On Tuesday November 23, HBO sport series, “Real Sports with Bryant Gumbel,” did a story about marching bands in historic black colleges. They wanted to expose that brutal hazing even happens in this extracurricular activity. They focused on Southern University and Jacksonstate University. Southern University’s Legarian Bridgewater was interviewed about hazing in his marching band. He admitted that upperclassman would repeatedly beat new freshmen with wood boards and it could range from one month to several months. Legarian had to go through it until the end of his freshman year. The severity and length of punishment all ranged by marching section of the band. Once Legarian was an upperclassman he could not wait to haze the new freshman. He said it was being “like a vampire looking for blood.” One of the freshmen that Legarian and his band mates hazed was Marcus Heath. He was beaten so bad that he was hospitalized to the point where we couldn’t walk, on a ventilator, and his kidneys had stopped working. Legarian had stated that he was “getting back at what they did the year before.” The night of the beating of Marcus, Legarian said he was “caught in the moment and didn’t want tradition to die.” He said that hazing “builds commodore” and is a “brotherhood.” He said that they “play the same instruments together, ate together, study together, and hit together.” Legarian and six other were eventually prosecuted. Over the last fifteen years, only twenty members of Southern University’s band had been arrested for violent hazing and countless other have been expelled from the band. What is interesting is that those members are never expelled from the school, just the band for a period of time. The band as the whole is never punished either. They still want to compete, so they only suspend certain member of the band. Schools now, however, make all band members sign an SU marching band anti-hazing contract. The problem is that it still continues to be a “normal part of the experience” of being part of a team. Back in the semester during one of class activities, the class was asked if hazing was unacceptable under any conditions or was accepted as a part of sport tradition. The class pretty much split fifty-fifty on this concept. We all have our interpretation of deviance in sport and what is considered the sports “norm.” I was on the side against hazing in any form. It was interesting to see how many people thought otherwise and I’m sure they thought that too when they saw how many people weren’t on their side. Deviance in sport needs to be recognized and people need to be educated about it. Thanks to this program, the sport deviance of the action of over conformity and hazing made more people aware of what’s happening in our school system and our athletics.
For a short clip from the interview of Legarian Bridgewater, copy and paste the url into a new browser.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u_kd4JrXpB8
T. Richmond
Kinesiology 332I, Sect 3017
1 comment:
I've never understood the tradition of hazing and what people say hazing means and brings to a group of people. I played freshman basketball and if I would have known about the hazing, I would not have even tried out. I get the concept of hazing people to become part of the group but I see it no different from how gangs have their initiations. Specially when there is physical body damage done to another person. In my school, I only knew of certain hazing rituals people did in the basketball team. One was holding down a player in his back and then each player hitting the person in the stomach with a paddle. I can't find the connection between the event and then the right of saying; "ok, now you're a part of the team."
I'm not totally against hazing. I do believe there's other ways to achieve this unity and brotherhood without the violence some extort to. For instance, another sort of hazing was the freshmen playing the varsity team in a scrimmage game. The difference is obvious in size and aggressiveness. The young players simply got pounded by the big guys. They backed them up hard, sometimes knocking them down. Maybe an elbow to the chest but at least the players can choose to fight back or not. And there's a sense of competitiveness. Plus, playing with "the big boys" and not backing down to them shows what you're willing to do on the court for your team when it does count in the season. Overall, hazing in a way that harms a person physically or maybe even mentally is just wrong and doesn't belong in high schools or colleges either.
Enrique A.
Kin 332I.S300
T-th
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