Race and Ethnicity

In my American Sport in the 21st Century class we discussed race and ethnicity in sport on November 10 and 15. The question that was asked was are they important in sports? We also discussed some terminology, sport participation and African Americans, the history, traditional race logic used in sports, physical dominance of African Americans, and effects. The word racism is thrown around a lot. It was widely known and used in the 1900's it is still around today. It is just another thing minority players have to overcome to achieve success.

Facts:

• Sport is considered to be a meritocratic institution (2015 ESPN Poll)
• Racial minorities in the United States continue to face systematic pervasive discrimination

Definitions:

• Bigot- someone who is stubbornly attached to an opinion or belief
• Prejudice- an expression of bigotry, judging without knowledge of the facts
• Stereotypes- fixed ideas about a group 
• Race- social category constructed and accepted by society to describe members with genetic similarity
• Socially constructed- slavery
• Based on physical attributes
• Ethnic Group- socially distinct population that shares a way of life and is committed to the ideas, norms, an things that constitute the way of life.
• Minority Group- members who share common group characteristics and suffer from discrimination 

Sport Participation and African Americans

• Prior to the 1950's African Americans faced a segregated sports system
• African Americans participate in very limited range of sports
• African American men and women are underrepresented in most sports

History

• 1620- slavery
• 1810- Molyneux
• 1861-1865- Civil war (reconstruction)
• 13th amendment 1865- Abolish Slavery
• 14th amendment 1868- Gave African Americans rights
• 15th amendment 1870- Gave black men who owned land the right to vote
• 1896- Plessy V.S. Ferguson (separate but equal)
• 1936- Jesse Owens
• 1947-Jackie Robinson
• 1954- Brown V.S. Board (allowed blacks and whites to use same facilities)
• 1950's- Althea Gibson
• 1960's- Civil Rights
• 1964- Civil Rights act Title 7 equitable opportunities
• 1970's-Present- Explosion
• African Americans in NBA= 87%, NFL= 70%, MLB= 9.8%

Traditional Race Logic Used in Sports

• Achievements of white athletes are due to:
• ability
• character
• intelligence
• Achievements of black athletes are due to:
• biology
• natural physical abilities

Physical Dominance of African Americans

• Blacks have slight genetic advantage over whites in some areas
• African Americans are more physically suited for  activities requiring speed and power
• Longer levers, slimmer pelvis, less fat on muscles
• more fast twitch muscles
• Advance motor skills at an early age

Effects

• Blacks concentrate more on sports in which future economic incentives exist
• Blacks concentrate on sports in which exclusive training facilities, equipment and coaching is not necessary during developmental years
• Black role models affect the ways in which black youths view some sports stereotypes
• Whites tend to gravitate towards individual sports where developmental expenses are high. 

In this article it talks about all the different types of discrimination reports that have happened in sports. It also breaks them into categories as to what kind of discrimination it was. I feel that racism is still very active not only in the world but in sports. Look at Donald Sterling who was the owner for the San Antonio Spurs. He lost his job because he said some racist remarks. Racism is all around us and it is a shame. If racism is ever gone that is when sports will truly be at it greatest. Athletes can play without the worry of being treated differently. 

Deviance in Sports

On November 3,and 8 we discussed deviance in sports in my American Sport in the 21st Century class. Is deviance out of control? That is the big question that is being asked all around leagues everywhere. We talked about deviance in society, examples of deviance, problems with studying deviance, research on deviance among athletes on and off the field, drugs, why they shouldn't, categories of PED's, All of these topics were discussed in class. Many athletes think that since they are superstars that they can not get punished when they do wrong. That is not the case. Some may have gotten away with some things in High School but once you make it to the big leagues it is a whole new world. If you do something wrong you will get punished.

Deviant- an act/person that differs from the norm, especially behavior or attributes that differ from social standards.

Deviance in Society

• using illegal drugs
• violent crimes-murder,rape, battery, abuse
• stealing/robbing a bank

Examples of Deviance in Sport

• fighting
• bounty hunting
• academic cheating
• performance enhancing drugs
• gambling
• illegal recruiting practices

Problems when studying Deviance

• What is deviant outside of sports, may be acceptable inside of sports 

•  Violence and aggression are not acceptable social practices, but what about sports where aggression is encouraged

Research on Deviance Among Athletes

• On the field
• cheating,dirty-play,fighting,violence are less common today than in the past
• over 80% of men and women in top level college sports sustain at least 1 serious injury though sports, 70% are disabled for 2 or more weeks
• disabling rate in the NFL is over 3 times greater than working in high risk construction jobs (CTE, Alzheimer's)
• 2012, 31 former players sued the NFL due to permanent brain injuries as a result of  concussion from playing in the NFL. (suicide, memory loss, depression). $765 million judgement. 
• Off the field
• in some cases athletes do have higher delinquency rates than no-athletes
• data on academic cheating is inconclusive
• athletes have higher rates of alcohol use and binge drinking
• felon rates among adult athletes do constitute a problem- domestic violence

What are Drugs???

Drugs are chemicals that change the way our bodies work.

• Prescribed drugs- given to us by a doctor to cure illness & disease. Socially accepted
• Social drugs- illegal substances used by people to give them a "high" to try to make them have a good time. Socially unaccepted
• Performance Enhancing Drugs- substances used to enhance their performance in sports

Why shouldn't they??

• Moral Reasons
• gives unfair advantage
• undermines the true spirit  of the sport
• reflects badly on others
• Legal Reasons
• against the law
• against the laws of the sports
• Role Modeling
• sets a bad example to young people who copy their heroes and put their lives at risk
• gives sport a bad images and lowers it status

Major Categories of PED's

• stimulants
• narcotic analgesics
• anabolic steroids
• beta blockers
• divertics
• peptide hormones and analogues

The New York Giants had a problem with their kicker Josh Brown. In the this article he admits that he beat his wife. He is just one of the athletes in the NFL who have be found to do this. Ray Rice is an example. The Giants and the NFL conducted an investigation. To me this is a major problem. To many athletes have been found guilty of committing this crime. This is considered a violent crime and needs to stopped immediately. The article also talks about how they have such a high respect towards women when in October all the players wear pink to support women with breast cancer. It looks bad on the NFL and every other league when a player commits a crime as serious as this.

Sports and Media

In my American Sport in the 21st Century class we discussed the role of sport and the mass media on October 27 and November 1. The main question to answer during this discussion was could they survive without each other? Also we talked about the different roles of the media, the characteristics of the media, linkages between sport and the media, a couple definitions, the different social media categories, and what the media chooses to show us.

Roles of the Media

• Inform
• Entertain
• Educate
• Advertise

Characteristics of the Media

• Print Media- Considered (old media). Words and images printed on paper
• Examples: Newspapers, Magazines, Books, Catalogs.
• Electronic/Visual Media- (new media). Words, commentary, and images we receive through audio and video devices.
• Examples: Social media, Television, Radio.

Changes to sport as a result of the media

• Schedules and starting time
• Length of halftime period
• TV timeouts
• Expansion of leagues

Social media Categories

• Sites where users dictate the content and the popularity of that contest
• Communication services: (Facebook, Twitter, Google, Buzz)
• Entertainment: (Hulu, YouTube, Netflix)
• Professional Networks: (LinkedIn, Ezdia).
• Multimedia:(U stream, Skype, Live-stream)
• Smartphone apps: (At-bat 14, fanvison)
• Mobile couponing: (groupon, living special)
• Twitter- 974 million users, 150,000 signup per day

What the media chooses to show us

• Less airtime for women's sports
• Limited coverage for women's sports teams
• Heightened focus on the women's personal life/appearance
• Fewer strength descriptions
• Fewer slow motion replays
• Fewer on-screen stats
• Women referred to by 1st name

Stereo typical ideologies

Men: Bigger, Faster, Stronger, more athletic

Women: eye candy, and objects of desire

In the article The Importance of Social Media in Sport it discusses they different ways that technology and media are doing different things to get involved in sports. The article discusses the different ways businesses can get involved like sponsorship and social media promotions. Social media is a great way to get the fans involved. Different apps that grant the fans with that opportunity.I feel that social media and sport have become super connected and if you were to separate them they would not survive very long. They thrive off each other.

Intercollegiate Sports

In class we discussed the history of sports, also the expenditure and revenue, characteristics of big time division 1 programs, and abuses in intercollegiate sports, and the benefits of college sports. This is an important topics because there are people out there who believe that colleges and universities are spending way too much money on their programs and that they are very overrated.

Intercollegiate sports:

• The first contest was in 1852 between Yale and Harvard
• 1st football game was in 1869 between Princeton and Rutgers
• It was student run, and they used the British model
• The faculty got involved in 1880
• 1895 the first league was formed which was the BIG 10
• Intercollegiate athletic association formed in 1905
• NCAA was formed in 1910

Expenditure & Revenue:

• Scope of program
• Primary sources of funding
• Level of competition
• Media coverage
• Role and status of sports

There are many characteristics of a big time division 1 program. Their primary emphasis is on football or men's basketball. Less than 1 in 5 programs make money. Full scholarships are available to some athletes in 18-24 sports. The teams do a lot of traveling and the skill quality and competition level is high. 

Abuses in intercollegiate sports:

• Illegal recruiting
• Easy majors
• Exploitation of athletes
• Pressure to win
• Pressure to make money

Benefits of College Sports:

• High profile sport teams can be used with fundraising
• Teams may attract attention for potential students
• Social events and occasions

Spending money on big time college sports:

• Increased 4 times faster than academic budges at universities
• Has no effect on academic quality 
• Does not increase alumni donations
• Does not improve win/loss records
• Increases wealth gap between athletic departments
• Occurs to keep up wit other athletic department

In this article Expenses and Revenue it discusses how these 28 big time division 1 programs operated in the red in 2014. The University of Auburn purchased an 11,000 sq foot video board. They lost about $17 million that year.  There are also many different examples of Universities losing money. Some of the schools say that they don't have enough money to what needs to be done but others say that they should be spending the money more wisely. I personally think that Universities need to spend that money because that is what makes the sport so great. All the advertising and recruiting to get the best players to play on your team. Plus when they get to your school you want them to feel like they are wanted there so the colleges purchase nice things so that the athletes feel welcome.

Sports and Politics

On October 11th and October 13th in my American Sport in the 21st class we discussed the topic of sports and politics.  We discussed certain definitions, the different ways that sport is exploited in the government, how the government got involved, and the different ways that the government is used in sport.

Definitions:

Politics: Social process, individuals and groups acquire and maintain power over others.

Government: Formal organization that makes rules.

Globalization: Relationship between countries and the use of power on an international level.

How Government Got Involved:

• Safeguard public order
• Maintain fitness and physical abilities
• Promote prestige and power of a community or nation
• Reproduce dominant values
• Increase support for political leaders and political structures
• Promote economic development

Exploitation of Sport:

• White house reception of champions
• Athletes for Obama
• Sways votes

Sports in Politics has been used as a propaganda vehicle. In 1956 at the Olympic Games in Berlin Germany Hitler wanted the games to demonstrate the Aryan Race. Jesse Owens who was an African American who ran for the United States won 4 gold medals in those Olympic Games. With that happening Hitler refused to shake hands with Jesse Owens or any black athlete. 

Sport, Star Spangled Banner, Flag.

• First flag appearance was at the 1918 World Series
• The flag is a symbol of our government
• Anthem in the United States in 1930
•  In 1940 the national anthem was played before all sporting events.

10 Athletes Who Ran For Political Office written by Sean Hojnacki discusses how certain former athletes ran for a political office. We discussed this in class and used the examples of Lynn Swann, J.C. Watts, Bill Bradley, and Tom Osborne. All of those athletes ran for positions in political office. Since the athletes have been involved in sports the fans already know their name. That can be a factor in the election and sway votes their way because people were fans of the team. For more information use this link: Sports and Politics

Lynn Swann former Pittsburgh Steeler running for Governor of Pennsylvania.