Racism in Sports
Luke Hampton
Truman State University
7/31/2016
The problem of racism is not specifically an American problem, though Americans have made it into an important political and social issue as they have tried to find a way to eliminate racism from their society. Racism occurs whenever there is a dominant racial group that uses its position to discriminate against a minority racial group on the basis of racial characteristics. Traditionally, discrimination has been seen as a creature of prejudice, and until the late 1960s the dominant perspective among social science analysts of discrimination was that prejudice and intolerance were the causes of discriminatory actions. Other observers have focused on individual racists and have seen the problem as the individual motivated by hatred of a given "outgroup." Still others consider the issue in terms of patterns of segregation and community practices (Feagin and Feagin, 1986, 1). Certain areas of American life are seen as transcending racism, and sports has been one of these. While it is true that the admission of blacks to the ranks of college and professional sports was slow in coming, it is also clear from an examination of college and professional teams today that blacks and whites coexist and work together on teams in nearly every sport. Yet, a closer examination shows that racism has not been eliminated from the sports world any more than it has from American life in general, and racist attitudes and
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
In Michael Omi’s essay “In living Color: Race and American Culture,” he describes how racism still exists today, but portrayed differently than just a few decades ago. First, Omi discusses how overt racism (openly showing one’s racism) does not seem as popular today as with generations before us. For example, the Ku Klux Klan became highly popular in terrorizing, murdering, and assaulting minorities. Today, the Ku Klux Klan has become less popular, but we still run into overt racism, such as when Al Campanis stated that blacks do not hold management positions in big industries because the African American community contributes more to society as athletes (Omi 540). Al Campanis theory states that due to the African Americans body structure
If states are the laboratories of democracy, then sports are the arena in which it is tested. This book serves as a review of racial integration and the changing dynamics in sports from 1890 - 1980. Charles Martin aims for the reader to understand why it was common place for white southerners to compete against “non-black” ethnic minorities (E.G. Native Americans, Chinese), but an issue when even a single African American was on an opposing team. Benching Jim Crow explains to the reader that the persistence of segregation lay with overarching cultural mentalities left over from the Civil War, but shifts in position came from external (financial), and internal (students and players). Though offering little insight into the legal and political impacts of Jim Crow itself, Martin paints a detailed, but redundant, narrative of the rise and fall of Jim Crow in athletics.
Throughout American history, relationships between racial and ethnic groups have been marked by antagonism, inequality, and violence. In today’s complex and fast-paced society, historians, social theorists and anthropologists have been known to devote significant amounts of time examining and interrogating not only the interior climate of the institutions that shape human behavior and personalities, but also relations between race and culture. It is difficult to tolerate the notion; America has won its victory over racism. Even though many maintain America is a “color blind nation,” racism and racial conflict remain to be prevalent in the social fabric of American institutions. As a result, one may question if issues and challenges
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
There are two sides to every issue in life. There are people that are for that issue and there are people that are against it. The issue that I am trying to prove today is how exactly did basketball become the metaphor for racial profiling in the Kentucky Community? In “Us Against The World” the kids that were being transferred to Cordia High School were black and they came there for basketball. That actually wasn’t the case for most of them. Most of the boys that transferred was to leave a bad situation back in New York.
One common theme throughout the reading is that “…systemic racist attitudes and negative depictions of people of colour by whites persist” (Feagin & Elias, 2013, p. 937). The historical trajectory of research methods are deeply rooted with systemic forms of racism, which is reflected in literature that was published centuries ago and can still be found in current literature today. Some of the articles that were assigned reference opinions and other forms of literature that state that white Americans believe that race and racism are a thing of the past, while others continue
The idea of racism has evolved and has become less prevalent throughout the last century. Schools and public areas are unsegregated, voting rights, racial slurs being considered as unacceptable behavior etc. American sociologist and race theorist, Howard Winant states that’s “The ensuing approaches increased recognition of racial injustice and inequality, but did not overcome the discriminatory processes” (Winant,2000)Although the United states has come a long way to try to end racism, one cannot ignore the fact that it still exists. It is something that may seem invisible in society, but everybody knows that it still thrives and that it’s racial attitudes affect the way our society functions. One of these invisible forms of
Race and racism continue to exist in our world, and with the assistance of white privilege it becomes increasingly difficult to find a solution. Beverly Daniel Tatum’s book, “Why Are All the Black Kids Sitting Together in the Cafeteria?” provides an understanding of why race and racism continue to operate in our world. Tatum effectively answers the question she poses as the title of her book; moreover, I agree with her perception of Affirmative Action and the word racist, but I do not agree with the definition of racism in her book.
For baseball, Negro League baseball was a US$2 million business in the 1940s. Many White teams and managers smelled the money and thought that Black players could help them win games and bring in more fans. An early example of this integration was Branch Rickey signing Jackie Robinson to play for MLB. After that, MLB started to grab talented Black players from the Negro Leagues, and, as a result, Negro Leagues disappeared. White managers and MLB benefited financially from the integration, but Black teams and managers lost their fans and jobs. Although Black athletes gained access to compete in professional sports, they were still discriminated by the management and “were frequently subjected to the racial insults of fans.” (Davis, 19) In terms of the education system, Brown v. Board of Education declared segregation unconstitutional, but desegregation was not comfortable for many Black people either. “With the integration of schools, Black schools were dismantled, and the biggest casualties were Black teachers and administrators.” (Smith, Harrison Jr., and Brown, 16) This one-way integration of Black students going into “White” schools also gave the Whites controls to fire Black teachers and principals. “Black adults lost jobs and White teachers gained access to an entire segment of Black students that provided jobs.” (Smith, Harrison Jr., and Brown, 16) For White students, they still got their “private” education resources as they moved to suburban schools or private schools. Thus, the reintegration of the education system benefitted White adults financially and put many Black people out of work while keeping the White students pretty much
Racism and racial stereotypes have existed throughout human history. The radical belief associated by thinking the skin color, language, or a person’s nationality is the reason that someone is one way or another has become extremely detrimental to society. Throughout human existence it has sparked tension between groups of people and ultimately influenced wars and even caused slavery. Racism in America dates back to when Native Americans were often attacked, relocated, and assimilated into European culture. Since then, racism within the states has grown to include various other cultures as well. In the essays by Brent Staples, Bharati Mukherjee, and Manuel Munoz, they discuss the various causes as well as the effects that racial stereotyping can place on a victim and the stigma it leaves behind for the society to witness.
Racism is an evolving problem that we have face in our society for generations. This issue is evolving because it opens itself to all components of life. Sport is no stranger to involvement with racism, in fact it has been a platform which sparks change or intensifies the state of racism in society. Racism refers to the belief that all members of each race possess characteristics or abilities specific to that race, to distinguish it as inferior or superior to another race or races (Oxford Dictionary). Historically racism is an ideology systematically developed as the Europeans made their journey to the New World to explore and colonized the globe and the differences in it. This Great expedition was the excuse used to justify colonialism, slavery and genocide. This racial ideology has manifested itself in to the sports world in creating the modern-day apartheid which resides in the form of the black athlete in the major conferences of the NCAA. In this paper, I will be breaking down: the systemic institution of the NCAA, the generational racism the black athlete faces and the intuitional racism faced on campus to prove the existence of modern day apartheid.
Racism in this country has been prevalent over centuries now, and still a huge hindrance in the United States of America. Racism has a huge history with scholars documenting the long illustrious reasons and root causes as to why this has become such a major topic of issue in the United States and its psychological and social obliterations in the society.
In 2005, an NCAA game between Kansas State and Southern Mississippi showed that racism in still around. A video on the youtube channel TYT Sports shows freshman point guard Angel Rodriguez getting fouled and going to the free throw line, has he began to shoot his free throws a chant arose from the Southern Miss. band going “Where’s your green card”. Even though other players, coaches, and executives are now of different races, this still shows that racism always plays it’s part in sports