Define the following concepts: race, ethnicity and racism. Explain why it is still important to study these concepts in the sociology of sport

The first 200 words of this essay...

KIEGAN VALLELY 07839062

Define the following concepts: race, ethnicity and racism. Explain why it is still important to study these concepts in the sociology of sport.

'Race' as defined in the Cambridge dictionary is "a group, especially of people, with particular similar physical characteristics, who are considered as belonging to the same type, or the fact of belonging to such a group". Count Joseph Arthur de Gobineau (1816-1882) - "the father of modern racism" as stated by Giddens (2006), suggested the existence of three races: White (Caucasian), Yellow (Mongoloid), Black (Negroid). Gobineau believed white race was superior to the others and 'race mixing' leads to chaos. Later, the Nazism, Ku Klux Klan and the Apartheid borrowed much of Gobineau's ideology. Giddens(2006) also adds "Race is a social construction. It 'can be understood as a set of social relationships which allow individuals and groups to be located, and various attributes or competencies assigned, on the basis of biologically grounded features. Racial distinctions are more than ways of describing human differences - they are also important factors in the reproduction of patterns of power and inequality within society", That is to say culture or societies have their own conventional rules,