Race and Sports Essay

Submitted By gmoreno480
Words: 1794
Pages: 8
Open Document
“A black player knows he can go out on the court and kick a white player’s ass. Why? Because the black player is conditioned to think he can take the white guy whenever he needs to”.
-Dennis Rodman

Even the most hardened skeptic would recognize the basketball proverb “white men can’t jump” is more than just an exaggeration. African-Americans and blacks have consistently demonstrated that they are better leapers and runners in sports from basketball to high jumping. The question is why. Some schools of thought have proposed that African-Americans dominate athletics because of some superior jumping or strength gene. Vince Lombardi revered NFL Hall of Fame head coach said freely in an interview with Almond Magzine, “I think Negros are more naturally endowed. I think physique has a great deal to do with it. Their muscular development is longer. Their muscles are not as bunched. They have a longer type of muscle. This gives them greater spring and more quickness.” Others argue that because many members of the African American population have fewer opportunities to succeed in other fields therefore some devote themselves to their physical talent areas with dedication unequaled by other ethnic groups. Armed with better-quality attributes by way of training and a stronger motivation to succeed, it is not surprising to see a domination of certain sports. In his featured article in Skeptic Magazine titled “Breaking the Taboo: Why Black Athletes Dominate Sports And Why We‘re No Longer So Afraid to Talk About It”, journalist John Entine emphasizes:
Athletes who trace their ancestry to western African coastal states, including British, Caribbean and American blacks, are the quickest and best leapers in the world. Consequently, they almost completely monopolize the sprints up to 400 meters. No white, Asian, or East African runners have broken 10 seconds in the 100m. Athletes of West African descent hold the top two hundred times in the 100m—all less than 10 seconds––and 797 of the top 800 times. All 32 finalists in the last four Olympic men’s 100-meter races were West African. The likelihood of that happening based on population numbers alone is 0.0000000000000000000000000000000001. Yet there are no—not one—premier distance runners who trace their ancestry to this region in Africa. (8)
The counterargument is this is far from true and marginalizes them by producing certain negative stereotypes. Blacks do not in fact "dominate" sports, as if ordained by God, but tend to do extremely well in greater numbers at particular sports because of their over-exposure to some sports and under exposure of others.
Let us not forget that whites still dominate the “country club” sports: tennis, golf, swimming, bicycling, and skiing. It is only the fact that there are a plethora of African Americans that excel at the more popular sports that the notion of blacks dominating all athletics emerges. This however is not an entirely true statement. One only has to look into into the systematic racism in the majority of American athletics to show that inclusion to African-Americans is much more important than domination. It is a fact that basketball and track and field have a higher proportion of blacks that play in the amateur and professional ranks. The racial structure of players in the NBA (National Basketball Association) is roughly 80 percent black and 20 percent white, which illustrates the best basketball players in the world are mostly African-Americans. This begs the question, are blacks inherently more talented in basketball than their white counterparts?
To make that assumption, one may be able to suggest that blacks are naturally more violent or prone to criminal behavior, because, according to the U.S. Justice
Show More

Related Documents: Race and Sports Essay

race and sports Essay

Race and Sports: A Genetic Point of View 1.1 Originating question: Is race real? 1.2 Central question: Is race a matter of biology and genes? 1.3 Specifying question: Does knowing the race of a person tell us anything about them? 2.1 Answer to the central question: Yes, genetics do differ between different races. 2.2 Answer to the specifying question(s): No, knowing someone’s race does not tell us anything about that persons personality traits, mental aptitude, trustworthiness, or anything…

Words 404 - Pages 2

Race In Sports Essay

This article attempts to talk about the touchy subject of race in sports. In the article they say that race is something that is hard to discuss without offending someone, which in some cases could cause someone to lose their job. The Wonderlic Test is compared by most to an typical IQ test, with the average score being around 20, which is equivalent to an IQ score of 100 (Billings, 2012, p. 203). Wonderlic scores are supposed to be kept secret because they measure intelligence, but somehow players…

Words 465 - Pages 2

Sports And Race 2 Essay

Sports and Race: The National Basketball Association The National Basketball Association (NBA) has been touted as possibly one of the most diverse organizations in professional sports in North America. According to Jonathon Landrum, Jr., of the Associated Press, the NBA has the “highest percentage of African-American players of any major professional… leagues” in the United States and Canada (Landrum, 2012). Efforts to diversify the league started in the late 1940s with the 1947 debut of Wataru…

Words 972 - Pages 4

Significance Of Race In College Sports

Eddie Vedder once said that, “It's a crazy world, so sports, athletics, and music can be a form of escapism” (Brainy quote). If this holds to be true, then what can be said about the demands, expectations, and training that drive college athletes into a fluctuating frenzy between academics and collegiate life? “Significance of race in college athletics: Comparing mission statements across racial boundaries” is an article by a team of authors from the School of Public Health in Indiana University…

Words 111 - Pages 1

Critical Race Theory: The Role Of Racism In Sports

their race is superior to others and can cause discrimination and prejudice (En.wikipedia.org, 2017). Within the microcosm of sport in our society, racism has always existed as we have seen brutal acts of discrimination, apartheids and the deliberate alienation of players from minority groups in a variety of sports. However, we now live in a more multicultural society where sport is being used as a vehicle for challenging racial ideology (Coakley, 2009). Whilst many view racisms in sport as an oppressive…

Words 499 - Pages 2

Compare And Contrast Track And Cross Country

are two very different sports: the milage, location, simplicity, and even the races themselves are different. Despite the distinctions, both of these sports share the same goal and needless to say, a lot of running is involved. Both can be seen as nearly identical or completely diverse athletics. I have spent some time participating in these sports and have experience in both track and cross country. Personally, I prefer cross country over track because of the pace of the sport. It angers me when people…

Words 991 - Pages 4

Argumentative Essay: Is Racing A Sport?

of suped up cars making another left turn. On the other side of the issue you have the die-hard race fans, sitting in the stands every weekend wearing their favorite driver’s t-shirt who claim that racing is not only a sport but one of the best sports there is. They say this because of the many hardships; whether financial, physical, or mental, that the driver must go through to even earn a chance to race with NASCAR. They claim that because of the difficult conditioning and training that the driver…

Words 1065 - Pages 5

Essay on Sports have a big impact on racial and ethical issues in America

Sports have a big impact on racial and ethical issues in America. There are still racial issues today in sports, some races get look at differently than others. Ethical issues in sports still big today and more then back then. Issues like drugs, Discrimination, Gambling, and Temptation of the Sports Agent. The movie I am using to give examples from is Remember the Titans. Negative perceptions of black athletes, especially black males, still are evident in the mainstream media, even though we've…

Words 551 - Pages 3

Gerlad Horne Gender Roles

From the interview conducted with Gerlad Horne as well as Chapter 5 from Sport in the Capitalist Society: A Short History, we are able to see clear intersections regarding gender and sports. Horne is a historian who primarily focuses on the lives and pasts of African Americans. During the Horne Interview, the audience is able to learn a lot about how race and sports have interacted in the past, more specifically with black boxers. During the 19th century, Black men were forced to fight with other…

Words 478 - Pages 2

Offensive Mascots Research Paper

Offensive Mascots We have always had sports, but one thing is wrong. Some team mascots are offensive. People can get offended by a lot of things. Especially things that can offend a specific race. So some sports teams being offensive against race can really upset people and cause unnecessary outrage. People just need to not take these names to heart. It isn’t actually saying something towards that race. It's just the name of a sports team. An example is I'm sure the Washington Redskins franchise…

Words 317 - Pages 2