Racism in Sports: Why It's Still a Problem

Introduction 

Sports offer avenues for people, both players and fans, to enjoy and celebrate their talents and get entertained. Many believe that sporting activities should be devoid of racism or athletes should not be profiled based on their race or ethnicity. However, racism in sports in particular, and in the world exist (Martin & Glaser, 2012). In the United States, recent events involving a professional team owner’ comments on black athletes in the NBA, athletes making allegations on racial profiling by law enforcement agent on traffic stops, and white sports media personalities reporting on black athletes demonstrate that racism persists in sports. 

The National Basketball Association’s Commissioner banned Los Angeles Clippers’ owner David Sterling from the professional league’s games for life and fined him $2.5M after an audio recording surfaced about him scolding his girlfriend for associating with African-Americans (Nauright, 2014). Sterling was heard in the recording excoriating the girlfriend for always bringing black people to the Los Angeles Clippers’ games. The incident provoked mixed reactions from even the LA Clippers black athletes who considered boycotting their first game after these comments came to the public. However, they opted to shedding their team jerseys and used their practice jerseys inside-out during their training. The incident demonstrates that despite the progress made in tackling racism in sports, the phenomenon still exists to the detrimental effects of the players and the game that they love. The comments by Sterling, an NBA franchise owner, demonstrate that sports have a long way to go to tackle racism among players, franchise owners and professional associations (Nauright, 2014). NBA’s move to ban Sterling and give him the maximum penalty of $2.5m illustrates that racism leads to detrimental impact on sporting activities. Ironically, in 1978, three years before Sterling bought the franchise, LA Clippers had shed its racist name of Buffalo Braves before moving to San Diego. 

In September this year, Seahawk player Michael Bennett made allegations that law enforcement agents used excessive force and racial profiling in an incident with the Las Vegas police in August 2017. The player stated that he was held on the ground with a gun on his head. Bennett said that the incident was so traumatic to him and his family (Condotta, 2017). The NBA player was concerned that in a free country like the United States, people and athletes have to be profiled because of their skin color. However, Las Vegas police denied the allegations and said that race was never a factor in the incident (Condotta, 2017). While law enforcement agents deny racial profiling in making arrests and traffic stops, research studies show the opposite. In a 2013 article in the USA Today, Brent Schrotenboer says that research findings demonstrate that black NFL player get arrested almost ten times more than their white counterparts. The investigation by USA Today revealed that while a majority of the NFL players were black at 66%, these players were more likely to be arrested than the white players who account for about 31% of the National Football League’s players (Schrotenboer, 2013). These figures demonstrate that players like Michael Bennett’s allegations may be true. Further, in August this year, another NBA player, Anthony Morrow alleged that racial profiling was a common incident for black players at traffic stops (Perez, 2017). Again, the existence of non-profit organizations like RISE (the Ross Initiative in Sports for Equality) illustrates the growing problem of racism and racial profiling in professional leagues like the NBA, NFL, and NHL among other sports (Abrams, 2017). 

In addition, white sports media personalities have been on spotlight for racism and racial profiling. In an article by John Carvalho (2014) most studies show that sports media is yet to come out of its history against black athletes. The stereotyping of black athletes by sports media did not begin today but it has a long history. Such reports are categorical that some positions for instance in the National Football League franchises are given to black athletes because of their race and not ability (Carvalho, 2014). The stereotyping of black athletes as not only monolithic but also robotic in their conduct is an indication of the media sports personalities’ perception on these players (Biber et al., 2015). Such perspectives amount to racial profiling of athletes in sports. Further, the article illustrates that over time nothing has changed as a majority of white sports media uses terms aimed at enhancing the image of white athletes but demeaning black athletes as overly relying on their gifts. Black athletes are depicted as freaks and beasts that use their natural gifts and not work ethic. Such perspectives and descriptions perpetuate the wider stereotype of African-American athletes as lazy (Biber et al., 2015). Conversely, white sports media depicts white athletes as smart, hardworking, and team players that use work ethic to succeed in sports. For instance, most quarterbacks in the NFL league are African-Americans that are strategically placed to ward off attacks because of their physical build-up and not intellect. 

Conclusion 

These examples indicate that racism exists in sports in many of the professional leagues, not only in the United States but other parts of the world and in a variety of sports, including soccer and athletics. Racism in sports exists in different forms that include racist chants, crowd violence, gestures, verbal comments, and other acts that offend players of a particular race. Imperatively, sports stakeholders must attempt to address the incidents from a broader societal perspective because of the irreversible and traumatic consequences that it presents. 

References 

Abrams, J. (2017) Draymond Green Opens Up About Racial Profiling Incident, Outspoken Athletes. Accessed from http://bleacherreport.com/articles/2690860-draymond-green-opens-up-about-racial-profiling-incident-outspoken-athletes 

Biber, D.D., Fisher, J.A., Czech, D.R., Zakrajsek, R., Gentner, N., Burdette, T., Metzler, J., 

Coleman, K., Burden, W., & Jordan, T. A. (2015) The Experience of Media and Race in the National Football League – An Existential Phenomenological Study. The Sport Journal , Vol.19. Accessed from https://thesportjournal.org/article/the-experience-of-media-and-race-in-the-national-football-league-an-existential-phenomenological-study/ 

Carvalho, J. (2014) A mountain of research demonstrates that sports media has not yet outgrown its history of racism against black athletes. Accessed from https://sports.vice.com/en_us/article/4x987d/sports-media-is-still-racist-against-black-athletes 

Condotta, B. (2017, September 6) Seahawks’ Michael Bennett alleges excessive force, racial profiling by Las Vegas police, who say race was not a factor. Accessed from https://www.seattletimes.com/sports/seahawks/seahawk-michael-bennett-says-he-was-victim-of-excessive-force-by-police-in-las-vegas-considering-lawsuit/ 

Martin, K.D. & Glaser, J. (2012) Racial Profiling, University of California, Berkeley. Accessed from 

https://gspp.berkeley.edu/assets/uploads/research/pdf/Martin_Glaser-_Racial_Profiling-Debates_Immigration_2012.pdf 

Nauright, J. (2014) NBA’s action on bigoted owner a slam dunk for  anti-racism, The Conversation. Accessed from https://theconversation.com/nbas-action-on-bigoted-owner-a-slam-dunk-for-anti-racism-26136 

Perez, A.J. (2017) Free-agent NBA guard Anthony Morrow alleges racial profiling in traffic stop. Accessed from https://www.usatoday.com/story/sports/nba/2017/08/28/former-nba-guard-anthony-morrow-alleges-racial-profiling-traffic-stop/607522001/ 

Schrotenboer, B. (2013) Black NFL players arrested nearly 10 times as often as whites, Accessed from https://www.usatoday.com/story/sports/nfl/2013/11/29/racial-profiling-nfl/3779489/