Christmas of my last Utah season, as the team was sliding out of contention, Malinka instant-messaged an invitation to his New Year's Eve party, explaining he was only inviting his 'favorite' friends. Then he wrote something that brought tears to my eyes: 'Please come, John. You are welcome to bring your partner, if you have one, someone special to you. Who it is makes no difference to me,'" Amaechi wrote. "I was hosting my own party that night, so I had to decline his sweet invitation. But I was moved. I had Ryan deliver Malinka a $500 bottle of Jean Paul Gaulthier-dressed champagne.
"The whole exchange was a revelation. Malinka's generous overture made the season more bearable. It also showed that in my own paranoia and overwhelming desire for privacy, I'd failed to give some of my teammates the benefit of the doubt. The sense of welcome and belonging, so often denied gay people even by their own families, meant the world to me, especially in the middle of a dreadful season in a strange desert state that in the end provided some of the best days of my life," he wrote.
John Amaechi
ESPN The Magazine
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NBA commissioner David Stern said a player's sexuality is not important.
"We have a very diverse league. The question at the NBA is always, 'Have you got game?' That's it, end of inquiry," Stern told The Associated Press.
Orlando's Grant Hill, who said he didn't know Amaechi when he was with the Magic, applauded the decision to go public.
"The fact that John has done this, maybe it will give others the comfort or confidence to come out as well, whether they are playing or retiring," Hill said.
LeBron James, however, said he didn't think an openly gay person could survive in the league.
"With teammates you have to be trustworthy, and if you're gay and you're not admitting that you are, then you are not trustworthy," James said. "So that's like the No. 1 thing as teammates -- we all trust each other. You've heard of the in-room, locker room code. What happens in the locker room stays in there. It's a trust factor, honestly. A big trust factor."
Injured Philadelphia Sixers forward Shavlik Randolph acknowledged it's a new situation.
"As long as you don't bring your gayness on me I'm fine," Randolph said. "As far as business-wise, I'm sure I could play with him. But I think it would create a little awkwardness in the locker room."
News that Amaechi had come out surprised some players.
"For real? He's gay for real?" said Philadelphia center Steven Hunter. "Nowadays it's proven that people can live double lives. I watch a lot of TV, so I see a lot of sick perverted stuff about married men running around with gay guys and all types of foolishness."
Even so, Hunter said he would be fine with an openly gay teammate.
"As long as he don't make any advances toward me I'm fine with it," he said. "As long as he came to play basketball like a man and conducted himself like a good person, I'd be fine with it."
Orlando's Pat Garrity acknowledged reaction was bound to vary throughout the league.
"They would have teammates that would accept them for being a good person and a good teammate, and there would be people who would give him a hard time about it," he said. "I think that's true if you're playing basketball or in an office job. That's just how the world is right now."
In his "Outside The Lines" interview, Amaechi discussed how he realized his sexuality as a young teen and kept it hidden through his collegiate career at Penn State and in his early NBA days with the Cavaliers and Magic.
Amaechi also said he believes there are other gay players in the NBA.
"I don't know if there are a lot, but there are some," Amaechi said. "But you know … I don't really want to talk about it because I think that the coming out process for these individuals that for some I have been privy to and some I have not, um, it is theirs and theirs alone. And I don't think that they should be pressured or pushed for the good of the gay community or otherwise. They should not be pressured or pushed."
Has Amaechi conversed with them?
"Some," he said.
hat are their reservations about coming out?
"It's a frightening prospect. It's terrifying," Amaechi said. "There are people for whom their entire world is based around this idea that people will look at them and when they look at them, they are NBA superstars, NBA players. And any change to that would be physiologically devastating. Emotionally devastating, financially devastating."
"Man in the Middle" will be excerpted next week in ESPN The Magazine and on ESPN.com.
Information from The Associated Press was used in this report. Chris Sheridan covers the NBA for ESPN Insider. To e-mail Chris, click here.

John Amaechi is a former NBA player. He is the first person to in the NBA to open up and openly admit that he is gay and was while playing. He played in the league for 5 years. Many players had different outlooks on his coming out. Some supported it completely, others had mixed feelings about, and some completely rejected the idea. I chose this topic because he was singled out. He was brave enough to come out about being homosexual after being a professional athlete and was willing to take the criticism.

For this topic, I chose the Zinn chapter 2 “Privilege, Oppression , and Difference.” Zinn says, “The real illusion connected to of what they don’t know or understand. This supposedly makes it inevitable that you’ll fear and distrust people who aren’t like you and, in spite of your good intensions, you’ll find it all but impossible to get along with them. People get afraid of what they do not know and sometimes are unwilling to understand it. They have this mindset that they know what is right and nothing can be different. This relates with John Amaechi coming out because some people are unwilling to accept that he is gay. They want no part of his life. Tim Hardaway in an interview said, “"You know, I hate gay people, so I let it be known. I don't like gay people and I don't like to be around gay people," he said while a guest on Sports Talk 790 The Ticket. "I'm homophobic. I don't like it. It shouldn't be in the world or in the United States." He tells the truth about his feelings but he will not accept people are different. He has never had to be in the situation of being gay and does not realize the difficulty in today’s society of coming out and be a public figure.

I think his coming out is a positive thing. He has probably made children feel more comfortable about coming out and not being afraid to tell people. With the celebrity appearance, this also plays a role because it is someone who many people know. Children may look up to him as a role model now having the heart to come out publicly.

American History X

In the movie “American History X,” Derek Vinyard creates a white supremacist group where he lives. He starts a lot of trouble in his town against all kinds of races. He gets groups to break into grocery stores and harasses Asian workers who own the grocery store by beating them or pouring all kinds of different food over them. One day he sees two black men breaking into his car and he kills them. He is sent to jail for three years. In jail he joined the white gang so he was not killed by the other gangs of the Hispanics, blacks, and the other gangs. After seeing that the white gang trades with the Hispanics, he decides to leave the white gang because he believes that the whites have more power and should not interact with anybody else. This leads to him being beat up by the white gang and leaving him stranded to be killed by anybody. He makes a friend in his work area in prison. He is a black man where they become good friends through out the movie. The black man saves his life and gets the black gang to not kill him. After getting out of jail he learns that his little brother has joined this white supremacist group that he has created. The group has become more powerful and organized than when Derek was in charge of it. After this Derek tries to break up this group and end this after realizing that black people are not terrible people and should be killed or harassed. I chose this movie because it shows how the white people were brutal and savages to the black people even though they believed that the black people were the killing machines. I chose this movie because it shows how racism is a big part of our society today like it was in the past.

In Ronald Takaki’s Chapter 2, “The Temptest in the Wilderness,” the English were slaughtering the Native Americans. They were saying that they were the savage beast because they had the huge muscles. Also they said that Irish could not dress like them or act like them in any way seeking that the English are much more superior to the Native Americans and the Irish. This relates to the movie because the white supremacist group thought they were better than everyone. They believed that only they could be the right ones and no one else could be. They killed because of ideas in their head that blacks are terrible people and should die. Yes he kills some because they attacked him first. They attacked a grocery store because Asians owned it and they believed that they were taking over all the jobs and the whites would not have any jobs and the Asians did not belong there. They wanted no one to be like them except the people who were part of the white supremacist.

This movie is a great movie and shows you how bad white supremacist groups and be. It shows the side of how the white supremacist organized and the reasons why they wanted to hate everyone that was not white. I think it is totally wrong to have these groups and I am completely against them.

Glory Road

The movie is about the University of Texas Western in 1965-66 and their basketball team. Coach Haskins had trouble recruiting the good white players around the nation because Texas Western was not known for their basketball and the players did not think they would do very well in their season so they chose all schools to attend. Coach Haskins decided to do something crazy in that time and he recruited black players. The school was made up of less than 1% black people. Some teams would have one or two black players but Texas Western had seven players. With being in the south and having black players on the court, many people did not like this. The black players were harassed by being called the “N” word and their rooms being broken into at hotels they stay and having their belongings destroyed. Also when they go to a restaurant, one of the players goes to use the restroom and then 3 white males begin to beat him up badly showing their disliking of the black players. While they are at the games, when they enter the court many of the fans pour drinks, throw food, and say racial terms to them. With all these distractions, they proceed to have a 27-1 record. They played in the National Championship game against the number one ranked Kentucky team. Coach Haskins decided to end all this racism about black players not being able to play with white players. He started 5 black players and had 2 black subs. He did not play one white player in that game. They won that game and proved to the world that they should be allowed to play the game and they can play with white people and win. He made a statement to the world that night and changed history for ever. I chose Glory Road because it was a changing moment in history where the world has become different because of one team standing up to the entire nation.

This relates to class in Zinn’s chapter 1 where the English came to America, a place where they were minority. They came from a place where they were not the minority and then had to change their ways to be able to get along with the Native Americans. As they got more comfortable things began to change. Like in the movie, the black players came from places where there were many more black people but then went to Texas Western and became a minority in the city of El Paso but the white players became minorities on the basketball team because the black players played most of them time.

I think this was one of the most important times in the history of racial terms. It changed how people looked at black people. The Texas Western Minors basketball team showed that they can and should be allowed to play with white players. They ended all talk about how black people should not participate in the same things white people participate in. They changed the way the world looked at things.