The Prevalence of Inequality in Sports Essay example

Women in professional sports fits into the Sex and Power: Global Gender Inequality class because many female athletes have experienced the inequalities in a professional sports setting. Female athletes are being put down by gender inequalities, causing less females participating in athletic programs. Women athletes are being paid less than their male counterparts. Along with being paid less, female and males are receiving unequal benefits in the form of scholarship, media coverage, transportation, and stadium conditions. The professional sport’s world is filled with the obsession of body image and sexuality. Through this obsession, female athletes have been abused from the people they trust the most. There is an increasing inequality in women’s professional sports in the form of pay, sexuality, and abuse.

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.

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.

Race and ethnicity in sports is a very delicate subject. You run a great risk of offending someone when discussing the subject to begin with. Is one race dominant in a certain sport? I think we need to address this with respect and delicacy. But when we look at the need to be so delicate, that should be an indication that race and ethnicity matter with regards to sports.

Racial ideology continues to have an influence on the sporting world, and on the sports and recreational options for Americans. In a diverse American society, we need to be conscious of the lingering effects of racial ideology and seek to eliminate any of these remaining effects. The effects are numerous. At the professional and collegiate levels, there are differences between the way that power is distributed. Managers and coaches are almost always white, even in sports where the players are largely African-American. Ethnicity also can contribute to similar outcomes the number of foreign-born coaches in MLB, the NHL and NBA is almost nil, even as percentages of foreign-born players are steadily increasing. In addition, people are still affected at the youth level as well, as opportunities in sports and recreational are not evenly distributed. There needs to be increasing awareness of how the lingering effects of racial ideology still affect people today.

Racism and discrimination have been used as powerful weapons encouraging fear or hatred of others. Racism occurs much more than we like to admit. In sports, racism is happening more often and becoming a much bigger problem. Most agree that sports are a reflection of society. What this means is that sports often act as a small-scale version of society and thus, racial problems in sports have been, and continue to be, brushed away as nothing unique. It takes outrageous conduct for the reality of racism in sports to come to the forefront. When comparing a minority athlete to a non-minority athlete, we can see they both are victims of discrimination because of their race. However, the type of discrimination is very different, and the effects are very different. To a lot of people, the sports world is a place in which none of the normal problems of the “real” world could possibly exist. Racism has had an impact on student athletes of all ages and race, in both their personal life and outside their personal life. The racism that some American minority and non-minority student athletes face has long-running effects on the athletes’ education and career opportunities. The racial issues in sports can be addressed better when exposed and talked about.

Sports as an industry is quickly evolving into a grand, formless entity with many avenues, opportunities for scholar-practitioners, and segments that have prolonged the business of sports like never before. But, not quite in the racial area of the sports world, whether it is in the media or through personal experiences, Racism has always been a part of history, but today, it seems as if theirs have been modestly an acceptance of racism. As the industry expands a growing blend between the worlds of sports and entertainment has also formed, linking the two together, and bringing entertainment to the forefront in sports in terms of sponsorships, marketing, athlete representation, team ownership and sports law have effected. Professional American athletes should be against prejudice and racism in sports because it created prejudice and unequal right for speech and protest while amplifying prejudice in professional sports leagues such as the NBA and NFL.

There are racial inequalities within sports throughout America. If more people were educated on issues, such as diversity, oppression (though racism and sexism), and cultural differences, it would expand America’s way of thinking, making it easier to grow as a society and as a nation. My research question is “Do professional athletes, in today’s society, deal with racial inequalities and oppression?”.

My zeal to explore the influence of sports on minorities has led me to the Cultural Studies of Sports and Physical Culture program here at the University of Rhode Island. It is my

Sexism in Sports From the beginning of time, females have been the inferior gender. One may think that in sports, it is relatively fair compared to the outside world but it is not it is much worse. As soon as a female steps onto a field, a court, a track, or a rink, they are automatically thought of as less athletic than a male. Many things need to change in the sports industries. Including the way they talk about women, the amount of coverage time they get, and the wages they receive( Establishing a need).

The discussion of superior has been brought up numerous times throughout the history of time. Whether it is superiority over a species, subject, or attribute people tend to render something better than other. In today’s modern age with a “peaceful” global world trying to be put into place, we have tried to eliminate superiority between others humans and promote equality. The elimination of superiority has also reared its head in business over time in the United States with the extinguishing of monopolies. Even though the United States has tried to “lead the charge” in trying to terminate superiority and inequality inside their country, men’s superiority still

Sport plays a crucial role for many people in improving quality of life. Sport in this day in age, can promote social inclusion, providing opportunities for all regardless of age, sex, colour, religion, age, physical ability, economic background with people and the world around them. As a result of the large array of diversity in sport although, one in five people experience racism at sports-related events (Ferdinand A, Kelaher M & Paradies Y 2013).

The acceptance of black athletes in professional sports has increased significantly in the last 100 years  however racial challenge continue to exist. Black people have been discriminated against for decades, specifically black athletes. Black athletes had to face racial discrimination because of their colour and have fought their way to be accepted and even idolized in the sports world. Even though they are becoming more accepted they are still being discriminated against by teammates, fans and even owners of the team.  This report will examine the history of discrimination, segregation and racism in sport.

In the book entitled A Sociological Perspective of Sports, Wilbert Marcellus Leonard II says, “Many of us have strong opinions as to the value of competitive sports. Some of our beliefs are based on personal experiences, others are not” (219). I have my own strong opinions about the value of sports, most of which are based on personal experiences. I have been surrounded by, and involved in, competitive level sports my entire life.

Sports have proved to be an important tool for promoting social, economic and political change. In the history of the world, a few sports personalities have braced social injustice and initiated liberation campaign. It is on record that games and sports have been used as tools for restoring social justice in the communities across the world. We live in a globe where all sorts of discrimination are at play such as racial, religious and gender among others hence the need to use sports as an avenue of bringing people together for mutual coexistence and also in the interest of peace. sports was used for the purposes of healing and reconciliation.