Racism In Sports

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Kyle Morales Ryan Research Paper 12/7/10 Racism in Sports: A Never-Ending Issue? The problem of racism is not specifically an American problem, though Americans have made it into an important political and social issue as they have tried to find a way to remove racism from their society. Racism occurs whenever a dominant racial group uses its position to discriminate against a minority racial group on the basis of racial characteristics. Traditionally, discrimination has been seen as a creature of prejudice. Until the late 1960’s, the dominant perspective among sociologists analyzing discrimination was that prejudice and intolerance were the causes of discriminatory actions. Other observers have focused on individual racists and have seen the problem as the individual motivated by hatred of a given race other than their own. Certain areas of American life are seen as transcending racism and sports has been one of these. While it is true that the admission of blacks to the ranks of college and professional sports was slow in coming, it is also clear from an examination of college and professional teams today that blacks and whites coexist and work together on teams in nearly every sport. Yet, a closer examination shows that racism has not been eliminated from the sports world any more than it has from American life in general. While a majority of sociologists would base racism in sports as being primarily an American issue that is just not the case. Racial undertones affect sports on a global basis; this includes the most recognized international sport, soccer, as well. Racist attitudes and discriminatory behaviors emerge in various ways among players, in terms of how minority players are treated by management, and in terms of how players are treated by the fans. These issues in regards to racism in sports represent all minorities, but in particular,

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