The Role Of Racism In Professional Sports

Mitchell Thomas

Ms. Conley

English 12

3 March 2015

Research paper More as the years go on people try to pretend that just because slavery has come to an end and the civil rights movement occurred that racism has just suddenly vanished, but that's not the case. Racism is taught in our society; it is not automatic. It is a learned behavior toward persons with dissimilar physical characteristics. Racism is very evident in men's professional sports today but also had an even greater effect in the past, I'm talking back to the 40s. There was a point in time where African American males were not allowed to participate in professional sports and they were shunned and labeled as outcast who did not have the decency to step on the same field, court

Not just in any particular sport but all sports such as baseball, boxing, and basketball and it doesn't stop there. Athletes and professional teams are all effected by racism. Athletes has responded to such racism on there own and as a team by making a stand and protest. A very famous racial stand the goes back to the 60s in the 1968 Mexico City Olympics formally known as The 1968 Olympics Black Power salute. During these Olympics there was an act of protest by African American athletes Tommie Smith and John Carlos while receiving their medals. After the race was completed they turned to face the flag during The Star-Spangled Banner each turned around with their fist up covered with a black glove which everyone thought was a gesture of Black Power but was a silent gesture of human rights. The two and also Australian Peter Norman all wore human rights badges on their jackets. Smith, who wore a black scarf around his neck to represent black pride and Carlos wore a necklace of beads which he stated firmly "were for those individuals that were lynched, or killed and that no-one said a prayer for, that were hung and tarred. It was for those thrown off the side of the boats in the middle passage", both received their medals shoeless wearing black socks which was a representation of black poverty. Smith who later explained his motivation "If I win, I am American, not a black American. But if I did something bad, then they would say I

There is no excuse to these incidents that African Americans has had to face. Racism is apart of everyone's life whether people like it or not. Whether people see it on the news through their society or they go through it experiencing it personally. There's no escaping it, it's all around us. As a whole, the world has accepted racism as a part of our lives or that is what it seems like. People aren't really trying to make a dramatic change that will change society once and for all. Most are content on living the way we do. No action, especially in the negative sense, goes unnoticed in professional sports. When there are incidents of racism or discrimination against players, it is big news and the whole country knows about it. African Americans has had to deal with coming from a racist background in professional sports where they weren't even allowed to play professional sports to now where they are judged and still have to do with racism. It is unfair that African Americans have to deal with such demoralizing people and are not viewed as equal despite slavery, the civil rights movement and such things as that society still had racist views. However, we can use this to change society permanently. If we can get rid of racism in professional sports that's a start. Trillions of people watch professional sports at least one time in their life and everyone hears about it so if people