Sports Discrimination Essay

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Since the beginning of time, people have been unjustly treated with prejudice. This is discrimination, and it has been a major issue in our world. Not only does discrimination occur in the workplace, schools, and religion, it also has been an issue in professional sports. Although there are still many examples of discrimination in sports, there have been improvements in the areas of racial, gender, and sexual orientation discrimination. To begin with, for nearly 200 years in the United States, the nation was afflicted with slavery. In 1865, slavery was at an end, but professional sports were on the rise, and racism was a severe problem. As of 1946, there were no African-American athletes in Major League Baseball, the National Basketball Association, or in the National Football League; until Jackie Robinson, that is. The 29-year-old African-American from Cairo, Georgia, became the first ever black professional Major League baseball player. From the time that Jackie Robinson stepped on a baseball diamond for the first time, to 30 years later, in the 1980’s, percentages of black players in the MLB skyrocketed. In the 1987 season, 28 percent of the players in the Major leagues, were African-American (Kahn). In addition to being one of the most important figures in MLB history, Jackie excelled in almost every sports in college, lettering in 4 of them (Salem Press 2336). Jackie Robinson may be the most influential character in the history of sports, changing the landscape of racism forever. Another dramatic change that occurred along the lines of racism in sports, was in the National Basketball Association, also called the NBA. In the 1940’s there were zero black players in the NBA, but by the 1980’s 74 percent of pro basketball players... ... middle of paper ... ...er big reason it is growing so quickly is because discrimination is being diminished. Everyone can play, watch, and support, without feeling left out, and equality has become a must in all sports around the world. Donald Sterling, the owner of the NBA team, the Los Angeles Clippers, has recently been banned for life by league commissioner, Adam Silver, after making racist remarks. In the 1950’s, most people would have blown it off and not even cared, but now, there is no place for people like that in sports because league commissioners, players, and the fans will generally not tolerate such behavior. Discrimination in sports is a less frequent occurrence in the modern day, but unfortunately it does still happen; with that said many improvements have been made to end racial, gender, and sexual orientation discrimination in professional athletics in the modern era.

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