Race, Ethnicity & Indigenous People in Sport

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Creating Race: The Origins of an Ideology

• As white Europeans explored the globe and colonized, racial classification systems were developed after discovering physical differences between people
• These systems were used to justify colonization, religious conversion, slavery, and genocide
• White skin was considered the standard, implying that dark skin was associated with intellectual inferiority and slowed development

Race and Ethnicity

• Race refers to the socially constructed distinctions between groups of people based on physical or genetic traits such as skin color, hair type and facial features
• Ethnicity refers to cultural characteristics shared by a social group, such as customs, language, beliefs, and history, which unites the group and enables others to recognize them as different

Racial Ideology

• Racial ideology consists of interrelated ideas/beliefs classifying humans into categories with assumed biological connections and attributes like intelligence, temperament, and physical abilities
• It has been used by white people to justify colonization and exploitation of dark-skinned people and to portray dark-skinned people as needing moral salvation and civilizing

Racial Ideology in North America

• From the 17th to 20th centuries in North America, skin color became associated with a person's worth and humanity for varied reasons
• White populations needed a justification for political expansion
• White populations wanted to maintain control over Black people after slavery was abolished
• Scientists asserted they had evidence of the natural inferiority of "colored" people and the superiority of "Caucasian" ancestry, making whiteness a basis for American identity and citizenship

Issues with Race and Racial Ideology

• Research indicates that race isn't a valid biological concept because external traits aren't linked with patterns of internal differences
• Race is a social construct based on social definitions and how people assign meanings to traits
• Racial classification systems differ across cultures and over time and are based on arbitrary distinctions linked to continuous physical traits

Racial Categories: Drawing Color Lines in Society

• Continuous traits are skin color, height, brain size, nose width, and leg length
• Discrete traits are blood type
• Racial category lines are drawn on continuous traits, wherever and however, revealing social decisions, not biology

Searching for "Jumping Genes" in Black Bodies

• Looking for "jumping genes" in black bodies is misleading because of oversimplified ideas about how genes work
• Mistakenly assuming jumping is a simple physical activity tied to single or related genes and ignores that jumping is a cultural performance as well
• There is no scientific evidence that skin color relates to physical traits essential for athletic excellence in any sport

Outcomes of Racial Ideologies

• Racism is attitudes, actions, and policies based on the belief that people in one racial category are inherently superior to those in other categories
• Genocide is the systematic destruction of an identifiable population
• Stereotypes are generalizations used to define and judge individuals classified in a particular racial category

Critical Theory and Racial Classification

• Questions to ask include:
  • Whose classification systems are used
  • Who uses them
  • Why some people are dedicated to using certain classification systems
  • What are the consequences of usage
  • What minimizes negative consequences
  • How the systems can be challenged
  • What occurs when systems change

Race and Ethnicity in Sport

• Social relations and rules shape how resources work and are distributed, creating "power relations" that privilege some
• Race and ethnic relations are a specific form of power relations

Race, racial ideology and sports

• Racial ideology encourages "seeing" sport in "racialized" terms (skin color), using whiteness as the standard, explaining success/failure by race, and research to "discover" racial difference Whitestream sport in Canada shaped by individuals of white European heritage privileges their traditions, practices, meanings, and sport structures

Traditional Racial Ideology

• Achievements of white athletes are based on Character, Culture, and Organization
• Achievements of black athletes are based on Biology, "Natural" abilities and Genetic heritage

Playing While White (Leonard, 2017, pp. 6-7)

• It means being seen as a leader, celebrated as an intelligent athlete, and praised for embodying positive values
• Trash-talking off the field by black athletes results in narratives about disrespectful "thugs," with debates about role models, values, morality, and punishment
• Similar behavior in white athletes leads to stories about passionate players needing to mature
• When black players yell at teammates, they can be seen as selfish hip-hop ballers, while it can be seen as leadership for white players

Historical Consequences of Racial Ideology for Black People in Sports

• Desegregation of revenue-producing sports
• Labeling of sports as white or black
• Position stacking in sport
• Racialized interpretations of achievements
• Barriers for blacks in coaching and management

Desegregation of Revenue-Producing Sports

• Strong fears of the physical power and prowess of (oppressed) black men
• Powerful anxieties about the sexual appetites, attributes and capabilities of (angry) black men
• A deep fascination with the movement of the (controlled) black male body.
• The black male became a valuable entertainment commodity, and black people saw it as a mobility asset

Racial Ideology

• Influences some white people to avoid sports where Black people have a record of excellence

Stacking

• Stacking is using racist ideological beliefs to positionally segregate athletes
• Black football players are positioned in running positions because they are supposedly more natural
• White players in central leadership as quarterback because it is assumed that they have ability and intellect to fill those positions

Racialized Interpretations of Achievements

• The body of the black female remains sexualized in the U.S
• This leads to stereotypes of black women as being oversexed or as a "Mammy
• These stereotypes are still expressed

Racialized Interpretations

• In the U.S. and Canada, black women must monitor their presentation to avoid being perceived as "too black" and tone down their toughness to appear amicable and nonthreatening

Barriers for Blacks in Coaching and Management

• The NFL's Rooney Rule requires interviewing at least one minority candidate for head coaching and management, created in 2003
• Only requiring a minority candidate to be interviewed makes it a superficially symbolic action

Explore the origins of race as an ideology, its connection to colonialism, and how racial classification systems emerged. Understand the distinctions between race and ethnicity, and delve into the components of racial ideology within the context of sports.