Prejudice In Baseball

Like female athletes, African Americans have had a difficult time getting equal treatment and representation for their successes by the media. African Americans were thought to have a feeling of hate towards others, as displayed in the classic feature, Remember the Titans, “Look at them, they hate us, they’ll always hate us.” In today’s sports arena, African American athletes are represented in their sports’ categories in a much larger group than in the past. However, they are still struggling to have the same equalization as their teammates in the media’s representation of their talents and skills. A typical stereotype of the African American by the media is their depiction of them having more brawn than brain. For example, Luke Walton of the Los Angeles Lakers, for example, is a white male whom commentators often commend for his high basketball IQ when he makes plays, but often fault for his insufficient physical ability when he doesn’t. African American teammates of Walton’s, in contrast, find their “skills” praised when they execute well and their “mental errors” blamed for failures to execute. Sports-related socialization of this discriminatory type can perpetuate stereotypes generation after generation.

The topic of race in sport, particularly African Americans in sport, has long been a controversial yet, widely discussed matter. Human and social issues are never easy subjects to discuss or debate, and racial differences tend to provoke very strong reactions. To begin, we will explore those whom claim that black athletes excel in sports as a result of their biological make up. Of all players in the NBA, more than 75% of them are black; of all players in the WNBA, more than 70% of them are black; of all players in the NFL, more than 65% of them are black (Hoenig, 2014). Evidently, black athletes make up a vast majority of these sports in the United States. Athletes must be of elite caliber to have the ability to play at this level, so this

One interesting view by Douglas Hartmann in his journal article entitled “Rethinking The Relationships Between Sports And Race In American Culture: Golden Ghettos And Contested Terrain” said that racial issues in sport is; borrowing Stuart Hall (1981) words- “a contested racial terrain” (qtd. in Hartmann 241). The “contested racial terrain” is defined as “a social site where racial images, ideologies, and inequalities are constructed, transformed, and constantly struggled over” (Hartmann 230). In other words, sports have become a medium where the definition and limitation of racism created. This also means that the definition of racial issues will constantly change over time. Hartmann view is interesting seeing that he believes that the context of racism in sports are actually broader than we actually think. He did not agree with the simple view of because racial discrimination happens in our society, thus racial discrimination also happens in sports (Hartmann 242). He further delves into two interesting problems in stereotyping and biasing.

In today’s society, there are many ways race shapes perceptions. There is a social significance attached to skin color and race, and among this, they vary greatly. Furthermore, individuals nowadays do not shape their perceptions of athletes by athletic merit alone; instead, fans perception is often racially coded. The Atlantic article by Adam Felder and Seth Amitin presented the hidden bias of broadcaster. In this study, they focused on announcers for televised baseball games in order to detect the terminology used to describe players. They discovered that “while there is no difference between race or nationality when it comes to performance-based descriptions, effort-based and character-based descriptions make a big difference”(1) This instance demonstrates the existence of a subconscious racial bias among individuals. The race of the athlete shapes the viewer’s perception by guaranteeing the success of performance in the eye of the fan. Additionally, white athletes are credited for their training, work ethic, and dedication, whereas blacks are simply credited for their genes and skin color. This study shows how eliminating racial prejudice in sports consumption is difficult, since it is an underlying idea many have. Instead of simply focusing on their race, fans and viewers should instead take into account the effort and talent of the athlete. Media portrayals of races affect how viewers react to them, and therefore it also needs to start with the reporting of black

The year is 1936, in Pasadena, California. A single mother works many odd jobs just to put food on the table for her five children. These children, all black, face discrimination every day. They, along with their minority friends, are rarely included in activities. The youngest of them, however, appears to have a great gift for sport. He is a shortstop for the baseball team, quarterback for the football team, and guard on the basketball team, and he excelled in all three. On August 28th, 1945, now a former college athlete and veteran, he had a meeting with Branch Rickey. That day, Jackie Robinson signed a contract to be the first black player in Major League Baseball. Of course, many black people have excelled in many areas. Though racism has always been a part of society, many black people have been able to make great accomplishments and are now celebrated for what they do.

Basketball, football, and hockey are considered the most popular sports in America as of today. However, sports in the early 1950s were not as popular as they are now. According to “An Exercise in Subtleties and the Transmission of Racism: An Analysis of Sports Illustrated Covers” by Eric Primm, Summer DuBois, and Robert M. Regoli, they stated that American love their sport and that “each year they would spend billions of dollars on sports-related items and activities.” The media help promote the popularity of the sports in America. Consequently, sports media “plays a key role in perpetuating the types of racial stereotypes about minority athletes in sports” (Ismond, 115). The thesis of this writing project is with some racial stereotype reinforcement

When asked who broke the “color line” in baseball, most people would think of Jackie Robinson. An advocate for civil rights as well as an outstanding baseball player, he became a significant figure in American history, and is widely recognized as the first black baseball player in the Major Leagues. However, a lesser known player named Moses Fleetwood Walker was a player in the Major Leagues six decades before Robinson. Although faced with similar trials in each of their integration into the white-dominated sport, their attitudes were far from similar. Walker wasn’t quite as likable as Robinson and was not as exceptional in his playing. Walker’s actions after baseball, including the murder of a man and his support of the “Back to Africa” movement,

Throughout American history, sports has always been a big topic. Many Americans view sports as a part of their culture and an influence in their lives. There are many opportunities to play sports such as basketball, football, golf, baseball, ect. However, not everybody had equal opportunities to play sports before there were major changes in sports history. One of these major changes included other ethnicity groups and skin colored people to be allowed to play sports. African American athletes were one of the main groups of people that changed this view. They were not allowed or qualified to play sports because of their skin color and background. Since the 1800’s, African Americans the views of the people in the United States of blacks in sports

But honestly Jackie Robinson squashed that to pieces. “1947 Robinson became the “rookie of the year” made the difference… Jackie instantly became the league’s biggest draw”(Sailer 4). Jackie was getting so much attention that in “1948 one year after Jackie Robinson milestone… Gotham corporation issued him a baseball game named after him”(Wong 30). The company took note on how much popularity a black rookie and instantly became a huge success. “ The liberal world view, discrimination stem from ignorance of the actual talents of blacks in baseball, opposite was true”(Sailer 3). The pigmentation that is visual to the human eye is very noticeable especially the darker tones. Having so much talent and not being white was look down upon it wasn’t till recently like Jackie Robinson and others started to change the different angle people perceived. “Jackie opened people's eyes of all races that skin color had nothing to do with talent ability, hard work, strength of character, matter the most”(Glasser 11). Finally people where paying attention to what a black person had to say, and if no one listened the actions of Robinson showed through even in the tough times. “Between 1949-1962 black players where dominating the game by winning 11 out of 14 NL MVP awards”(Sailer 3). It wasn't to common to see a black man playing in the leagues after WWII. The odds where still being defined Robinson was a intelligent

A stereotype I always hear is "ALL black people are good at basketball" it means that there is a disproportionately large percentage of black people that are good at basketball, which leads people to believe that if someone is black, there are higher than average odds that they will be good at basketball. The fact that my black uncle isn't good at basketball doesn't disprove this stereotype. The fact that Justin Timberlake can dance doesn't disprove the idea that white people may tend to have less sense of rhythm, many stereotypes and generalizations are based on verifiable statistics. Bottom line, and I will say this from experience, is that if you're a minority in the US, you have to work harder, and strive harder in school. I've hung around

Similar to Jack Johnsons’ experiences with race and discrimination in the early 20th century, African American Baseball players faced these hardships too. In The Bingo Long Traveling All-Stars & Motor Kings, directed by John Badham, we see that African Americans could play baseball if they were in their own league: The Negro American League and the Negro National League. They had their own stadiums with solely African American spectators. However, even in these segregated teams, there was still problems that occurred. Although the abolishment of slavery already occurred, threats of being set back to work in plantations and doing hard labor were still prevalent. This indicates that the African American baseball players had to work even harder and stay in their prime for as long as possible to keep their jobs, regardless of who they were working for. If they were to play against teams made of Caucasians, the audience members composed of more Caucasians made negative statements when the African American team would get a home run, a layer on first, strike out their team, or anything that made the white team look bad. The way they avoided this was, instead, they acted like fools. They would play silly tricks, wear costumes, etcetera to be able to make the audience laugh and still win the game. This coincides with the thinking mentioned above with Jack Johnson; African Americans cannot be superior, and they

Blacks are always thought to have the advantage in all sporting competition while whites had the advantage in challenges that involved using your intellect. Neither of these societal stereotypes are true, but yet this way of portraying blacks and whites is beginning to become the societal norm. In Get Out, Chris is questioned many times about his abilities in various sports. This view of blacks being exceptional in sports praises their physical abilities, but it does not contribute to their identity of being able to be good at sports while being able to have an good head on their shoulders. The identity of black people is intentionally trying to be demolished through the words of a member of the Armitage Family when it is mentioned that they will flourish with their determination and the physical abilities of a black person.

Sports are one of America’s favorite pass times, but why do Americans watch or participate in the sports that they do? The sports Americans use for entertainment usually come from the sports that were put before them as kids or by peers. A large part of this seems to do with the race or the athlete or spectator. Race can affect the opportunities they have to participate or the perceived abilities of an athlete, and opportunities to be in positions of power. There are several prejudice on what sports one should play based on race.

One first type of African American man that comes to mind of a stereotypical person is tall, buff, and very athletic. This man is classified as the athlete and is only seen to as that and to others he holds no significant value off the field or court. He is the great person to win the championship and earn the team a ring, but he is

There have been many fights during the years in sports, just because of racism. The fight between how black can’t play this certain sport or the whites can’t play a certain sport. For example, take the sport basketball; they say white people can’t play basketball or how they can’t jump high as the black people. They also released a film in 1992 called White Men Can't Jump. This movie was a