Race and sports

Issues related to race and sports have been examined by scholars for a long time.^[1] Among these issues are racial discrimination in sports as well as the observation that there are overrepresentations and underrepresentations of different races in different sports.

Participation and performance disparities

Views in the United States

Various individuals, including scholars and sportswriters, have commented on the apparent overrepresentations and underrepresentations of different races in different sports. African Americans accounted for 75% of players in the National Basketball Association (NBA) near the end of 2008.^[2] According to the latest National Consortium for Academics and Sports equality report card, 65% of National Football League players were African Americans. However, in 2008, about 8.5% of Major League Baseball players were African American (who make up about 13% of the US population), and 29.1% were Hispanic (compared with about 16% of the US population).^[2]

NCAA sports have mirrored the trends present in American professional sports. During the 2005–2006 season, black males comprised 46.9 percent of NCAA Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS) and 58.9 percent of NCAA Division I basketball.^[3] The NCAA statistics are important because there is a strong correlation between percentage of black athletes within a sport and the revenue generated by that sport. For example, University of North Carolina's 2007–2008 men's basketball team (the team was 59% black relative to the 3.7% black population of the institution as a whole) generated $17,215,199 in revenue, which comprised 30 percent of the school's athletic revenue for the year.^[4] Given NCAA rules prohibiting the payment of players, some have come to see the structure of NCAA athletics as exploitative of college athletes. Some believe that since black athletes comprise a high percentage of athletes in high revenue college sports (FBS football and Division I Men's basketball), they are therefore the biggest losers in this arrangement. Billy Hawkins argues that "the control over the Black male's body and profiting off its physical expenditure is in the hands of White males."^[5] His position refers to the fact that a very high percentage of Division I universities are controlled by white administrations, and thus prosper greatly from the free labor produced by the revenue sports that are heavily populated by black athletes. This claim is substantiated by statistics, such as the fact that during the 2005–2006 NCAA Division I Men's Basketball Tournament, games started and minutes played for black athletes were over double that of their white counterparts, with 68.7 percent of scoring in the tournament coming from black players.^[6]

Graduation rates

Despite the high rate of participation in the NCAA amongst black athletes, the rates of on-court success have not necessarily translated to the classroom. A racial divide has come to exist in terms of graduation. A University of Central Florida study of 2011 NCAA Men's Basketball Tournament teams indicated that only 59 percent of black players graduated, a stark contrast to the 91 percent of white players who completed their undergraduate studies^[7] As poor as the overall numbers are, they can be much more alarming at the individual level. An example of this is the Kansas State men's basketball program that graduates 100 percent of its white players and only 14 percent of its black players.^[7] The other main NCAA revenue sport, FBS football, has endured similarly glaring graduation discrepancies between white and black athletes. The 2011-12 TIDES report on bowl-bound FBS teams found that the average Graduation Success Rate for white football student athletes is 81 percent on bowl-bound teams, while standing at only 61 percent for black student athletes.^[8] Moreover, 26 percent of the bowl-bound schools graduated less than half of their African-American football student athletes, while not a single school graduated less than half of its white student athletes.^[9]

"Black athletic superiority"

"Black athletic superiority" is the unscientific theory that black people possess certain traits that are acquired through genetic and/or environmental factors that allow them to excel over other races in athletic competition. Whites are more likely to hold these views; however, some blacks and other racial affiliations do as well.^[10][11][12] A 1991 poll in the United States indicated that half of the respondents agreed with the belief that "blacks have more natural physical ability".^[13]

Various theories regarding racial differences of black and white people and their possible effect on sports performance have been put forth since the later part of the nineteenth century by professionals in many different fields.^[14] In the United States, attention to the subject faded over the first two decades of the twentieth century as black athletes were eliminated from white organized sport and segregated to compete among themselves on their own amateur and professional teams.^[15] Interest in the subject was renewed after the 1932 Summer Olympics in Los Angeles and Jesse Owens's record-breaking performances at the 1935 Big Ten Track Championships.^[15]

In 1971, African-American sociologist Harry Edwards wrote: "The myth of the black male's racially determined, inherent physical and athletic superiority over the white male, rivals the myth of black sexual superiority in antiquity."^[16]

Only male sprinters have beaten the 100 meter 10-second barrier, nearly all of them being of West African descent. Namibian (formerly South-West Africa) Frankie Fredericks became the first man of non-West African heritage to achieve the feat in 1991 and in 2003 Australia's Patrick Johnson (who has Irish and Indigenous Australian heritage) became the first sub-10-second runner without an African background.^{[17][18][19][20]}

In 2010, Frenchman Christophe Lemaitre became the first white European under ten seconds (although Poland's Marian Woronin had unofficially surpassed the barrier with a time of 9.992 seconds in 1984).^[21] In 2011, Zimbabwean Ngonidzashe Makusha became the 76th man to break the barrier, yet only the fourth man not of West African descent.^[22] No sprinter from South Asia, East Africa or North Africa has officially achieved this feat.^[23][24] In 2015 Su Bingtian of China became the first ethnic East Asian athlete to officially break the 10 second barrier and British athlete Adam Gemili – who is of mixed Iranian and Moroccan descent – became the first athlete with either North African or Middle Eastern heritage to break the ten second barrier.^[25]

It is believed that biological factors may be largely responsible for the disproportionate success in sprinting events enjoyed by athletes of West African descent. Chief among these is a preponderance of natural fast twitch muscle fibers, which aid in quicker reaction times. Scientists have concluded that elite-level sprinting is virtually impossible in the absence of the ACTN3 protein, a "speed gene" most common among persons of West African descent that renders fast twich muscle fibers fast. African American 200 meter and 400 meter world champion Michael Johnson has suggested that the presence of ACTN3 is at the root of the success of these athletes in sprinting events.^[23][26] Top sprinters of differing ancestry, such as Christophe Lemaitre, are believed to be exceptions in that they too likely have the genes favourable for sprinting.^[26]

Many Nilotic groups also excel in long and middle distance running. Jon Entine has argued that this sporting prowess stems from their exceptional running economy.^[27] This in turn is a function of slim body morphology and slender legs,^[28] a preponderance of slow twitch muscle fibers, a low heart rate gained from living at high-altitude,^[29] as well as a culture of running to school from a young age. A study by Pitsiladis et al. (2006) questioning 404 elite distance runners from Kenya found that 76% of the international-class respondents hailed from the Kalenjin ethnic group and that 79% spoke a Nilotic language.^[30]

Joseph L. Graves argues that Kenyan athletes from the African Great Lakes region who have done well in long distance running all have come from high-altitude areas, whereas those from low-altitude areas do not perform particularly well. He also argues that Koreans and Ecuadorians from high-altitude areas compete well with Kenyans in long-distance races. This suggests that it is the fact of having trained in a high altitude, combined with possible local level physiological adaptations to high-altitude environments that is behind the success in long distance running, not race. Similarly, Graves argues that while it is superficially true that most of the world recordholders in the 100-metre dash are of West African heritage, they also all have partial genetic heritage from Europe and Native America, they have also all trained outside of West Africa, and West African nations have not trained any top-level runners. Graves says these factors make it impossible to say to which degree the success is best attributed to genetic or to environmental factors.^[31]

John Milton Hoberman, a historian and Germanic studies professor at the University of Texas at Austin, has acknowledged that disparities in certain athletic performances exist. He has asserted that there is no evidence to confirm the existence of "black athletic superiority".^[32]

"East Asian athletic Views"

In the United States, East Asians are stereotyped as being physically and athletically inferior to other races.^[33][34] This has led to much discrimination in the recruitment process of professional American sports, where Asian American athletes are highly underrepresented in the majority of professional sports teams (a fact that has been noted by many sources).^{[35][36][37][38][39]} Such as the case with professional basketball player Jeremy Lin who believed that one of the reasons why he wasn't drafted by a NBA team was because of his race.^[40] This belief has been reiterated by sports writer Sean Gregory of Time magazine and NBA commissioner David Stern.^[41] In 2012, despite making up 6% of nation's population Asian American athletes only represented 2% of the NFL, 1.9% of the MLB and less than 1% of the NBA.^[34] Basketball should be a sport that's noted for the fact that it has one of the lowest amounts of Asian athletes being represented despite the fact that the sport's color barrier was broken by an Asian American athlete back in 1947 named Wataru Misaka who was the first American racial minority to play in the NBA.^[42]

In American sports, there are and has been a higher representation of Asian American athletes who are of mixed racial heritage in comparison to those of full racial heritage such as the case with former football player Roman Gabriel who was the first Asian-American to start as an NFL quarterback. Another fact to note is that majority of Asian American athletes who are currently drafted/recruited to compete professionally tend to be in sports that require little to no contact.^[34]

Chinese views

In China, the idea that genetic differences affect sports performance is widely accepted. During the 2004 Summer Olympics, the People's Daily wrote that Chinese are "suited" to sports that require agility and technique, such as table tennis, badminton and gymnastics. The newspaper reported that Chinese have "congenital shortcomings" and "genetic differences" that means they are disadvantaged at purely athletic events. The success of hurdler Liu Xiang was explained as due to the hurdles event requiring technique, which fits with the stereotype that Chinese are disciplined and intelligent.

Li Aidong, a researcher with the China Institute of Sports Science, said that sports coaches believe Chinese athletes could be successful in long jumping, high jumping and speed walking. She doubted Chinese could compete in pure sprinting, although credible scientific studies are lacking for genetic differences.^[43]

Explanations for participation and performance disparities

Physiological factors

In a 2010 paper published in International Journal of Design & Nature and Ecodynamics, Adrian Bejan, a professor of mechanical engineering at Duke University, and his colleagues reported that black people have a higher center of mass (i.e. shorter relative torso) that favors them in running and that white people have a lower center of mass, which favors them in swimming.^[44] Bejan et al. cite the progression of world record holders in the men's and women's 100 meters "dash", the majority of whom are black, and the men's and women's 100 meters freestyle, the majority of whom are white.^[44] The paper reported that although Asians have lower centers of mass/longer relative torsos like whites, European whites have an advantage in swimming due to longer overall torsos.^[44]

The paper was the third in a series of four papers based on the constructal law of design and evolution in nature.^[45] In the first, Bejan and Marden predicted that all animal locomotion (swimming, running and flying) is ultimately one design: the bigger should be faster, and should wave their bodies less frequently.^[46] In the second paper, Charles and Bejan reviewed the speed records in running and swimming during the past one hundred years, and showed that the record speeds are statistically related to athletes' body size (mass, height) according to the same formulas as the speed-size relations for all animals.^[47] The fourth paper in this series compared the modern evolution of short and long distance running and swimming in terms of body mass (M), height (H), slenderness (S), and winning speed (V). It noted that the M, H and S trends in short distance running (100 m) are increasing over time, in contrast to the same trends in long distance running (10,000 m). Conversely, H and V are increasing in both short (100 m freestyle) and long distance swimming (1,500 m freestyle). However, the speed records ratio running/swimming vis-a-vis short distance sports is decreasing at approximately the same rate as the speed records ratio running/swimming for long distance sports. In addition, both swimming and running are ultimately limited by V max speed ceilings that are governed by the laws of physics; the extant records in both sports are thus close to 1/2 V max.^[48]

A 1994 examination of 32 English sport/exercise science textbooks found that seven suggested that there are biophysical differences due to race that might explain differences in sports performance, one expressed caution with the idea, and the other 24 did not mention the issue.^[49]

Socioeconomic factors

In Stuck in the Shallow End: Education, Race, and Computing, UCLA researcher Jane Margolis outlines the history of segregation in swimming in the United States to show how blacks have been affected up to the present day by inadequate access to swimming facilities and lessons.^[50] Margolis asserts that physiological differences between ethnic groups are relatively minor and says: "In most cases of segregation, stereotypes and belief systems about different ethnic gender groups' genetic make-up and physical abilities (and inabilities) emerge to rationalize unequal access and resulting disparities."^[50] According to Margolis, views regarding "buoyancy problems" of African Americans are merely part of folklore which have been passed down from generation to generation.^[50] Joan Ferrante, a professor of sociology at Northern Kentucky University, suggests that geographic location, financial resources, and the influence of parents, peers, and role models are involved in channeling individuals of certain races towards particular sports and away from others.^[51]

Racial prejudices, discrimination, segregation, and integration

The baseball color line, which included separate Negro league baseball, was one example of racial segregation in the United States.

In the United States, a form of racial discrimination exists in NBA basketball, as white players received higher salaries than do blacks related to actual performance. Funk says this may be due to viewer discrimination. Viewership increases when there is greater participation by white players, which means higher advertising incomes. This explains much of the salary gap.^[52]

Researchers have looked at other evidence for sports consumer discrimination. One method is comparing the price of sports memorabilia, such as baseball cards. Another is looking at fan voting for all-star teams. Still another is looking at willingness to attend sporting events. The evidence is mixed, with some studies finding bias against blacks and others not. A bias, if it exists, may be diminishing and possibly disappearing, according to a study on fan voting for baseball all-star teams.^[52]

Major League Baseball

Debuting with the Brooklyn Dodgers in 1947, Jackie Robinson was the first black Major League Baseball player of the modern era.

^[53][54]

The under-representation of blacks in U.S. baseball ended during the early years of the Civil rights movement.

National Basketball Association

Although Japanese-American Wataru Misaka broke the National Basketball Association's color barrier in the 1947–48 season when he played for the New York Knicks, 1950 is recognized as the year the NBA integrated. That year African-American players joined several teams; they included Chuck Cooper with the Boston Celtics, Nat "Sweetwater" Clifton with the New York Knicks, and Earl Lloyd with the Washington Capitols.

National Football League

Black players participated in the National Football League from its inception in 1920; however, there were no African-American players from 1933 to 1946.

Professional Golfers Association

In 1961, the "Caucasians only" clause was struck from the Professional Golfers' Association of America constitution.

Positions of power: coaching and administration

Referring to quarterbacks, head coaches, and athletic directors, Kenneth L. Shropshire of the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania has described the number of African Americans in "positions of power" as "woefully low".^[1] In 2000, 78% of players in the NBA were black, but only 33% of NBA officials were minorities.^[55] The lack of minorities in positions of leadership has been attributed to racial stereotypes as well "old boy networks" and white administrators networking within their own race.^[55] In 2003, the NFL implemented the Rooney Rule, requiring teams searching for a new head coach to interview at least one minority candidate.^[55]

Similar to the discrepancy between participation and leadership of blacks in American professional leagues, NCAA sports also have had a similarly low percentage of administrators and coaches relative to the number of athletes. For example, during the 2005–2006 academic year, high revenue NCAA sports (basketball and football) had 51 percent black student athletes, whereas only 17 percent of head coaches in the same high revenue sports were black^[56] Also, in the same 2005–2006 year, only 5.5 percent of athletic directors at Division I "PWIs" (Primarily White Institutions), were black.^[57] Terry Bowden, a notable white Division I football coach, suggests that the reason many university presidents will not hire black coaches is "because they are worried about how alumni and donors will react."^[57] Bowden also refers to the "untapped talent"^[6] existing within the ranks of assistant coaches in Division I football. The data backs up this claim, with 26.9 percent of Division I assistant coaches during the 2005-06 year in men's revenue sports being black,^[58] a notably higher percentage than of head coaches. In terms of administrative positions, they have been concentrated largely in the hands of whites. As recently as 2009, 92.5 percent of university presidents in the FBS were white, 87.5 percent of athletic directors were white, and 100 percent of the conference commissioners were white.^[59] Despite these statistics, black head coaches have become more prevalent at the FBS level. As of 2012, there are now 15 black head coaches in FBS football,^[60] including now 3 in the SEC, a conference that did not hire its first black head coach until 2003.^[61]

Segregated seating

In 1960, the Houston Oilers implemented a policy at Jeppesen Stadium to segregate the black fans from the white fans.^[62] Clem Daniels, Art Powell, Bo Roberson, and Fred Williamson of the Oakland Raiders refused to play in a stadium that had segregated seating. The 1963 game against the New York Jets was relocated to a different stadium.^[63]

Mascot controversies

The use of Native American names and imagery for sports mascots is an issue of ongoing discussion and controversy in American sports, as some Native American representatives have objected to such use without explicit negotiation and permission.^[64]

Promoting racial harmony and breaking stereotypes

According to William Jeynes, a professor of education at California State University, Long Beach, the gathering at the first Thanksgiving in the United States was an attempt to create racial harmony through games and sporting contests that included running, shooting and wrestling.^[65] Huping Ling, a professor of history at Truman State University, has asserted that the participation of Chinese students in sports helped break local stereotypes in the St. Louis area during the 1920s.^[66]

Portrayals in film

The US-set films Hoosiers and Rudy have been described as memorializing the "golden age of sports" as a time of white prevalence and dominance,^[67] while Glory Road showed a white coach helping to dissolve the color barrier in college basketball.

Invictus deals with the subject of the Rugby World Cup in post-apartheid South Africa.

Australia

Inequality in sport for the Aboriginal Australians exists due to material barriers.^[68] A 2007 report by the Australian Human Rights Commission suggested that fear of "racial vilification" was partly responsible for the under-representation of Aboriginal and other ethnic groups in Australian sports.^[69]

South Africa

In South Africa, black representation on the cricket and rugby national sports teams is ensured via the introduction of quotas.^[70]

United States

Discussions of race and sports in the United States, where the two subjects have always been intertwined in American history, have focused to a great extent on African Americans.^[71] Depending on the type of sport and performance level, African Americans are reported to be over- or under-represented.^[71] African Americans compose the highest percentage of the minority groups active at the professional level, but are among those who show the lowest participation overall.^[71]

See also

• Rugby union and apartheid
• Al Campanis controversy
• Howard Cosell controversy
• Marge Schott controversy
• Jimmy Snyder controversy
• 10-second barrier
• 1968 Olympics Black Power salute
• Black participation in college basketball
• Black players in American professional football
• History of African Americans in the Canadian Football League
• Melanin theory
• Constructal law
• Glory Road (film)

References

General

• Carrington, Ben; McDonald, Ian, eds. (2001). 'Race', Sport, and British Society. Routledge. ISBN 978-0-415-24630-9. 
• Duncan, Margaret Carlisle; Jamieson, Katherine M. (2009). "Sociology of Physical Activity". In Hoffman, Shirl J. Introduction to Kinesiology: Studying Physical Activity (3rd ed.). Human Kinetics. pp. 200–203. ISBN 978-0-7360-7613-5. Retrieved April 11, 2011. 
• Franks, Joel S. (2000). Crossing Sidelines, Crossing Cultures: Sport and Asian Pacific American. University Press of America, Inc. ISBN 978-0-7618-1592-1. 
• Gems, Gerald R.; Pfister, Gertrud (2009). "Sport and race". Understanding American Sport: In Culture and Society. Routledge. pp. 228–249. ISBN 978-0-415-44365-4. Retrieved April 13, 2011. 
• Giulianotti, Richard (2005). "'Race', Ethnicity and Intolerance in Sport". Sport: A Critical Sociology. Polity Press. pp. 62–79. ISBN 978-0-7456-2546-1. Retrieved April 13, 2011. 
• Hoberman, John Milton (1997). Darwin's Athletes: How Sport Has Damaged Black America and Preserved the Myth of Race. Mariner Books. ISBN 978-0-395-82292-0. 
• Leonard, David J. (2006). ""Is This Heaven?": White Sporting Masculinities and the Hollywood Imagination". In King, C. Richard; Leonard, David J. Visual Economies of/in Motion: Sport and Film. Peter Lang Publishing. pp. 165–194. ISBN 978-0-8204-7852-4. Retrieved April 21, 2011. 
• Lomax, Michael E., ed. (2008). Sports and the Racial Divide: African American and Latino Experience in an Era of Change. Jackson, Mississippi: University Press of Mississippi. ISBN 978-1-60473-014-2. Retrieved April 6, 2011. 
• Sheldon, Jane P.; Toby Epstein Jayaratne; Elizabeth M. Petty (September 2007). "White Americans' Genetic Explanations for a Perceived Race Difference in Athleticism: The Relation to Prejudice toward and Stereotyping of Blacks" (PDF). Athletic Insight 9 (3): 31–56. Retrieved April 11, 2011. 
• Shropshire, Kenneth L. (1996). In Black and White: Race and Sports in America. New York University Press. ISBN 978-0-8147-8037-4. Retrieved April 4, 2011. 
• Wiggins, David Kenneth (1997). "Great Speed but Little Stamina: The Historical Debate over Black Athletic Superiority". Glory Bound: Black Athletes in a White America (First ed.). Syracuse, New York: Syracuse University Press. ISBN 978-0-8156-2734-0. Retrieved June 25, 2010. 

Specific

External links

• Kamiya, Gary. "The Black Edge." 28 January 2000. Salon.com.
• Malik, Kenan. "Why Black Will Beat White at the Olympics." 18 September 2000.
• Articles, commentaries, and reviews by Jon Entine and others