The Importance Of Diversity In Professional Sports

African American athletes, once excluded from participating in professional and intercollegiate sports because of institutionalized discrimination, now participate in many sports at a rate that equals or greatly exceeds their representation in the population (Wada & Wulfemeyer, 2005). As a kid I initially aspired to be a professional basketball player, however by the time I entered middle school I realized that my chances of that dream becoming true is unlikely. I then wondered what alternative career choice could cater to my love for sports if I was not going to be a professional athlete. Sports Journalism would allow me to cover the games that I love and also gain exclusive insight with team personnel. Although only a select few people get
Smith served as inspirations for me because they were among the few African-American sports journalists who worked on a national stage. Like myself, Michael Smith and Verrett are New Orleans natives. With the increase of diversity in professional sports and the evolution/birth of social media, the need for diverse journalism is more important than ever. In his memoir, the late Stuart Scott mentioned how he uses television journalism to represent African-American culture (ESPN.com, 2015). “ESPN is one of the best examples of why diversity works -- because it has always made "SportsCenter" a better show and ESPN a better network
African-Americans accounted for 18.8 percent of the radio and television broadcast positions in the NBA during the 2014-15 season (Lapchick & Guiao, 2015). In the 1992-93, which is the first season that the race report documents, the percentage of African-Americans in the NBA who held radio and television broadcast positions were 12% (Lapchick & Guiao, 2015). The percentage has remained between 16 and 19 percent every year since the 1996-97 season (Lapchick and Guiao,2015). The proportion of African-American athletes to African American sports reporters are important because race-based differences contribute to determining what cues sports reporters use when referring to athletes (Mastro et al.,2012, pg.