Social Discrimination Essay -- Sociology

During the Spring of 2012, The University of Southern Mississippi's basketball team made their first appearance at the NCAA tournament since 1991. The team played against Kansas State University in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. During the second half of the game, Kansas State was defeating the University of Southern Mississippi, due to their freshman point guard Angel Rodriguez who contributed many points. The Wildcats were leading the game by 70-64. As Angel Rodriguez was performing a free throw, some University of Southern Mississippi prep band students chanted â€Å"Where's your green card?† This incident made national news and labeled the band students of the University of Southern Mississippi as ignorant, immature, and racist. The intense of emotions towards Southern Miss' chance to continue having a position in the tournament struck the band members to resort discrimination against Rodriguez by using derogatory language. There are different stances that can take place when evaluating an incident such as this one. The University of Southern Mississippi is located in the Southern region of the United States which has an infamous reputation for racial discrimination and division for several years. When this is looked at by people from other regions of the United States, they will assume that the band members were racist. Angel Rodriguez is from Puerto Rico, an island in the northeastern Carribean. The majority of Puerto Rico's population consists of Hispanics and Latinos. Puerto Rico is not a U.S. State rather it is a commonwealth of the United States of America. This gives Puerto Ricans the benefits of having a United States citizenship; therefore not requiring them to have a green card to be in the United States of America. A gree... ...ed the boundary of the band student's perceived territory in the United States because of his ethnic background. Southern Miss' prep band has members of minority backgrounds. If the minorities also participated in the taunting, it shows that geography and racial discrimination is instilled in all races that are citizens of the United States. Rodriguez lives and attended school in Miami, Florida and for the band to question his citizenship status shows how racial divisiveness occurs even within the close knit regions of the United States. Miami, Florida is known for a large and thriving Spanish speaking population in the United States. Works Cited Williams, Melvin D. 2003. Racism: The Production, Reproduction, and Obsolescence of Social Inferiority. In New directions, ed. Carol R. Ember, Melvin Ember, and Peter N. Peregrine. Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall.