Ohio's Boxing Champ Kelly Pavlik: Called A White Guy Who Can Fight

CINCINNATI (TDB) -- Newly crowned middleweight Kelly Pavlik gets a big write up today in the Boston Herald via AP sports columnist Tom Dahlberg, who points out the fighter from Youngstown is a white man in a sport dominated by African Americans. Dahlberg thinks that could make Pavlik a 160-pound star. But the whole black/white thing feels uncomfortable, like skin color is more important than athletic ability in boxing.

From the Boston Herald:

"He fights every fight aggressively, never gives ground and has a thudding right hand than can cause an opponent's legs to turn to Jello. It doesn't hurt that he's white in a sport that has always chased the next great white hope. Ironically, though, the color of his skin may have also played a role in slowing his way to the top."

U. of Dayton Research: N-Word Often Used By Whites

DAYTON (TDB) -- A University of Dayton sociology professor has written a book with a Texas A&M colleague that says whites use the N-word often in settings where blacks are not present. The researchers say ugly racial stereotypes are commonly expressed during whites-only conversations. In short, the book contends people of color are disparaged today with the kind of offensive language what was openly used in the 1940s.

''People argue that the N-word no longer has racial meaning, but it's very common and very prevalent and they do seem to know the racial significance of it," said Leslie H. Picca, an assistant professor of sociology at the Catholic school in Ohio. "These are white, educated students -- the kind of people we generally believe are less racist. It was heartbreaking, just heartbreaking, to see how frequent, how common and how harshly these racial stereotypes are being perpetuated."

Her findings are based on written journals maintained during the 2002-2003 school year by 626 white college students. They students were on campuses across the nation, but the sites have not yet been made public. The co-author of the book is Joe R. Feagin at Texas A&M. Their book is Two Faced Racism: Whites in the Backstage and Frontstage. It is due for release this spring by Routledge Publishing.

The authors said they found one student who heard the n-word 27 times in a single day, and they conclude that whites talk about blacks they way they did over the past 40 to 60 years. The project was designed to examine how whites used racially offensive language when they were in private groups. Most of the students were between ages 18 and 25, and nearly all grew up in the post-civil rights era.

Feagin said 9,000 accounts were collected in the journals, and about 75 percent denigrated blacks, 10 percent were aimed at Hispanics and the rest were offensive toward Arabs, Jews and other groups. He delivered a lecture in 2005 that DISCUSSED the findings before they were prepared for the upcoming book.

Picca said in a school news release about her research that white women students sometimes object to prejudicial language, but the objectors themselves can become targets for insults. Her study about white in private moments contradicts the findings of public opinion surveys of whites who say they have become more tolerant. The University of Dayton's news release about the forthcoming book is available HERE.