Racism In Sports And Its Impact On Managers And Coaches

ABSTRACTThis paper explores on racism in British sports. It will consider the effect to which racism in sports continues to prevail and the impact that racism may shed on a sports coach or manager. This will include a brief review of the history of British sports, in particular, the battlefront of pagan diversity in the British ordination and the involvement of this diversity in British sports.The paper will also examine the main currents of sociological thought which hold up in cooked research in this field. It will consider more or less of the common perceptions of sports in the discussion of racism in sports and argue against the conception of any oneness body of thought being viewed as universal. The paper will point out that Success in sports is a result of a complex interplay of factors including motivation and access to opportunities and that the physiological differences betwixt hunt downs have very little bearing on the performance of the individual.INTRODUCTION Sport is a lottimes cognise to many people as a place where normal problems of the real world cease to exist. Many believe the sports world to be a deterrent example of race relations. Through display via the television and any other media coverage, it is seen by most fans that it doesnt matter whether one is obtuse or snow-clad, what matters in the play field is ones ability. Hence, sport is seen by many as a paradigm of how an integrated familiarity should run into (Bradley 2006).However, a closer look at sports reveals that this idyllic picture is misleading. Although studyity of the players in professional sports are the Afri batch-the Statesns, this doesnt imply absence of racism. For example, the African -Americans are underrepresented in administrative ranks and learn (Jarvie & Reid 1997). Also some customary arguments serve to contribute to prejudices, myths and stereotypes about different racial groups hence leading to their discrimination.In this analysis we e xplore on the extent to which racism in sports continues to prevail and the impact that racism may have on a sports coach or manager. We shall begin our analysis by delimitate what we mean by racism and conduct a review of the history of British sports, in particular, the presence of ethnic diversity in the British society and the involvement this diversity in British sportsWHAT IS RACISM?Racism is defined as any form of discrimination which may be in the form of restriction, distinction, exclusion or preference of a group of individuals base on their race, colour, descent and ethnic origin. This has the effect of impairing or nullifying enjoyment, recognition or exercise on the same footing of fundamental rights in various fields of public life (CRE 2004).HISTORICAL BACKGROUNDThe British society has long been characterized by ethnic diversity. This diversity is attributed to historical reasons such as invasion, expansion and the role of Britain as a haven for those fleeing from p ersecution (British council 2003). In order to understand the relationship between ethnicity and sport, we mustiness first review the history of B leave out and Asian immigrants into the UK.The black presence in the UK can be traced back to the Roman times. During the 3rd century, a infinitesimal group of the Roman army, an African division, was deployed at Hadrians Wall and the Blacks entering Britain were limited to a small number by the Elizabethan parliament (British council 2003). bank the mid-20th century, Immigration into ports like capital of the United Kingdom, Bristol, Cardiff and Liverpool was limited to a small number blacks, Asians, and Chinese people (British council 2003).Blacks involvement in British sports was first noticed after America gained its independence (1775-1783) (British council 2003). In boxing, for example, Randolph Turpin who emerged as the world middleweight champion in 1951, following his victory over the great Sugar Ray Robinson was known to be t he black boxer of the era (British council 2003). In athletics, the British Caribbean gave a name to their sprinters towards the end of the 19th century up to the late 1950s. Cricketers too were there including Learie Constantine for Trinidad, who played between the wars in Lancashire (British council 2003).IMPACT OF POST-WAR IMMIGRATION (1945-70)After World War II, Britain experienced several waves of immigration, with 492 jamaicans migrating to Tilbury Docks in 1948 followed by the Asians and West Indians (British council 2003). By 1958, the number of West Indians and Asians in Britain were about 125000 and 55000 respectively (British council 2003). These immigrants were givingly welcomed by the National Health Service, and the transport, textile and service industries in efforts to rebuild Britains shattered economy.A final major phase of immigration occurred during the periods between 1968 and 1974 which saw over 70,000 Kenyan and Ugandan Asians immigrating to Britain (British council 2003). By 1974, the number of Black and Asian immigrants in Britain was more than one zillion (British council 2003). Today, it is claimed that the official government figures for minority ethnic groups in the UK stands at around 3.3 million Britons, a figure just below 6% of the British people (British council 2003).RACIAL TENSIONSWith new immigrants in Britain, accommodating them consequently became a major problem with most of them settling in poor and inner-city areas. Prejudice and discrimination then became a feature of the immigrant experience. With immigrants concentrated in the poor and inner-city areas, racial tensions then became a feature of the British society with areas such as Notting Hill and Nottingham having the vanquish riot experiences of 1958 (British council 2003).Subsequent racial tensions were later seen during the 1979 and 1985 in parts of Liverpool, Bristol, and capital of the United Kingdom as well as in many poor inner-city areas (British co uncil 2003). Up to date, communicative abuse, harassment and oppression are still features of experiences of some minorities in Britain. More insidious, are the stereotypes, racial comments and racist beliefs that continue to construct customary in British sports.RACISM IN SPORTSBoth the law and common morality require all citizens in the public sphere to be provided with equal opportunities regardless of the race, sex, gender, depicted object origin, age, creed or disability yet racism continue to remain a common feature of the day (Bauman 1997). Racism still remains prevalent in most fields of public life, sport is no ejection.Common arguments have often suggested sports as producing prejudices, myths and stereotypes that lead to discrimination and under-representation of veritable groups of individuals in sports. racial stereotypes remain firmly rooted in sports with a popular whim that the Blacks are in general more masculine and athletic than the whites (McDonald & Birre ll 1999). Their over-representation in genuine sports is indicative of this and the media representation emphasizing their inherent physicality reinforces this perception.This has resulted in the view that the black and white are biologically different and that the dominance of the Blacks in certain sports is a result of their perceived genetic advantages, yet there is no convincing scientific proof of this (McDonald & Birrell 1999). These stereotypical notions do not recognize wide-cut with-in group variations and falsely make fixed and distinct assumptions of biological divisions.SUBTLE RACISM IN SPORTSThe tendency to providing an explanation of the success of Black in sports but in terms of inherited factors, thereby devaluing their achievements, is indicative of subtle racism (Garland & Rowe 2001). The success of the Blacks in sports is often attributed to their physicality and a lack of cognitive reach era, on the other hand, the success of whites in sports is equated wit h dedication, intelligence, qualities of character, dependability and work ethics (Bradbury 2003). These apparent assumptions serve to reinforce some form of subtle racism in sports.REVERSE RACISMThere is a general consensus that racism against the Blacks remains prevalent and that the white players rarely experience any form of racism in sports. This is however not true as there is a growing body of evidence that contradicts this belief. In fact, there are certain identity codes at heart the football culture that carry with it racial meanings.An illustrative example is the song Id rather be a paki than a scouse which is often sung to Liverpool fans by fans from Manchester United, Chelsea and Arsenal (Back et.al. 2001). The song is directed at Merseyside fans with the intention of demoting the status of those that come from Merseyside from being a normal English society to one that is frowned upon (Back et.al. 2001).CRITICAL RACE THEORYAttempts have however been made to confront ra cial distinctions in the society. One of the frameworks established to challenge racism in the society is the Critical Race Theory (cathode-ray tube). This framework has some utility for anti-racism in sport. CRT is an important theoretical tool that provides antiracists with a framework that challenges narrow race thinking, orthodoxies and under-theorized approaches in sport, hence strengthening their praxis in what critical race theorists view as a racist world (Hylton 2008).In simple terms, the CRT provides antiracists with a framework from which they can examine the prevalence of racism in the society where in the whites are privileged to the disadvantage of the blacks. It recognizes and acknowledges the voice of the blacks who are often marginalized in practice and mainstream policy (Hylton 2008). Two areas of convergence between anti-racists and critical race theorists are the focus on social justice and transformation. The CRT challenges institutional arrangements in sport, b oth present and past, that subjugate, racially discriminate and oppress (Hylton 2008).ETHNIC AND RACIAL DIVERSITY IN SPORTSAs we have identified in the previous(prenominal) sections, there is the popular notion of the blacks as more inherently superior in physical ability than the whites. This is evident in their over-representation in high indite sports. For example, distance runnel is dominated by Kenyans and an African American is 28 times more believably than a white individual to reach NBA and 15 times to reach the NFL (Turner & Rasmussen 2003).The trend is also reflected within the contemporary British society where, despite accounting for less than 2% of the overall population, the Blacks dominate with at least 50% of the British athletic squad, boxing champions, and first division basketball players (Turner & Rasmussen 2003). Also, one in five professional soccer players is more likely to be an African American (Turner & Rasmussen 2003).Their overrepresentation is even m ore notable in athletics. Until the 1960s, most of the sprint champions came from the white group (Turner & Rasmussen 2003). Today, however, sprinting is dominated by the Blacks who hold 95% of the top times globally (Turner & Jones 2010). Majority of the gold winners at the Atlanta games of 1996 were the Blacks. Also, almost all of the runners who have broken the 10-second barrier for 100 metres have been the Blacks (Turner & Rasmussen 2003). On the contrary, however, they have underachieved in swimming relative to the whites. Inevitably, people draw conclusions from what they see, resulting in popular mythology and stereotypical views about the blacks.Research into group or individual differences have in general concentrated around the issue of nature vs nurture (Sugden & Bairner, 1999). That is, the extent to which difference between groups can be explained from the biological perspective or as a result of environmental conditions such as access and opportunity. Where emphasis is placed on the environmental factors, the assumption is that the difference can be modified. Where emphasis is on the biological factors, it is assumed that the differences are stable and unchangeable (Sugden & Bairner, 1999).However, actual evidence for genetic superiority in sports is scant and often flawed. The running superiority in Blacks has been speculated as a result of less subcutaneous fat and larger muscle mass (Daryl & David 2010). This has also been used to explain their lack of success in swimming due to buoyancy. However, had this theory of buoyancy been valid, then we would have more women superior to men, and endomorphs to ectomorphs (Daryl & David 2010). Clearly, this is not the case.In the actual sense, success can be attributed to the adaptive qualities resulting from strenuous training and cultural values (Roche 1998). There is need for an approach that recognizes that a range of factors must come into play including motivation and access to opportunities. The p hysiological differences between races have very little bearing on the performance of the individual.IMPACT OF RACISM ON SPORTS COACHESRacism in sports sure enough creates insurmountable problems as they exert powerful influences on a persons perception, sports coaches are no exception. For example, sports positional roles may be allocated depending on racial stereotypes. Racial stereotypes, within the sport dynamics, are apparent through stacking, a phenomenon where athletes are assigned certain playing positions by the coach based on the supposed racial attributes such as power and speed rather than actual achieved performance (Turner & Jones 2010).More often, the Blacks have been relegated to positions associated with physical rather than mental prowess, while the white athletes have been relegated leadership positions (Turner & Jones 2010). Research has shown that the stacking of the Black players to positions that emphasize physical rather than mental prowess, especially in ga mes such as rugby and soccer, has become a common occurrence in the UK (Turner & Jones 2010).Public pronouncements of managers and coaches have tended to perpetuate crude racial stereotypes. For example, in 1993, Ron Noades-chairman of Crystal Palace at the time- made some racial remarks in an infamous television documentary about his football team which was predominantly black (Bose 1996). As quoted in Bose (1996 p.84), Ron stated that when you are getting into midwinter in England, you need a few of the maybe hard white men to carry the artistic black players through. While manager at Queens Park Rangers (QPR), Jim Smith was noted claiming that the black players used very little intelligence and that their success in sports was due to their sheer natural talents (Cashmore 2003).These stereotypes are further perpetuated by the media through their reporting that emphasizes on the physicality rather than qualities such as effort, courage, and intelligence. The most notable example can be seen when the tabloid press picked on Linford Christies photograph in a tight fitting shorts and ran a crude sexual reference to his anatomy, based on the stereotype that blacks were more masculine and physically fit than the whites (British council 2003).Racism in sports is also evident through the underrepresentation of blacks in anxiety positions. Despite the large representation of blacks in British sports, it is apparent that management and leadership positions are rarely made available to them. Only a few of them hold management positions, for example John Barnes who was previously the Liverpool winger is now in charge of managing Celtic (British council 2003). Similarly, very few positions are made available to the Black and Asian referees, with an exception of Uriah Rennie, who is currently on the Football League list (British council 2003).CONCLUSIONAs identified above, racial stereotypes remain firmly rooted in sports with the popular notion that the Blacks are na turally athletic and more masculine than the whites. These stereotypical notions do not recognize wide with-in group variations and falsely make fixed and unambiguous assumptions of biological divisions.Moreover, these stereotypes are further perpetuated by the media through their reporting that emphasizes on physicality before qualities such as intelligence, courage and effort. In addition, public pronouncements of managers and coaches have tended to perpetuate crude racial stereotypes. More often, the Blacks have been relegated to positions associated with physical rather than mental prowess, while the white athletes have been relegated leadership positions. 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