How Physical Cultural Has Made A Significant Impact On The Societal Dynamics Of The United States

In the book titled Race, Sports, and the American Dream, it discussed how sports helped change the place of African-American in society. “Sports was well segregated deep into the 20th century” (Smith 9). How college football looked in America in the 1950s was exactly how American society looked in the 1950s, segregated and racist. African-American athletes in college football helped fight and negate stereotypes because it showed that they are equally as good

Over the last decade, the prominence and relevance of sports has permeated the social fabric of American culture. As a sociological construct, sports have helped create a new sense of identity for millions of Americans by appealing to their personal and physical needs and by subconsciously influencing the manner in which they interact with one another. When analyzed through a sociological framework, sports have the capacity to transcend racial, political and socioeconomic barriers making it one of the world’s most powerful community-building institutions.

American Lore is just like any other lore it has myths, legends, and fairy tales, but American lore shows the history of America and how we live today, with a twist to the story. With Legends, myths, and fairy tales it expresses the way americans think and how creative we can be to come up with these stories from things that could actually happen. Legends are based on historical facts Myths are based on religion and gods and goddesses. Fairy Tales are made believe not real, includes special creatures. Tall tales and legends are more based in American lore and is heavily based on history and the many traditional stories that are spread from generation to generation. American lore is based on, “power social status and prestige, control or dominance over people and resources. Achievement which is a personal success through demonstrating competence according to social standards . Hedonism pleasure or sensuous

In the book “Winning Is the Only Thing”, Randy Roberts and James Olsen unravel the true origins of sports and the post war effects on American sports. The book reveals the social, economic, racial, and worldly affairs that shaped sports in the U.S. Roberts and Olsen also explain how sports went from fun and games to winning being the only importance. The book begins with the cold war and its effects on the Olympic Games, demonstrating how the games were politicized. It then transitions with racial integration becoming a thing of the past, to the modernization of sports through mass media and technology. “Winning is the Only Thing” offers a variety of the historical stories, giving the readers factual insight on the controversial and scandalous sides behind the transformation of American sports. The book was informative and quickly covered the historical and evolutionary aspects of sports, keeping the book short, sweet and easy to read.

I recently saw the film, 42, and I found many connections with our Sociology of Sport class. First and foremost, the movie was about the baseball legend, Jackie Robinson. Jack broke the baseball color barrier and was the first African American player allowed in Major League Baseball. He played for the Brooklyn Dodgers beginning in 1947. Jack was a strong, talented player, but he also had a mind of his own. He played with an attitude that would be taunting to other players. When he made it to the Montreal Royals in 1946, he had to quickly get rid of this taunting, smart attitude. He was the only black player in a time of hatred and prejudice in the United States. Although he

Looking through American history, we see that sports has been used to conserve and show off the social order going on at that point in time. They [sports] was and is used to show off one's masculinity, to show off one's racial superiority. Tools like discipline, cooperation, strategy and rigor allowed the superior elite to use sports as a way of prepping businessmen, military member or industrialists. While African Americans, Japanese and other oppressed minorities to aim for equal treatment on and off the field.

After extensive study on different types of worldview, I realized that transformative worldview would be the best view to bring to the study. ( ) One of the ideas provided in our text book stated that research “needs to be intertwined with politics and a political change agenda to confront social oppression at whatever level it occurs.” (9)This statement is a direct viewpoint that could be brought from the research on the topic. Politics have changed college athletics and have a very big influence on what happens in each sport. One of the implications that became a realization is empowerment because college athletes could

The central idea of “Why sports history is American History”, by Mark Naison, is how sports shaped the American Life (Topic Sentence). In the section, “Racism and Sexism in Sports”, it says “Although sports showed the racism of American society, it also helped to stop it. In the 1930s, more than 80 years ago, two black athletes became major American sports heroes. ”(Quote) This shows that sports have had the same ups and downs as the other Americans.

The outbreak of African American’s into the world of sports throughout the 1900’s emerged to have an influential impact on the Civil Right’s movement because they started to move our nation forward as one nation and not a nation separated by race. “Whether it was a conscious stand or unintentional advocacy, athletes and coaches throughout the past century used their participation in sports to change the racial atmosphere in our country” (The Role of Sports Among the Civil Rights Movement). Athletes became more and more useful in the fight for Civil Rights with more recognition they received in the years to follow

Sport has been used to show the worthiness of an estranged group and nudge the nation to live up to its stated ideals. An example to the protests

Just as baseball had both a cyclical and chronological history, the history of racial inequality in sports did as well. The chronological history of racial inequality in sports involved a slow progression from minorities being viewed as racially inferior to minorities being viewed as equals and in some cases even superior in some sports. The cyclical history of racial inequality involves processes of segregating and disbarring minorities to integrating teams and then back to inequality in opportunities for minorities in sports. This generational history shows the challenges that minorities faced repeatedly by challenging cultural norms throughout time. Jack Johnson, Joe Louis, and many other minority athletes acted as political activists as well as athletes from the Civil War to World War II. The athletic prowess of these political activists allowed them to defy longstanding attitudes of racial inferiority and manliness in the United States. They fought against the attitudes of physical, moral, emotional, and intellectual inferiority by using their success, fame, and power in the media.

Sports, admittedly, have had a huge impact on our culture. Some of us even use sports as an excuse to gather our family for some quality time with each other, whether they just hangout for the sake of entertainment or engage in a meaningful conversation full of fervid passion when discussing spectacular plays, athletes, and coaches. However, people talk about the multitude of positive traits that sports are associated with, one must be informed about the abundance of issues that sports face; issues that keep sports from being what we want it to be- free from malicious intent and more along the lines of a peaceful collaboration perpetuated by authentic equality; coming together to proclaim our love for the game. Inequality, for example, is

The period of 1865 to 1950 was critical to the formation of “Modern” sport that is recognized today. In an article by Allen Guttmann titled From Ritual to Record: the nature of modern sport, Guttmann outlines seven characteristics that played a central role in the development of sports. These concepts were created as a sociological history of sports and took into place both American and European competitions. Guttmann’s notions of secularism, rationalization, bureaucracy and quantification, among others, all advanced the culture of sports; yet the most important of the stated characteristics is equality.

"Politics has come to be considered not only inappropriate in the arena of sports, but actually antithetical to it," Zirin says. "We want so much to see sports solely as an arena of play, not seriousness. But here's the thing, this can cheapen not only the greatness and relevance of sports to us as a society, but also the courage of the athletes" (The Nation). The pursuit of fame, wealth and status can blind the human conscious, which is why it is important for us to encourage athletes to speak their minds. As a nation, we should not silence the athletes, because it is the truly courageous athletes who have the audacity to stand up when it’s not popular. Sports should be used as a platform for a certain kind of politics: militarism,

Sport sociology examines sports as a part of cultural and social life, and adds a different dimension and perspective to the study of sport and exercise. More specifically, sport sociology examines the relationship between sports and society and seeks answers to many issues and questions regarding sport and culture. Sociology of sport poses critical and controversial issues; additionally, sports are considered a microcosm of society, the same social issues that exist in larger society also exist in sport culture. I have chosen eight peer-reviewed Sociological Journals to expand upon the understanding of this topic that I found to be the most relevant and offer diverse yet complete perspectives on sports.