The Effects of Racial Bias on Sports as Entertainment
Sports in the last hundred years or so-have become significantly more diverse in terms of the ethnic and racial backgrounds of their participants. Years ago, the NFL, NBA, MLB, etc. were predominantly, and at a certain point, exclusively, white leagues. White players, white coaches, white owners and even white cheerleaders. And while the sports world, like the real world, doesn’t have to deal with much blatant racism--like not allowing a person to participate in a sport based off skin color--there is still plenty of subtle racial discrimination. This subtle discrimination however, is far from inconsequential because it ultimately leads to a lesser product on the court, field, etc.
The NFL …show more content…
In the NFL, only five head coaches are black and in the NBA only seven out thirty head coaches are black. In the MLB? Only two non-white managers are currently employed. When you look at college athletics, the imbalance becomes even greater, with over seventy-five percent of division-one coaches across all sports being white men. This is disheartening in and of itself, but when you put it into the perspective of college athletics also consisting of predominantly black players, the disparity becomes even more troubling. Of course, some may say that there just aren 't any black head coach candidates. That would be incorrect, as there hundreds of black assistant coaches throughout collegiate athletics that have proven to be good at their job. Unfortunately, when the time comes and a new head coaching position opens up, they are more often than not, glossed over. Black Teams, White Coaches make note of the fact that in 2004, only seven-point-seven percent of NCAA Men’s programs employed black head coaches, and when you break it down by sport, it’s one-point-six percent for football, twelve-point-three percent for basketball and a whopping point-seven percent for baseball
Sports in the last hundred years or so-have become significantly more diverse in terms of the ethnic and racial backgrounds of their participants. Years ago, the NFL, NBA, MLB, etc. were predominantly, and at a certain point, exclusively, white leagues. White players, white coaches, white owners and even white cheerleaders. And while the sports world, like the real world, doesn’t have to deal with much blatant racism--like not allowing a person to participate in a sport based off skin color--there is still plenty of subtle racial discrimination. This subtle discrimination however, is far from inconsequential because it ultimately leads to a lesser product on the court, field, etc.
The NFL …show more content…
In the NFL, only five head coaches are black and in the NBA only seven out thirty head coaches are black. In the MLB? Only two non-white managers are currently employed. When you look at college athletics, the imbalance becomes even greater, with over seventy-five percent of division-one coaches across all sports being white men. This is disheartening in and of itself, but when you put it into the perspective of college athletics also consisting of predominantly black players, the disparity becomes even more troubling. Of course, some may say that there just aren 't any black head coach candidates. That would be incorrect, as there hundreds of black assistant coaches throughout collegiate athletics that have proven to be good at their job. Unfortunately, when the time comes and a new head coaching position opens up, they are more often than not, glossed over. Black Teams, White Coaches make note of the fact that in 2004, only seven-point-seven percent of NCAA Men’s programs employed black head coaches, and when you break it down by sport, it’s one-point-six percent for football, twelve-point-three percent for basketball and a whopping point-seven percent for baseball