Racism In Sports Essay

Though America is a country that built its foundation upon racism and segregation, we in the 21st century would like to believe that racism no longer exists in our nation. While that is a nice thought, the brutal truth is that it is still prevalent in America and the rest of the world. It may not be as vocalized as it once was; but it is still a major underlying issue of today’s society. We are ignorant to the amount of racial incidents that do occur, and the only times racist acts seem to be brought public are when they occur in sports. Despite the Jackie Robinson break through in 1947, the racial discrimination in sports has not disappeared. Instances like the Wayne Simmonds incident in 2011, to the Donald Sterling controversy a few short weeks ago, it is apparent racism in sports is still very much existent. With racism’s obvious existence in sports, in a country that is extremely dependent upon the popularity and success of professional sports, we have to deduct that racism in sports is an indicator of a much bigger racism issue.

Wayne Simmonds is an African American NHL player – a sport that is most widely played by Caucasian or light-skinned Europeans. He is one of the few African Americans who play hockey professionally, and because of this he was a victim of racial discrimination. In the preseason of 2011, the Detroit Red Wings played the Philadelphia Flyers (the team Simmonds played and still plays for). The game went into overtime, and Simmonds was summoned for a shootout attempt. Just as he went on the ice to make his shot, a fan threw a banana at him while taunting and expressing racial remarks towards him. Though upset and caught off guard, he still managed to ignored the incident and continue with his shot. In a po...

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...From physical acts like throwing a banana towards a black man, to a white man publicly degrading the race of his own team members, and even generalizing professional sports to be dominantly one race or another; all of it needs to come to an end if we even dream of ending racism on a larger scale. America is a country that thrives both economically and socially from its popularity of major league sports. Since this is a fact that cannot be argued, we have to imagine that sports in this country should have the power to make a positive impact on society rather than negative. If we could manage to eradicate racism in something so big as professional sports, we could maybe hope to end racism in America period. Though that is a stretch to imagine even in a hypothetical situation, the fact that we can imagine it means it must be even the slightest bit possible to achieve.