Racism and Stereotypes Essay

pastime provides a particularly public intro of relations of dominance and subordination. The point of sport is to display publically the processes of challenge and struggle between two sides alleged to capture in match equipment casualty and determined to produce and sustain relations of dominance vis-a-vis one an other(a). Moreoer, sport as a meritocracy found on skill quietly reaffirms our national common sense individuals who start hard and possess the right stuff will always prevail. moody on its head, this lesson engenders even more(prenominal) than insidious those who ar at the croak must incur risen to the top through fair nitty-gritty and thus deserve their position. In contrast, those not at the top do not possess the requisite natural endowment for such(prenominal) privilege. heretofore the second best is a loser(Wulfemeyer & Rada, 2005). shimmer provides an objective measure to evaluate the exercise of a player and/or a team. There atomic number 18 numberless statistics for athletes in e genuinely sport, which ar evaluated on a daily basis.Statistics aim how come up an athlete per descriptors and how good of an player they truly ar. As an athlete, talent is all that should matter and be looked at when making a perspicaciousness of whether they argon good or not, unfortunately this does not always pretend true today. Stereotyping, racism, sexism and all those negative aspects of life, which were thought to necessitate diminished over the years, are understood prominent and envisioned through the media to this day. Stereotyping is the process of alarming grammatical caseistics on stack based on their perceived convention social status (Harrison, 2001).Based on stereotypical mental pictures, we make social assumptions and make judgments on our knowledge of the perceived traits of those that fit into social categories. Viewing groups in terms of stomps is the brains way of filling in missing cultivation round ind ividuals we know little about by superimposing perceived traits of the group to which they be huge. This is an efficient adaptation of the human mind to allow us to relieve oneself out of acquiring to know everyone we encounter. Humans constitute neither the cognitive capacity, time, nor the desire to process all of the information available to us.We therefore usage our cognitive space as efficiently as likely by categorizing and compressing information in an attempt to store more (Rose & Christina, 2006). When stereotypes are based on a wealth of accumulated social and factual knowledge and are not social occasiond to make trait assumptions about individual group members, they are generally accurate and pose some problems. It is when stereotypes are based on false, misleading, or limited information that they become problematic.While most stereotyping, even the problematic variety, fecal matter be considered benignant it holds potential for quick activation if circumstance s and situations present themselves (Harrison Jr. , 2001). Sport and physical activity provide an abundant ground for the evolution, utilization, and pro persistentation of stereotypes. racial stereotypes regarding the abilities of African Americans and Europeans are very much prominent in the solid ground of sport and physical activity. These stereotypes have been fueled historically by theories highly-developed to explain the perceived performance differences between African Americans and European Americans. many a(prenominal) another(prenominal) another(prenominal) years of theorizing and hypothesizing about the natural physical abilities of African American athletes have shaped the thinking of entire populations. These seemingly scientific theories and hypotheses have make the origin of todays African American athlete stereotype (Armstrong, 2011). The former United Nations Secretary General, Kofi Annan was quoted saying sport is a cosmopolitan language that can bring pas sel together, no matter what their origin, background, spectral beliefs or economic status (United Nations, 2005) notwithstanding this was not always the case.major(ip) barriers have been conquered over the years to bring equality to this nation and clear the former Secretary Generals above statement. One of the gravidgest issues that was dealt with was racism. This is a topic many like to tiptoe around and believe is destitute in American, the so-called melting pot of the world. Ethnic groups are equal if not more dominant in professional sports today in their participation in sport but the akin cannot be say for the coverage of the events that they go into in.enquiry shows that there are still undercoat racial stereotypes made by sport announcers (Westerfield, Johnson, Hallian). African American athletes, erst excluded from participating in professional and intercollegiate sports because of institutionalized discrimination, now participate in many sports at a rate that e quals or greatly exceeds their representation in the population. This is especially true in the case of intercollegiate and professional football and hoops (Center for the involve of Sport in Society, 2001).As equality became more evident in sport, especially football and basketball, so did the media coverage of these sports. The development of technologies, such as the television or Internet, allows state all over the world to watch a outgrowth subjoin in the popularity of sport. Over the years sports coverage has given a larger viewing population to the networks and the libertine entities have used that coverage to step-up their revenue. Even though both equality for the minority player and the media were growing at the same time they were not growing together.It was true that blacks were getting more rights to play but they were not cosmos broadcasted out to a larger audience by the media. For years African Americans and the African American community have been underrepre sented in television coverage. When African Americans did appear they were often pigeonholed into demeaning, stereotype ridden portrayals, showing them as bestial, brutish, buffoonish, comical, criminal, dependant of government entitlements or support, ignorant, lazy, menacing, oversexed, and addicted to out-of wedlock births (Wulfemeyer & Rada, 2005).The question of bias in sports coverage is neither saucy nor limited to race. To date, some(prenominal) research projects have uncovered bias across race, gender, and ethnicity (Wulfemeyer & Rada, 2005). The presence of bias has not been limited by venue either. Research has found bias across a wide range of sporting events ranging from professional and intercollegiate sports in the United States to international events such as the Olympics.Research has as well demonstrated that bias can take many forms, from what is heard from the spoken commentary on-air to what is seen from the game coverage (Wulfemeyer & Rada, 2005). One form of racial bias that researchers have consistently uncovered is the brawn versus brains descriptions direct toward the players. It would seem as though complimenting an athlete for his or her athletic index and physical attributes would seem positive and encouraging to a player but that is not always the case.Sometimes these seemingly positive comments have an rudimentary bias that is revealed by the commentarys views of the players. This image that is made by the media that African Americans are naturally athletic and are blessed with deity given talent can portray the negative creation and perceptual experience of the lazy athlete who does not have to work hard or at all at his/her craft. Many times it was also portrayed that blacks were more animalistic and farther away from being civilized than the bear of the population as well.These stereotypical expressions were put into the open in 1989 when nose Snyder, an on-air personality for CBS Sports, openly told the public that the success of African American athletes was the allow of selective and effective breeding on the part of the slave owners. Announcers conflict not exclusively physical and intellectual ability intellect and character were also commented on, further negating the African American athlete. These stereotypes are not just targeted towards African Americans they apply and are present for all races.Examples of these stereotypes are things such as blacks dont feel pain, have no morals, are not team players have animal instincts, etc. Caucasian players cant jump, they are hickish, and they are too loud or to opinionated and are very naive to everyday life. People of Asian seemly are always good at math, cant depend on well and are very strict with their children. Native Americans are lazy and sometimes alcoholics, and only live off the casinos. Hispanics are not patriotic, they all drive trucks they are all-good at yard work and like to have a lot of children.All of these are example s of stereotypes that are out in decree today and the list could continue to go on and on. These stereotypes that are portrayed by the media have prominent effect of the sports that athletes choose to participate in, in many cases it probably even effect what position they play. Since media has become such a big part of todays society and is integrate into our everyday lives young athletes watch sports on television and listen to what is being tell about certain athletes and are likely to base what they motive to do on the sport that they best fit into.For example if you are black you best fit in play either basketball or football, if you are white you best fit in playing baseball or swimming, if you are of some sort of Hispanic sightly you should play soccer or maybe even baseball. Even though racism is suppose to be a topic that was squashed long ago it still lives very much through stereotyping and is success experty denying full integration throughout the spectrum of spor t. These same stereotypes that are made by the media towards the priapic roles of sport also apply to pistillates as well.Even though fair sex around the world now participate in sport they are still not held to the same standard as males. When female athletes desecrate gender norms and boundaries, even in a Post-Title IX moment, they are still held to antiquated societal standards of emphasized femininity and feminine appearance by the mainstream news media (Waches, Messner, Dworkin, Cooky, 2010). A great examples of this taking place is the Don Imus rock in 2007 when he made stereotypical, sexist and offensive comments about the Rutgers University muliebritys basketball team.Sexism is the belief or attitude that women are wanting(p) to men, the application of masculine stereotypes to women or the hatred of one gender or sex (Griffin, 1992). In collegiate sports, sexism can manifest itself in several ways including inequitable funding dedicated to womens sports, media covera ge of womens sporting events, womens college coaching salaries, views on elite female athletes and prepossess and discrimination against lesbians ( uninfectedside & Hardin, 2009).Sexist views on female athletes originated in the 1920s, from medical plaque concerns about the masculinizing effects of sport participation on women. From a modern standpoint, football, mens basketball and most male college sports draw more interest and revenue than womens college sports. This reality provides the foundation for beliefs about female athletic inferiority (Griffin, 1992). Sexism appears most often in womens basketball, in part, because the game draws the most attention among womens college sports and because womens basketball is more similar to a mens sport than any other college sport.In addition, womens basketball is not one of the socially pass feminine sports like tennis or golf. Traditionally, prissy sports like tennis, golf and gymnastics are viewed as more feminine and these spor ts are, coincidentally, inundated with black-and-blue women. minatory women have customarily participated in basketball and track, which have long been considered as masculine sports. Sport controversies can alienate and oppress Black female student-athletes who already confront isolation, media criticism, prejudice and stereotypes.Neglecting race and gender controversies in sport can impact athletic departments inciter name recognition, alumni donations, corporate sponsorships and game attendance. More important, race and gender controversies also can negatively affect minority and female student-athletes recruitment, student-athletes social development and social justice for all student-athletes. Inquires should uncover sociocultural implications that can be used to craft recommendations in instances when race, gender, and sport adversely intersect (Waches, Messner, Dworkin, Cooky, 2010).It is said that racism is something of the pass and in todays society it is non-existence b ut according to Gill (2011) there is a modern type of racism called new racism. New racism is based on the widespread belief that racism no longer exists and civil rights legislation created an equal playing field. New racism includes feeling a way of life is endanger by others and different civilizations are assumed to be incompatible. The traits that truly hump new racism from historical racism are racial ambiguity, blaming Blacks for their problems, and the use of the media to facilitate racism.Racial ambiguity refers to putting forth a non-prejudiced account for what might be considered as a prejudiced statement. For instance, when Don Imus was asked to explain his comments about the comment he had made about the womans Rutger team he stated that his comments were intended to be a joke. confront in new racism, unlike historical racism, is the belief that the problems Blacks experience are not a result of social disadvantage, but rather a result of some predisposed deviance i n Black culture (Gill, 2011).It is evident that racism, sexism, prejudice, stereotyping and a lack of equality are still very much present it sport today. Even with all the equality acts and laws that have been passed the playing field has yet to be leveled amongst different races, ethnic groups, and genders. Even though many sports have been intermingled there are still many sports that are dominated by one specific minority and that is not how it should be. The media needs stop putting emphasis and specific aspects of certain peoples life because in doing this they are generalizing a group.Through stimulus generalisation the media is implying that a certain group of people are all the same and thus should all be expected to act the same way. This brings a very negative aspect to sport. Since sport is such a big part of American culture I believe that the media should really begin to change their ways and stay as unbiased as possible to allow the viewing population to make their o wn judgments and opinions on people based on their talent, not on what generalized group they have been placed in. References Armstrong L., Ketra (2011).Lifting the Veils and Illuminating the Shadows Furthering the Explorations of Race and Ethnicity in Sport Management. journal of Sport Management 25, 95-106. 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