Racial Discrimination in Sports Discussion Question

Today, we finish up our chapter on race and sport. The authors start the second half of the chapter discussing Asian athletes in N. American sports. Sadly, the book doesn’t provide us with too much information about Asian athletes (this is the case for sociology as a whole). I think the key points of this section are 1) the racial category of Asian makes is a broad category that is comprised of many different ethnic groups, and 2) immigration affects an individual’s ability to gain a foothold in American society and American sports. Our authors point out the Chinese, Filipino, and Japanese immigrants are more likely than those who have immigrated from South Asia to play sport in high school. The first group is more likely to be assimilated into N. American culture and the second group may be pulled in two different cultural directions at once (their culture of origin and their American culture). Also, resources matter. I think most discussions of immigration in America revolve around low income and low education immigrants and we often forget how many people come to America or Canada with an education and with resources, which affects their ability to integrate and their children’s likelihood of playing (certain) sports. Next, our authors move on to discussing Native Americans in American society and sport. Today, there are 2.7 million Native Americans in the USA and 1.2 million in Canada. The tribes among N. America are extremely diverse and significantly different. However, many Native Americans experienced similar hardships after the arrival of the Europeans. When the Europeans first arrived the Native American population was around 7 million, but it quickly dropped to less than 250K. The US government forced Native Americans from their homelands and moved them to reservations. In the early 1900s, Native Americans ranked at the bottom of all well-being indicators. Moreover, they were sent off to boarding schools in order to kill the Native cultures and as recently as the 1980s doctors employed by the US government actually sterilized Native American women without their consent. Today, we see that there are many talented Native American high school athletes, however few choose to attend college, which affects their careers as athletes. They are pushed away from college due to the racism they experience away from home and they often lack economic resources (one of my professors was a member of the Pawnee tribe and the government cut him a single check for 17 dollars when he turned 18, the myth of big government payouts for Native Americans is more myth than truth). Moreover, some Native Americans experience a tension between their native culture and American culture. Native culture (not all) is often oriented towards the tribe rather than the individual. (Note: I suggest reading Leonard Peltier’s Prison Writings and watching Incident At Oglala: The Leonard Peltier Story https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oNmnpmQZ7Yo . I usually spend 3 weeks discussing Peltier in my Race, Crime, and Justice course and it my students favorite part of the course, even though it is fairly depressing.) Next, as political boundaries become blurred through the ease and speed of contemporary communication, travel, and trade we see dramatic changes around the world. In sport, we see many athletes moving from nation to nation. Some of these athletes are seasonal (i.e. surfing and snowboarding). 40% of Major League Soccer players are foreign born, 27% of MLB players are foreign born, and the NHL is dominated by players originally from Canada, Sweden, Russia, the Czech Republic, and Hungary. While some athletes reap amazing rewards as they travel and relocate throughout the world, some are exploited and find it difficult to adjust to their new home’s language and culture. Moreover, they may experience social isolation and racial/ethnic bigotry (this may be especially true for their spouses). From here our authors move on to discuss black dominance in sport. Since WWII, black participation in sport has dramatically increased. In 2012, 74% of the NBA was black, 68% of the WNBA, 70% of football, and 8% of MLB. Why is this? Why do black athletes seem to dominate some of our key team sports? Some point to race linked physical differences, however, our authors don’t buy this idea. Genes may be important, but they are not independent of environment. Also, many of the physical explanations attempt to create and maintain a racial hierarchy based on the belief that there are significant differences between the races. The physical argument often assumes that blacks are closer to beasts or animals than their white counterparts. They imply black athletes do not work hard to be successful, but white athletes achieve success through hard work and intelligence. Simply, the perspective is often an attempt to justify and reinforce the racist notion that blacks are inferior to whites. If it is just about physical differences, why is it that “if black athletes are good at jumping” but black athletes do not dominate the high jump or the pole vault? If “black athletes are simply stronger” why don’t black athletes dominate the shot-put or weight lifting? If “Asians are smarter” why do Russians dominate chess? [Insert any other racist sport stereotype.] It may be that culture plays a significant role in what sports certain groups place a great deal of energy. Within the American black subculture, we see an emphasis on physical/verbal skills and dexterity. Athletic prowess is highly valued for both black men and women. Athletes often play the role of folk heroes, which creates drive to fulfill these prized roles. Moreover, social structural constraints may also play a significant role in creating black dominance in some sports. Sport may be perceived by some as one of the few avenues to achieving success. Young black athletes may put an intense amount of effort and dedication into achieving success through sport. While young white athletes may put a great deal of effort into their sports, it is likely that white youth feel they have broader set of career options. (Note: I will post one of my favorite studies of race and crime on Blackboard this weekend. It is a study about race and criminal portrayal on the TV news in Florida. Amazingly, two sociologists watched the news and marked down every single person who was on the news and what role they played on the news. They found that black and Latinos were actually underrepresented in terms of crime (proportion of population and number of arrests) but they were both reduced to playing a small number of roles on the news. 1 out of every 4 black people on the news were presented as a criminal, 1 out of 8 Latinos, and 1 out of 20 white people. This assisted in stereotyping black and Latino citizens as criminals. Even though the white criminals were actually overrepresented, whites played a broad range of roles, which may make the audience less likely to associated white with criminal and possibly associate white crime with individual pathology.) Also, how we learn certain sports affects how we play these sports as well. Inner-city basketball courts are crowded and players compete for playing time. This creates a very different playing style than those who learn in the rural/suburban areas, where there is more likely to be not enough players rater than too many. QUESTION; Racial discrimination in sport can sometimes be difficult to see since there are quite a few minority players in the major sports and some of the players make amazing salaries. However, we can see significant bias in the practice of “stacking” and the lack of minority leaders in sport. Today, I want you to define stacking, overt discrimination for leadership roles, and subtle discrimination for leadership roles (this starts on page 147). Also, I want you to think about a sport that you play and describe a situation where stacking might be likely to occur or a situation where leadership discrimination is coming into play. Finally, as usually, I am looking forward to seeing how you generally respond to the second half of the c
hapter. REPLY BACK TO THE FOLLOWING POST FOR FIRST HALF OF THE CHAPTER: MICHEAL CARDIO From reading the first half of the chapter, I didn’t find anything too shocking or surprising. Most of the chapter talked about the oppression of minority groups in the US including: Blacks, Latinos, Asians, and Native Americans. There will probably always be justification on the part of African Americans to feel disadvantaged somehow just because of their past history of slavery and unequal treatment in the United States. However in saying that, current civil rights movements such as the recent “black lives matter” movement need to be addressed and more equal treatment on behalf of police officers needs to be enforced. People shouldn’t get shot because the cell phone they are holding is misconstrued as a gun. Some things in the chapter that I most agree with and found the most interesting were the definitions of race and ethnicity. I liked the “scientific” view of race in saying that race among humans is a social invention and that races among humans do not exist biologically. I also liked and agree with the definition of ethnicity and its relation to a common culture with shared language, dialect, religion, customs, and history. I feel that if distinctions among people are needed or that if people need to be classified somehow, ethnicity is a better and more “politically correct” comparison than race. The final thing I found striking in the first half of this chapter were some of the statistics. Specifically some of the forecasts including that in 2050, Latinos will comprise of about one-fourth of the population of the US and that in 2050, minorities will comprise of nearly half of the population of the US. This is something to think about as it will more than likely occur in our lifetime. Sociology of North American Sport 2/12/19, 1:56 AM PRINTED BY: d509c6c604e7431@placeholder.24190.edu. 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