Testing my toloerance for protesting.

One of my pet peeves in the world is stereotypes. What infuriates me more is when people and organizations protest something and in this protest they encourage the very stereotype they claim to be against. Let me give you a couple examples from (of course) the world of sports.

The story broke a few weeks ago that at Iowa, the visiting locker room for football games was painted all pink. Everything is pink; Pink carpet, pink walls, pink lockers, pink toilets... Well, a group came out wanting the color changed because the use of the color is offensive to women and homosexual men.

By protesting this - aren't they essentially saying that pink is a color for women and gay men? Well, that is the stereotype - but it's not necessarily true. I have known straight men to wear pink. I have worn pink, I don't consider myself either female nor homosexual (not that there's anything wrong with that). So that's stereotype #1 that this protest actually supports. The second stereotype that this protest supports is that females and homosexual men are weaker than straight men and it is an insult to straight men to be called either. These are the things that I try to disspell. Just because someone is female, homosexual, straight, white, black, or anything doesn't necessarily mean that they are better or worse than the person beside them. Thank goodness we have the 'Equal Rights' protesters to point these things out.

The locker room has been painted this way for over 20 years. The coach who had the locker room painted this way had a degree in psychology. Each color has a psychological effect on people. Do you think it's just a coincidence that Burger King, Wendy's and McDonald's all share the yellow and red theme? No. It's all based on years of studies and the effect of colors. The effect of pink has a soothing, and calming effect on people. So when the coach had the locker room painted pink he was trying to give his team a psychological edge not by calling the other team "girls" or "gay." But by stunting their aggressiveness at the start of the game and the second half.

Doesn't that make more sense than some group going off half-cocked to uphold a stereotype and pretend to be against it?

The next one comes from the world of the NBA. Recently David Stern (the NBA commissioner) instituted a dress code for the players when they travel to games and after the games during interviews (basically, whenever they are on "Company Time"). No caps, sleeveless shirts, no more shorts, or sunglasses indoors., headphones, medallions, jerseys, etc.

There is no denying that the NBA is predominantly African American. But some players have come out saying that the new dress code is "racist." My question is; How? The argument is that it's racist because the clothing not allowed to be worn includes those associate with the "hip-hop" culture. Marcus Camby of the New York Knicks said that is the league is going to require this, the NBA should provide a stipend to the players to get the appropriate wardrob. A stipend... for multimillionaires. Insane.

To claim that this is racist is absurd. First - though most of the NBA is African American - not everyone is. Everyone does have to adhere to the dress code. It would be racist if some people did not. Secondly, not all of the African Americans in the NBA dress in jerseys, medallions and caps. Michael Jordan always wore a suit. Magic Johnson always wore a suit. Kobe Bryant always wears a suit. To call the new policy racist means that these athletes aren't real African Americans, right? Thirdly, to call this policy racist implies that non-African Americans do not dress in jerseys, caps, and baggy jeans... ummm yeah they do. I see it all the time.

Here's the thing that these athletes just don't seem to get; most places of business have a dress code. My company has one, your company has one. I worked at a place where I had to wear a tie everyday. And I wasn't the only one who had to - every male had to - regardless of color. Women had a dress code as well. These athletes spend so much time crying about this and they don't realize that this is how the real world works. People have to follow the rules of the company and business. And I guarantee that none of my companies gave me a stipend to go buy appropriate attire. I had to do that myself (or through holiday and birthday presents :-)

So if they are trying to get sympathy from me or anyone else who has to select their daily wardrobe based on company policy - they are sadly mistaken. And to imply that it is a race issue is childish and diminishes protests against real racist issues that trickle under the radar. How many coaches we hired last week in professional sports? How many were African American or non-Caucasian? Don't know? You must have had your headphones on.