bizmark
September 19th, 2004, 07:25 PM
I don't watch much TV, but when I happen to catch one of those poker shows it captivates me. It seems to be on ESPN pretty much every night. There's also celebrity poker, etc. on other channels from time to time.
You see a fair number of gooks, maybe 2 or 3 famous ones, but not so many when you drop down in the ranks. There are like 2 women players in the whole thing, and I have seen a total of 1 Mulatto in my viewing of maybe 3 episodes of the show. There's also a sand nigger or two, besides the Jews and Mediterranean types, and maybe a couple of mestizos. There's a pretty swarthy, obnoxious guy that I think is Spanish but I'm not sure. He looks like a Mafia don. Obviously there are a fair number of Jews, some with recognizably Jewish names, but to account for the presence of crypto-Jews I'll say that maybe 20% of the field is Jewish, correct me if I'm wrong.
Anyway, that's letting myself get distracted by the exceptions. My point is that even with all those little exceptions taken into account, the sport (if you can call it that... being regularly broadcast on ESPN lends a bit of credit to this term) is still handily dominated by White Males. It's a pure mind game, with players constantly figuring probabilities and trying to read each other's minds. It's simply engrossing. It's gotten bigger and bigger; the number of these shows has multiplied like crazy lately, and I've seen lots of ads and even merchandise geared towards No-Limit Hold'Em (what they almost always play on TV, from what I've seen). And hardly a nigger to be seen.
So, I know it may seem like grasping at straws, but does anybody think that a part of the appeal of this "sport" is the strong presence of White Males? Because -- just think about it for a second -- ESPN is showing Poker rather than Baseball or Football. How crazy is that? They wouldn't be doing it if there weren't a huge audience. And why is there a huge audience?
Of course I think it's a terribly interesting game on its own. But I also posit that there's at least some effect coming from the fact that we have White Heroes in the poker world, people with nicknames and fabled histories. The "Jesus" guy would be ridiculed as a Redneck anywhere in else in the media with his cowboy hat and long, scraggly beard and hair. There's a guy nicknamed "Fossil" that's the epitome of the Nerdy Overweight White Slob, but he gets respect at the poker table. There's several guys who fit the stereotype of Crusty Old White Guy but who are among the gods of poker. Chris Moneymaker (his real name) looks like your Average Thirtysomething White Guy, but drop his name to a poker fan and you'll see adulation. Even the "Unabomber" with his hooded sweatshirt is revered. With a name like that, you've gotta wonder. Also there is a fair presence of young, clean-cut Scandinavian men who do pretty well, besides the hordes of young White Twentysomethings who play all day on the Internet to qualify for the Big Games.
So... I'm no good at writing conclusions. What do you think? Am I a nutcase for thinking this?
You see a fair number of gooks, maybe 2 or 3 famous ones, but not so many when you drop down in the ranks. There are like 2 women players in the whole thing, and I have seen a total of 1 Mulatto in my viewing of maybe 3 episodes of the show. There's also a sand nigger or two, besides the Jews and Mediterranean types, and maybe a couple of mestizos. There's a pretty swarthy, obnoxious guy that I think is Spanish but I'm not sure. He looks like a Mafia don. Obviously there are a fair number of Jews, some with recognizably Jewish names, but to account for the presence of crypto-Jews I'll say that maybe 20% of the field is Jewish, correct me if I'm wrong.
Anyway, that's letting myself get distracted by the exceptions. My point is that even with all those little exceptions taken into account, the sport (if you can call it that... being regularly broadcast on ESPN lends a bit of credit to this term) is still handily dominated by White Males. It's a pure mind game, with players constantly figuring probabilities and trying to read each other's minds. It's simply engrossing. It's gotten bigger and bigger; the number of these shows has multiplied like crazy lately, and I've seen lots of ads and even merchandise geared towards No-Limit Hold'Em (what they almost always play on TV, from what I've seen). And hardly a nigger to be seen.
So, I know it may seem like grasping at straws, but does anybody think that a part of the appeal of this "sport" is the strong presence of White Males? Because -- just think about it for a second -- ESPN is showing Poker rather than Baseball or Football. How crazy is that? They wouldn't be doing it if there weren't a huge audience. And why is there a huge audience?
Of course I think it's a terribly interesting game on its own. But I also posit that there's at least some effect coming from the fact that we have White Heroes in the poker world, people with nicknames and fabled histories. The "Jesus" guy would be ridiculed as a Redneck anywhere in else in the media with his cowboy hat and long, scraggly beard and hair. There's a guy nicknamed "Fossil" that's the epitome of the Nerdy Overweight White Slob, but he gets respect at the poker table. There's several guys who fit the stereotype of Crusty Old White Guy but who are among the gods of poker. Chris Moneymaker (his real name) looks like your Average Thirtysomething White Guy, but drop his name to a poker fan and you'll see adulation. Even the "Unabomber" with his hooded sweatshirt is revered. With a name like that, you've gotta wonder. Also there is a fair presence of young, clean-cut Scandinavian men who do pretty well, besides the hordes of young White Twentysomethings who play all day on the Internet to qualify for the Big Games.
So... I'm no good at writing conclusions. What do you think? Am I a nutcase for thinking this?