How is NASCAR a reflection of a specific social and cultural phenomenon in America? Cite the article to support your claims.
reply to two classmates:
David
NASCAR has been etched into the American psyche now for several decades. Like most other sports in America it made the leap from being a backyard spectating event to a corporate enterprise that rakes in millions of dollars. Then as is now NASCAR has a distinct demographic clienttell, white southerners and NASCAR is mainly popular among that region. “This South—the overwhelmingly white,
masculine world of stock car racing—is profoundly Republican.” Pg.5
But there is more to NASCAR than just that oversimplification. NASCAR has its roots in the original races between common folk before it became bureaucratic. Johnson told an interviewer in the early 1970s “people who go to races are more of the people who work in factories.” Pg.1
The idea to drive cars at such high speeds for racing exemplified the spirit of the south in being free, “Lynyrd Skynyrd’s contribution to the CD, a song entitled ‘ White Knuckle Ride,” celebrates a sense of freedom and male independence long-associated with both stock cars and southern-fried rock and roll. The song’s narrative concerns a driver on the NASCAR circuit who remembers his roots even in
in the midst of success.” Pg. 6
But just because all of these things may be true it does not disqualify some of the negative aspects of NASCAR mainly its relationship to race. NASCAR is popular in a region of the U.S where historically the black community was victimized and attitudes to that era is idealized by many southerners. Case in point the Confederate Flag, the banner used by the secessionist south to establish a pro slave country is waved at many of these races . “The self-described ‘ ‘rednecks,’ ‘ Ma at Darlington, fly the Confederate battle flag and enjoy the appea country music superstars like Tammy Wynette. Reveling in the ‘ ‘redneck’ most of these fans are really what Charles Reagan Wilson calls “the so yupp pg.”4
The result being is that it NASCAR has developed a reputation for being a pastime for a segment of the population that is uniquely southern in all of its charm and folk while also simultaneously evolving into an industry that is reminiscent of other commercialized sports and that continues the social attitudes of the south especially when it comes to race.
Madison
Scott Poole demonstrates that NASCAR reflects social and cultural phenomena in America through its direct representation of the changes and modern advancements in its southern heritage. NASCAR fans from the south identify with its proletarian past as well as its demographic and social transformations that began in the 1970s. This is distinct since specifically southerners feel this connection to the sports history of NASCAR as it reflects their heritage and the way their current society is. Davies illustrates this idea too, of how Americans from the south are uniquely connected to the sport since the history of the sport reflects the roots of their society and their culture in its origin, yet transformed with the southern identity now reflecting the way that their society appears today. In fact, African Americans had historically been kept from participating in the sport and the sport had only been for the wealthy. Only “elite” Caucasian males could participate in the sport, which demonstrates how much politics went into the sport hence why it was a “white knuckle race.”