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How do you feel your class situation has impacted your experience in or with sports?
I don't know if my class situation has impacted my experience. I don't hero worship actors or actresses, teams or athletes, singers or songwriters. I don't think hitting, throwing, or catching a ball is an important skill, not is putting a ball in a basket or hitting it into a hole. I think athletes are enormously overvalued and overpaid. This is partly because the media indoctrinates people from childhood on to idolize athletes.
When I was growing up, college bound kids did individual sports and the "townies" did football, baseball & basketball. As an adult I play Lacrosse and Futbol (soccer). I dropped Lacrosse as it's largely much more expensive than futbol and it's rife with ex-frat boys from the uber class; we just don't relate to each other. I'm the "working-class" guy there and I'm kept apart because my neighbors aren't "white" like the rest of the team. Futbol I have the opposite experience because I'm white so that is supposed to mean I'm from the ruling class but when guys find out that's not true, they don't know what to do with me. This actually helps because then we can all just play and have fun. With indie sports, I find class segregates again but the nature of them being individual sports (climbing, biking, surfing, skiing) it's easier to "escape" when class gets in the way. BTW, since I can't afford to ski anymore and climbing usually requires vacation time I don't have, I pretty much only surf and bike anymore. The gear is cheaper too thanks to a lot of used gear being available.
Read earlier survey responses:
December 2006: What responsibility do different economic classes bear for reducing their contributions to global warming pollution? Should wealthy people assume more of the cost of fixing the problem?
November 2006: For those who have served (or who are currently serving) in the military: Have you encountered classist attitudes about your choice to serve? For everyone: Do you see a class divide in terms of who serves in the military? What does this mean for the military and the country?
October 2006: How is television perpetuating stereotypes or classist portrayals? What are some examples of characters, storylines, or news stories that you have found particularly troubling?
September 2006: Higher Education can be a class marker, the access channel to "upward" mobility,or class liberator. What are the connections with class and higher education for you?
August 2006: How does class affect how you spend your non-working hours and impact your vacation options?
June 2006: What are the ways that you see class or classism play out in your spiritual community or congregation of faith?
May 2006: When did you first become aware of your class or class differences? How old were you?
February 2006: How do class differences impact your relationships?
January 2006: What privileges should we all have?
Are there any privileges none of us should have?
December 2005 Survey Question:
How do class issues come up for you during the end-of-year "consumer" holidays?
November 2005 Survey Question: Please tell us about your experiences of class, class differences, and classism in your education/school.
October 2005: Tell us about a time you've either been an ally to someone or had someone be an ally to you around issues of class.
September 2005: What are the ways you see the race and class divisions exposed by Katrina?
August 2005: What class did you grow up in? What was good or bad about your class experience growing up?
July 2005: What are your strongest memories connecting race and class?
June 2005: The New York Times and Wall Street Journal each ran their own series on class. What is your response to the recent press on class?
May 2005: The good, the bad, and the ugly of cross-class relating
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