Critical Essay Response

http://espn.go.com/page2/s/list/eastcoastyes.html

Although this is a sports article, it really helped me realize the regional inferiority complexes that exist in our country and how different writers from different regions respond to it.

Schoenfield clearly believes that there is an East Coast Bias in the world of sports and pulls no stops in his attempt to prove it. For his evidence he decides to show ten different cases of this bias.

The main reason why this article helped me so much, even though it was not about the arts, is the way that Schoenfield blames the East Coast bias as a reason the Royals are never the lead on Sportscenter instead of looking at the real reason, the fact that they have been one of the worst teams in professional sports for decades. I found that using this East Coast bias as a scapegoat, as well as over romanticizing certain aspects of a region, were a very convenient excuse to conceal the real reasons why a certain region gets a “raw deal.”

I also took note of how Schoenfield spent more time disparaging the East Coast, whether it be individual athletes, teams or even sports literature, instead of focusing on the good of the other regions that are being “overlooked”. The propensity to disparage the region with a perceived bias rather than talk about the good stuff of the “inferior” region seems to be a very common form of argument against regional bias, and in my opinion one that lessens its merit.

With the help of this article as well as outside research on inferiority complexes I formulated my article, which turned into more of a mockery on regional inferiority complexes than anything else. In addition utilizing the aspects of inferiority complexes that this article revealed, I attempted to replicate one of the main characteristics of an inferiority complex, the tendency to try way too hard. In using overly complicated language and ridiculous similes and metaphors, I attempted to illustrate the propensity for the “overlooked” to try anything and everything to become superior to the “overvalued.”