{"id":4405,"date":"2011-03-07T14:17:10","date_gmt":"2011-03-07T19:17:10","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.faithpromotingrumor.com\/?p=4405"},"modified":"2011-03-07T14:17:10","modified_gmt":"2011-03-07T19:17:10","slug":"byus-honor-code-implications-of-racism-and-journalistic-rhetorical-structures","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/faithpromotingrumor\/2011\/03\/byus-honor-code-implications-of-racism-and-journalistic-rhetorical-structures\/","title":{"rendered":"BYU’s honor code, implications of racism, and journalistic rhetorical structures"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

\"\"I don\u2019t really follow college sports, but I couldn\u2019t help but notice the attention BYU has been receiving in the national media this year. I kept hearing about this fellow named \u201cJimmer,\u201d who, evidently, is quite a fine basketball player. (He\u2019s looking to surpass Danny Ainge as BYU\u2019s top scorer of all time, for example.) BYU was surging ahead in the rankings, a system which I don\u2019t understand in the least, but is supposed to be a big deal. BYU ranked #3 in the nation, something like that.<\/p>\n

With all this hype BYU was poised to make some noise during March Madness. Then they announced the suspension of a key player. A lot of national media coverage was positive, praising BYU<\/a> for their integrity in suspending a player despite the risk of ruining one of BYU\u2019s finest basketball seasons ever.<\/p>\n

I have some mixed feelings about the circumstances but I wanted to take a look at a report from NPR\u2019s \u201cAll Things Considered,\u201d<\/a> which plays nationally, not just locally in Utah. Michele (Mee-shell) Norris is interviewing an NPR sports analyst Stefan Fatsis:<\/p>\n

FATSIS<\/strong>: Yeah, BYU kicked its second-best player, sophomore center Brandon Davies, off of the team for violating the Mormon school\u2019s honor code because he\u2019d had premarital sex with his girlfriend. And almost universally, the media has praised BYU as courageous for sticking to its principles in a world of college sports cheats, especially at time when it was doing so well, the argument being that BYU students know what they\u2019re signing up for: no caffeine, no alcohol, no cursing, no beards. Living a chaste and virtuous life is the way the honor code puts it.<\/p>\n

Columnists and commentators love to defend righteous acts. But I think there\u2019s more to this conversation.<\/p>\n

NORRIS<\/strong>: More like what?<\/p>\n

FATSIS<\/strong>: Well, these rules, for one thing. We haven\u2019t heard much about whether these rules are applied uniformly across the student body. And it\u2019s also worth noting that Brandon Davies is African-American, and the last two athletes who left their BYU teams for the same reason are of Pacific Island descent. And this is a campus that is overwhelmingly white.<\/p>\n

Then you\u2019ve got the stickier subject of whether these rules should maybe be questioned by people outside of the Mormon Church<\/a>. And finally, I think it bears asking, you know, does BYU\u2019s willingness to shame a 19-year-old in such a public way, is that the best approach, honor code or not?<\/p>\n

NORRIS<\/strong>: Now, BYU was trounced in its first game without Davies, just its third loss this season\u2026<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

A few things stuck out to me as I listened to this on the radio.<\/p>\n

First, the implication of racism stuck out, but I\u2019ll get to that below. Overall I thought the rhetorical structure of Fatsis\u2019s response made it appear as though BYU publicized the actual violation (premarital sex). He begins his comments by announcing the actual violation, premarital sex, which BYU themselves did not comment on. He concludes by noting \u201cBYU\u2019s willingness to shame a 19-year-old in such a public way.\u201d At no point does he distinguish what BYU said and what was ultimately reported by media outlets. Had I not been following other coverage I would have been under the impression that BYU announced his sin as a public shaming of some sort; a scarlet letter moment. This isn\u2019t to say the suspension doesn\u2019t shame the player at all. To the contrary, given his stature and the national coverage I think it\u2019s a really unfortunate situation. At the same time, BYU is not announcing his sins in public in an effort to publicly shame him (in fact, Fatsis\u2019s remarks disclosed more \u201cshameful\u201d information than BYU did, ironically).<\/p>\n

Second, Fatsis says \u201cWe haven\u2019t heard much about whether these rules are applied uniformly across the student body.\u201d From what I understand, a violation is a violation, no matter the religious background. But are LDS players, students, coaches, teachers, more likely to be \u201cfound out\u201d because of the ecclesiastical connection to the school? Say a practicing Muslim breaks the honor code. Would she be as likely to be found out as someone who confesses a sin to an LDS bishop? I don\u2019t know.<\/p>\n

Third, a question about Fatsis\u2019s list of\u00a0forbiddens: \u201cBYU students know what they\u2019re signing up for: no caffeine, no alcohol, no cursing, no beards.\u201d No caffeine? (Or maybe he\u2019s talking about purchasing caffeine on campus, I can\u2019t remember if you can get\u00a0caffeinated\u00a0fountain drinks or not, for example. Anyone?) And I admit, I\u2019m 100% with Fatsis on the beard ban. Time for that hoary rule to be buried (especially in regards to\u00a0visiting Sikh professors<\/a>, whose beards are part of their religious obligations although BYU has required them to shave). Compared with more difficult issues involving morality, etc. the beard thing ought to be a no-brainer. Maybe they fear the \u201cif you give a mouse a cookie\u201d scenario? The \u201ccamel\u2019s nose in the tent\u201d situation? The \u201chow close to the side of the road can you, a trucker applying for a job at my trucking company, drive without falling off the cliff\u201d circumstance?<\/p>\n

Finally, I was pretty surprised to see Fatsis\u2019s veiled charge of racism, which slipped by without analysis or challenge by the interviewer. But this is part of the radio journalism game: quick coverage is the goal. Radio reports like this one are built to be bite-sized sound-bites. It\u2019s obvious they\u2019re just trying to get through quickly. NPR spends much more time on bigger stories, this was sort of a side-show story of sorts, March Madness is on the horizon. Still, Fatsis basically implies that race may be behind sports suspension and as evidence, points to other players who \u201cleft their BYU teams for the same reason.\u201d Why not distinguish between what teams? What about non-sports players who receive sanctions based on honor code violations? BYU is \u201coverwhelmingly white,\u201d that\u2019s understood. But do the sports teams accurately reflect the overall ethnic makeup of the school? My guess is that they don\u2019t, and that raises questions neither Fatsis nor Norris raise. Incidentally, I\u2019ve only seen implied charges of racism in one related story about NBA star Amare Stoudemire\u2019s Twitter comment: \u201cDon\u2019t ever go to BYU, they kick a Young Educated (Black)Brother OUT OF SCHOOL. The kid had premarital sex. Not suspended, Not Release. Wow!\u201d He quickly issued a wooden apology<\/a> though.<\/p>\n

I mulled over some of these thoughts as NPR quickly moved on to weightier stories about Libya, gas prices, and local traffic.<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I don\u2019t really follow college sports, but I couldn\u2019t help but notice the attention BYU has been receiving in the national media this year. I kept hearing about this fellow named \u201cJimmer,\u201d who, evidently, is quite a fine basketball player. (He\u2019s looking to surpass Danny Ainge as BYU\u2019s top scorer of all time, for example.) […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":315,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[25],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4405","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"\nBYU's honor code, implications of racism, and journalistic rhetorical structures<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"I don't really follow college sports, but I couldn't help but notice the attention BYU has been receiving in the national media this year. 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