Sports: The Role Of Racism In Sports

Sporting athletic leagues have been around since 1903, when New York City’s Public School Athletic League for Boys was established to create formal contests between kids and adults. Racism has been around since humans have diversified into different races, ethnicities, and religions by coming together and clashing. How has sports and racism interacted with each other to make such a social uproar? Personally, I believe in playing the game how it’s supposed to be played without politics being involved, regardless of the opponent’s skin color or religious beliefs. The media has portrayed the sporting world in such a negative light to gain more attention to the average viewer, while forgetting what the main aspect of sports is all about, winning.
When African-American NBA basketball player, Kendall Marshall, wasn’t getting enough playing time according to his father, he tweeted “I always said there was racism in sports. White guys in basketball are getting every chance to succeed even when they aren’t doing sh!t” (Marshall). Although the father quickly apologized, the media took every chance they could to bring this story to headline news by making the title “The Sixers Are Racist” (Deadspin) “Sixers Are Racist for Benching His Son” (SI) making the controversy more popular and causing a bigger commotion than it needed to be. Other professional athletes went public about their feelings regarding racism and sports and the results were not as expected. Fellow African-American NFL football player Benjamin Watson, responded to the Kendall Marshall controversy in an unexpected manner and goes on to say “…ultimately the problem is not a skin problem, but a sin problem. Sin is the reason we rebel against authority” (Benjamin Watson). With Watson, a professional competitive athlete exclaiming how racism isn’t a problem in sports, but in the way that “we (African-Americans) abuse our authority” (Watson), shows from an unbiased racially similar colleague that racism isn’t an issue in sports. An ESPN African-American football analyst, Michael Smith goes public
In one of the most prestigious football leagues, The Premier League, there was an issue between two opponents (John Terry and Luis Suarez) where the media and fans alike accused the two players of racially abusing other football players that were playing against. A popular news website, The Guardian wrote an article about the incident and accused John Terry of calling a player a “f***ing black cunt” because of supposed claims made by the website. This story brought the attention of FIFA president, Sepp Blatter, who made a claim “I would deny it. There is no racism” (Blatter). Since that allegation between the two players, both opponents have denied any question of racism and have resumed play in The Premier League. In comparison to Citizen: An American Lyric, Wozniacki a famous tennis player was playing an exhibition match against longtime opponent and friend, Serena Williams, when Wozniacki,
“imitates Serena [Williams’’ exterior appearance] by stuffing towels in her top and shorts…Wozniacki (though there are a number of ways to interpret her actions-playful mocking a peer, imitation of the mimicking antics of the tennis player known as the joker, Novak Djokovic) finally gives the people what they have wanted all along by embodying Serena’s attributes