Stero Type Threat

OK, this concept is a new to me and still zinging 'round me head so this will probably be a stream of conciousness rather than a long planned and well-thought-out thesis

At first I thought to myself, being a white male with blue eyes - oh right, this is a 'minority' thing, that it isn't really going to apply to me - I'm suppose to be part of the dominate culture, the invisible empire, (with the world at my feet and sh1t that smells sweet) due to the random accident we all go through called, "birth".

Then I read a bit further and thought, now wait a second, this may be applicable...

You see, I'm not any good at any sport, not even a *little* bit, not by anyones imagination. From what egg was this injustice hatched? How did the world, or more to the point, how did I malign myself with this culturally unaccetable idiom?

If we hot rewind on the clock around 30 years ago, we would find a skinny white boy with a snotty nose, no fear in those blue eyes and a strong need for peer acceptance and support.

...on a rugby felid...

...opposite a slightly larger Samoan boy who's name I forgot...

...and every time he had the ball he walked over me without much change in speed, direction or momentum...

...and I never quite got the change to return or repay that favour, fearless as I was at that age...

...which irked me, sore as I was after that game, I turned to our captain and asked why he was so adamant in expressing to the team

..."make sure Phillip doesn't get the ball"...

Now, his answer to that question is lost in the sands of time and it is not important to this blogpost any further than to say that I believed his answer, to such an extent, that if I was to, -I would probably play rugby like an 8 year old. Witnessing the slight advantage at 8 turn into life threatening, backbreaking advantages by the time we were 13 only made this voice louder - "don't play sport you aren't good at sport".

For those of you querring how did one eight year olds opinions on one game of rugby balloon in to a manifested lack of ability in all sporting realms - that is in my undestanding called the Stero Type Threat.

It's a matter of because I believe I'm not going to be as good as the next guy, I don't perform as well as I could. It's similar to the way they train a small young elephant with a chain around it's ankle, it spends all of it's childhood trying to escape that chain. By the time the elephant is fully grown they can replace the chain with a bit of string, it stopped trying to win in that competition with the chain a long, long time a go.

P.S. Even years later, and much practiced at pool, I still never managed to beat most of the Samoan's at work, becasue, ya know, "white boys aren't that good at sport."