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Recommended: Racism in Sport
A Fight For Equality There are many things wrong with our generation. Anyone can agree. Except ignorant people. Our generation today is called The Dumbest Generation. You might not have heard this before, but I have. Many times. From reliability on cell phones, to terrible music, down to the way others are treated. Absolutely terrible. However, that’s not what this is about. Yes, those things are important and do need to be spoken or written about, but so does equality. Now equality can mean many things; giving people equal rights, treating other people equally, or equal race treating. People today have lost their inner equality treating. Right now, all of this might not make sense but soon it will. Equality: something that mattered but no longer does. Today, people are being treated so unfairly because of their race, and most people can’t see how terrible …show more content…
Especially basketball. The thought of basketball could make most people think ‘Every basketball player is black.” Either that or, “The best types of basketball players are black.” But this isn’t exactly true. Out of the eighteen basketball players on the Denver Nuggets, seven of the players are white. This matters because those seven guys are amazing basketball players. In order to keep playing for the Denver Nuggets, these guys have to be the best of the best, which they are. Just like the eleven black players on the team. However,the Denver Nuggets are only one of the thirty NBA teams out there, so imagine all of the people on those teams who are not black. We’re not just talking about white and black people though. There are many different people out of many different races who play basketball. Asians, Mexicans, Russians and all of the other races can play basketball as well. Some might be better than others. Don’t just think about black people when it comes to basketball. Keep in mind, basketball isn’t the only sport where people can be
In Ronald Takaki’s book “A Different Mirror” it appeared that anytime race relations changed for the better can be traced back to a historical event. Whether it was war or economics the only time policy changed for the minority groups was because it benefitted the people in power or white society. Ta-Nehisi Coates has also stated that changes for minorities will only come when absolutely necessary for those who are in power. Why does it take war or a cataclysmic economic downturn before people see the appalling way minorities are treated? Is it the “It ain’t broke, so don’t fix it” mentality or do people in this day and age still believe that people of color are inferior to white people? In my experience, the people in my world actually
Since the election of President Barrack Obama in 2008, many people have started to believe that America is beyond racial inequalities - this is not the reality. Rather, we, as a society, chose to see only what we want to see. Discrimination is still rampant in our nation. Michelle Alexander explains that since the Jim Crow laws were abolished, new forms of racial caste systems have taken their place. Our society and criminal justice system claim to be colorblind, but this is not the actuality. Michelle Alexander explains:
The issue of race in sport is somewhat baffling in that many people would rather not address at all even though sport has been intricately intertwined with racial issues throughout the Twentieth century. Those who would have us omit the topic altogether argue that analyses typically single out the black athlete, and then attempt to explain his/her inordinate success in ways different than we do with other groups. Critics contend that this is racist, since it perpetuates the idea that blacks are different, and often inferior. Edwards (1972) asserts that a typical theme resulting from such analysis is that blacks are physically superior, but intellectually inferior, to whites. Hoberman (1997) has further made the case that physical prowess, especially in such sports as basketball, has become a defining characteristic of the African-American community, and that beliefs about physical superiority are closely related to an anti-intellectualism that permeates black male culture. Essentially, Hoberman’s argument is that inordinate attention and idolization of prominent black athletes such as Michael Jordan has focused attention away from more realistic and important role models, and this, in turn has stunted intellectual, and social economic development in black communities.
Go out to an urban neighborhood and find a game of pickup basketball. Listen if you can hear any of the kids yell “Iso!” What does it mean? It literally means isolation, but on the court it means “Give me the ball and let me do it myself.” In Forty Million Dollar Slaves, author William C. Rhoden argues white journalists perpetuated the stereotype that black athletes are selfish with a “one-on-one” mentality. However, Rhoden fails to acknowledge that this “one-on-one” mindset on and off the field is a very real dynamic, with legitimate cause.
This article proposes the idea of what would happen if Black people really embraced the sports world and made that their priority instead of education, “He provides the example of percentages of Black males competing in the NBA (77%), NFL (65%), MLB (15%), and MLS (16%) in comparison to the fact that fewer than 2% of doctors, lawyers, architects, college professors, or business executives are Black males,”. Dr. Robinson brings up the sta…..
“African Americans have just as amount of chance of becoming a professional athlete as he or she winning the lottery”. This so called goal of theirs is unrealistic and is highly impossible. There are so many sports athletes but majority of them are of a different c...
Like Robinson, these men paved the way for today’s players and are the reason that the best athletes in the world now play in the NBA.” (Dave Howell, NBA.com, Six Who Paved The Way, Page 1). African-Americans in basketball, more specifically the first 5 players, began to make people realize that African Americans were not foreign creatures, they were actual people. People also began to realize that African Americans make equally as significant contributions to the society and community as anyone else
Sports have served as a platform on which the subject of race has been highlighted. Sports have unfailingly been considered the microcosm of society. This is because the playing fields have revealed the dominant culture’s attitudes and beliefs that people held about race relations throughout history in the United States. Many racial barriers were broken in the world of sports long before they were crossed in the realm of mainstream society as a whole. From Jackie Robinson breaking the color barrier in Major League Baseball during the year of 1947 to Tommie Smith and John Carlos raising their fists clad in black gloves during the 1968 Mexico City Summer Olympics, sports have started conversations about race in the United States that have undeniably changed the course of race relations in the United States.
Ever since America was found, there has not been social equality. African Americans were slaves for hundreds of years. During World War II, people discriminated the Japanese. Today, people are discriminating Muslims. People have repeated this part of history so many times, that it keeps happening. South Carolina Slave Laws, established in 1740, starts out article ten by saying “Slaves being objects of property...” (Bowdoin College). In the eighteenth century, people didn’t even think of African Americans as people, just property. This feeling has been passed on from generation to generation. In, To Kill a Mockingbird, Tom Robinson, a black man, was accused of raping a white woman. After being claimed guilty, he was shot and killed. “In Maycomb, Tom’s death was typical,” said the narrator Scout Finch (Lee, 275). People were not fazed by a black man being killed because it has happened so many times in the
“We are more visible, but not more valuable”. This famous quote was said by Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, one of the most famous black basketball players, symbolized what many black athletes were pursuing when they first got into sports. In today’s world not only are black athletes a part of our sports venue, they are dominating the landscape of some sports such as the NBA which consists of a whopping 80% black athletes. Black athletes continue to revitalize sports in America as some athletes became the face of their sports such as Muhammad Ali in boxing, Jackie Robinson in baseball and Michael Jordan in basketball. Sports came as a form of entertainment for many Americans, but for black athletes it came as a pathway to express who they were and what they believed in. The more they became involved in sports, the more media they were able to attract which enabled them to talk about topics other than sports such as racism, their religions and equality through the civil rights movement. These views and statements made in their interviews and press conferences were the ones that became publicized and more popular amongst the typical white men in America and it played a huge role in changing the way blacks were viewed in American society.
Race is so much more than just a physical characteristic. It defines how people interact, see each other, and treat each other. It was Karl Marx that popularized the idea that there is a struggle between two social groups in which one prospers from the the exploitation of the other. This idea alone reveals much about our society and human nature: we are inherently competitive, even when it means we may have to do it at someone else’s expense. And we seem to be okay with this for we have done little to change it. However, when it is at the expense of an entire race, are we still able to so easily turn a blind eye? Race and the establishment of social hierarchy have a linkage that, although so engrained in our society to the point where it seems
Discrimination has always been there between blacks and whites. Since the 1800s where racial issues and differences started flourishing till today, we can still find people of different colors treated unequally. “[R]acial differences are more in the mind than in the genes. Thus we conclude superiority and inferiority associated with racial differences are often socially constructed to satisfy the socio-political agenda of the dominant group”(Heewon Chang,Timothy Dodd;2001;1).
To many, the Unites States serves as the ideal model of democracy for the modern world. Yet, how truly worthy is America of this status? Although it has been said that, “Equality is as American as baseball, hot dogs, and apple pie,” one must be extremely critical when analyzing such a statement. By taking a historical perspective to the question of how “equal” American equality actually is, it is simple to recognize how problematic the “Land of the Free” mentality can be. The early America’s most prominent thinkers have been sensationalized and given credit for developing a free and equal system. However, one can recognize that their manner of thinking was far from this idea of “all men are created equal” by critical examination of their literature.
In a society filled with people that strongly believe that sports is an industry that is removed and immune from the ills of the world—racism. Many fans and spectators of sports, such as baseball, basketball, football, and many other sports that include players of different races and ethnicities considers that racism is a thing of the past because of the inclusion and acceptance of all races in different sports. However, the misconception of living in a post-racial (colorblind) world is prevalent. Even though racial discrimination in sports and society in general, are not overt as in the past, racism continues to plague the industry. Regardless of fans and spectators wanting to ignore the racial biases and discrimination in the sports industry,
My generation has been handed a lot of issues to hopefully be solved by my generation. The government has a national debt and unsustainable welfare programs. Programs that are well-meaning but cannot be financed by my generation. Changes will have to come through inventive minds of my generation. Also currently there are very few job opportunities for my generation. Many college graduates cannot get jobs. College cost are at an all time high, many of my generation wonder if it is worth the cost or is it even a possibility. The American dream of a college education, a good job, nice home, and car are seeming more and more unattainable to my generation.