PED 217 - Social Aspects of Sport

Chapter 8: Sport and Race/Ethnicity

In our society, not all people have had the same chance to participate in sports. This is not the result of differences in skill; it has been a reflection of prejudice and discrimination.

Prejudice is an unfavorable feeling or thought toward a person or group. Discrimination is the unfavorable treatment of a person or group.

Minority group: a term meaning racial and ethnic groups.

Sport tends to show second class citizenship despite thinking to the contrary. The two most visible and most discriminated minority groups are blacks and Latinos.

Boxing and horse racing were two of the earliest sports in which blacks participated and excelled (Jack Johnson was the first great heavyweight boxer). Most of the riders in the inaugural Kentucky Derby in 1875 were black.

Toward the end of the 19th century, blacks were forced out of professional baseball and excluded from other sports as well and formed their own baseball league in the 1920’s (baseball video: inning 5/6)

Henry McDonald became the first black football player in 1911. In the 1950’s Sweetwater Clifton and Chuck Cooper broke the racial barrier in the NBA. Other blacks who made a first impact are on pg. 208.

Blacks played almost exclusively at black colleges. By 1966 all the conferences had integrated, with the SEC conference being the last one.

Today: blacks comprise 80% of professional basketball rosters, 65% of football rosters and 16% of baseball rosters (Milwaukee Journal article: August 11).

Sports was one of the first institutions to integrate after WWII (the ruling that separate educational facilities was declared unconstitutional occurred in 1954). Jackie Robinson in baseball in 1947, the NBA in 1950 (which there are more blacks in this professional team sport than in any other in the U.S.).

Only since the late 50’s and early 60’s have blacks in the major team sports surpassed the percentage figure for their makeup in the total U.S. population.

Within the sport itself, we find subtle and overt acts of racism. There is discrimination in the areas of recruitment, position assignment, performance expectation, reward and authority structures, and salary. In a sports illustrated survey in 1991, blacks still feel they are treated worse than whites in areas such as salary and contract negotiations, product endorsements, and preferential treatment.

One of the first forms of discrimination in sports dates from the late 1800’s. The feet first slide in baseball was a deliberate ploy to injure black players. The New York Times reported charges of racism in tennis: including less desirable practice time, courts and balls, and the pairing of black opponents against each other in early tournament rounds. Theorists think experiences like that reinforce segregation and may even keep blacks from taking up a game that they could excel in.

Another discrimination situation occurs by something called stacking: where blacks are playing the same positions on a team. This not only does not allow them to challenge for other positions, but they are usually competing for the same spots on that particular team.

Baseball: Between 1953 and1965 there were twice as many pitchers on a team as outfielders, but 3 times as many blacks we outfielders as pitchers.

Football: Blacks were disproportionately positioned as running backs and wide receivers (offense), and defensive backs (defense).

Basketball: it was found that the number of black athletes directly involved in the action at any one time is limited.

Another theory about the NBA is that there is a city by city quota system, where the whiter the city the whiter the team. Example: phoenix has the smallest black population and the most white players.

Track and Field: Blacks have excelled in sprints, hurdles, and jumps. The theory here is that these events require more athletic ability and less coaching, and that they are the least expensive for the athlete. Field events like the pole vault and discus require additional costs.

Soccer: Blacks comprise 8% of all players, but only 1% was goalies.

Consequences of stacking:

1. Playing careers are shorter for the positions blacks are in.
2. Whites make more money because they are playing the other popular positions and can have longer careers.
3. Shorter career reduce pensions because benefits depend on the duration of someone’s career.

Explanations for stacking

1. Social- coaches stereotype the mental, physical, and personality characteristics that are important to success (the matching hypothesis), or decisions are made to exclude minority members from central positions (interaction hypothesis), or that they are excluded because of prejudice (outcome control hypothesis), or that the high cost of training for certain positions is responsible for minorities playing different positions of low economic cost (prohibitive cost hypothesis). Also there is the differential attractiveness of position hypothesis, where minorities evaluate sport positions based on reward and popularity (blacks did not play quarterback in college because their chances of making it as a pro were weak), and then there is the role modeling hypothesis, where young blacks seek to play positions in which black athletes have been successful.
2. Psychological
   1. Blacks excel at reactive tasks: they respond appropriately at the proper tome to changes (they excel at hitting in baseball)
   2. Blacks and whites have personality differences: blacks are individual rather than team oriented, they stress style over performance, they see their accomplishments as power for themselves instead of team victory.
   3. Biological: blacks have different body shape make up for sport positions than whites do (the ones we listed back in our notes). Many sport records are held by blacks in the major sports.

Explaining the superiority the black athlete: Theories include:

1. Matriarchal: black males reared in the absence of a father compensate for this social and emotional void by developing positive, intimate, and intense relationship with the coach. White males have been socialized in the male dominated family system.
2. Race Linked Characteristics
   1. Racially linked physical and physiological characteristics.
   2. Race linked psychological traits: blacks are more relaxed and tension free, especially under pressure (this has been argues intensely by many other theorists).
   3. Unique racially specific historical experiences stemming from slavery. It boils down to survival of the fittest.
3. Sociological: the superiority of black athletes stems from black social values differing from whites and reduced opportunities in society. There are so few other occupations for success that they channel themselves.

Sports opportunity structure- blacks tend to excel in sports where facilities, coaching, and competition are available to them.

Before Tiger Woods there were very few black golfers, and there are very few good black skiers.

Money

1. Basketball- black NBA players as a group receive between 17,000 and 26,000 less on average than white players.
2. Football- there is a difference of 19,000 dollars.
3. Baseball- another area of unequal opportunity at one time was the personal appearances and endorsing or promoting commercial products (this is changing, but it’s based on the sport. Basketball will have blacks promoting products (KOBE- Sprite), but baseball has whites or Latin Americans (Rafael Palmeiro- Viagra).

Minority group ownership of professional sport franchises is virtually nonexistent. There are few black managers or head coaches in the major sports.

Topic: the Detroit Lions were fines 100,000 dollars for not interviewing any black coaches for their coaching position, which went to Steve Mariuchi: who is white. But if you’re a black head coach, you know that he is getting the job, but you are called for the interview because the NFL wants blacks to be interviewed, what do you do?

There are also very few black sportscasters and officials in the major sports (in the NFL it is mostly head linesmen, another example of stacking).