The Fallacy of Minority Discrimination in Sports

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The Fallacy of Minority Discrimination in Sports

When someone flips through the channels on a TV and they happen to pause on a sports game, they will most likely see a small number of white athletes. The next thing that they might see is a commercial trying to tell them that minorities in sports are being discriminated. This is not the case. There is no racial discrimination against minorities in sports. There is a much higher percentage of minorities than White-Americans in more than just one professional sport. There are also a number of high-ranking officials in sports that are minorities. Franchises pay money to the athletes that are most qualified to be put on the team; not to athletes that are not minority.

It wasn't until 1947, when Jackie Robinson broke the color barrier of Major League Baseball (Northeastern...). This marked the introduction of minorities into professional sports. Today, the numbers of minorities in most sports far exceeds the numbers of White-Americans. Yet some minorities feel that they are being discriminated against.

Franchises of professional sports teams fork out millions of dollars to minority athletes every year. When dealing with huge amounts of money there is no question about discriminating against minorities. Franchises wouldn't pay out millions of dollars to athletes that aren't qualified. Athletes are constantly being traded and released from teams. These athletes may be of minority gender, but they are definitely not being traded or released because of race. They are most likely going to end up at another team that will pay them a good deal of money.

The question of minorities holding head-coaching jobs is often heard in the sports world. As of 1997, there were only three minority head coaches in the National Football League (NFL). All three of these coaches are African- American (New York Amsterdam News). Some people say that there should be more African-American head coaches in sports that are dominated by African-Americans. The three minority head coaches coach one-tenth of the teams that are in the NFL. One-tenth of the general population of theUnited States is made up of native-born African-Americans (Barret). So, one could say that one-tenth of the population is coaching one-tenth of the NFL teams; an equal ratio.

Some minorities speak out and ask why there are not more high-ranking offices being held by minorities. There are other high offices that are obtained by minorities.

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