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African Americans : The Treatment Of Minority Athletes

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A synopsis of racism in American Sports

The treatment of minority athletes, particularly African Americans has been a grave issue in American sports for decades. More than fifty years ago, to be a colored person playing a so- called “white sport,” meant that it was an unfortunate fact that inequality, prejudices and racial discrimination came along with that territory, and it is also an unfortunate fact that some of those racial tensions are yet in full, modernized effect today. African- American starting five, or starting lineman, being told what to do, when, and how to do it by their Caucasian coaches, and general managers, are in sync with past century notions of African- American slaves being under total dominion and authority of …show more content…

Although, Glory Road may seem to be solely about the challenges that African Americans faced in the white bastion of mid-century college sport, it also contributes greatly to the larger genre of white-centered sports films. The team 's triumph and victory marks a new era in collegiate basketball, and insinuates the beginning of what colored people thought would be the end of racial discrimination in the United States. Joshua Pitts, and Daniel Yost go on, by way of field study research, to elaborate on racial position segregation, or racial “stacking” in intercollegiate football. By estimating a probit model, an approximation was made on the impact that an athlete 's race could have on the probability of him or her changing positions when transitioning from high school to the collegiate ranks. Racial position segregation refers to the phenomenon of white and African American players being relegated to certain types of positions on a team. Pitts and Yost state that “the broad wage gap between African- American athletes, and white athletes is primarily considered a ‘within-plant’ phenomenon, meaning that white athletes tend to occupy the higher paid positions on a team or firm” (Pitts, Yost, 208). By viewing a team as a firm, the issue can be considered a case of interfirm segregation and

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