When trying to increase the inclusion of different races taking part in sport we must look at how we are including all races in our P.E programs. If you look at the different religions and how they can effect the inclusion of different races trying to take part in physical education. This can especially affect Muslim race and there taking part in physical education. Evidence of this is shown in a study taken by Carroll and Hollinshead (1993) which interviewed different Muslim communities attending a local secondary school. When the study was taken it seemed the school was having problems including the Muslim children in physical education. Though through the different interviews it was found why they found it hard to take part in this subject. The main issues involved the ways that P.E was taught often affected the Muslim children’s religion. This is an ongoing problem and one that can be fixed if there was some compromise from schools on the different parts of P.E which affects there religion. The sooner you realise the better as the children want to play and have fun just as much as the other children in the class.
When we look at the number of different ethnicity groups taking part in sport it is often misinterpreted that the low number in Asians Muslims it is down to the young persons own preference and not to racial issues within different sports. (Verma & Darby, 1994). Though we can see how there are still some different barriers which are being broke down with the fact that there is no such problem with the taking part of sport or physical activities when you look at the other races such as the afro-Caribbean or oriental, they seem to take part in there local community or district teams (Green, 2004).
One of the key aspects of racism in sport is the way in which the people are described in the media. When we read the papers of great success of a black performer it would read “the great black star Henry” where as if it would be a white person it would be simply be Gerrard and not the white Gerrard (Long & Hylton, 2002). This is common throughout the world and is a reason that sports can not move through racism and stop the exclusion of some players because of race. There was recent evidence of racism in the highest level of football being the international stage in a match between England and Spain. Black players such as Ashley Cole and Shaun Wright-Phillips were subjected to monkey chants every time that they touched the ball (BBC SPORT, 2004). Incidents like this are what the Kick it out campaign against. This sort of chanting is what effects the inclusion of black players to take part in sport. This sort of actions is occurring at the highest level of the sport and has the knock on affect to the other levels which are being played. We can see the effects of racism closer to home if we look back to an incident where a black Brighton striker had been racial abused by a fan and threatened by the person (Garland & Rowe, 1999). These sorts of actions are unacceptable football no matter what level, and can be a direct reason for there being a drop in the black players at the club or the surrounding community. These sorts of actions are preventing the total inclusion in sports that is wanted by the governing bodies but nothing is being done about it.
When looking at Black, Afro-Caribbean and Asian sports performers people seem to put certain stereotypes upon them because of the race. Stereotypes such as:
- Afro-Caribbeans are poor swimmers because they have heavy bones
- Afro-Caribbeans have weak ankles and therefore cannot play hockey
- Asians are too frail for contact sport
- Asians can only play hockey
- Blacks are good at boxing because they can absorb a heavier beating
- Blacks are good at sport because slavery weeded out the weak
- Blacks have extra muscle on the top of their legs which helps them to run faster
(Sleap, 1998)
These sorts of stereotypes are some of the reason that we don’t have any black swimmers or Asian rugby players. These thoughts are contradicted by Phillips (1976) “who maintains that athletic ability is equally distributed in all racial groupings, that motivation to excel is equal across all races, but that unequal access to facilities, coaching, and organised athletic programs is the main cause of racial variations”. It is also down to the fact that the black superstars such as Linford Christie or John Barnes have been successful in there sport, but there has been no black superstar swimmers to talk about or read in the papers so then the younger black youth don’t take up swimming instead they play football or take up running like there idols.
Stereotyping is a major factor when you begin to look at the American sport and racial stereotyping is so vastly common. In the 1998 National Football Season (NFL) we see the way that the players are stacked into playing positions with the vast difference of one race or the other: quarterback (91% white), center (83% white), wide receiver (92% black), running back (87% black), cornerback (99% black) and safety (91% black) (Lapchick 1999a). For there to be so much stacking of playing positions there must be problems in the development of players at a younger level and placing them in one position due to there race.
When looking at race in sport we must look at the way that the people who are commenting on the game speak about the different ethnic groups that are playing. Commentators have a huge responsibility to make sure that they are not prejudiced against any race. This is why actions of a senior BBC radio presenter were so shocking when he thought it appropriate to complain during the broadcast about the names of the Sri Lankan team because they were strange and impossible for him to pronounce. The commentator also continued to ridicule the Sri Lankan team for there choice of tactics even though they had one the match quite convincingly (Long, 2000). These actions are what need to be eradicated and the commentator in question did not even get into any trouble for his actions while on air. This is some of the reason why there may be a lack of different races joining the local clubs. There is also problem with the fact that performers are adversely applauded by the commentators, in that when it is a white player doing well he is congratulated in commentary for there hard work and effort put in. Where as the black players are congratulated but it is because of naturally ability and not there hard work. This can be racism as the commentator will not recognise there hard work (Eastman & Billings, 2005).
Another issue that needs to be dealt with in the inclusion of all races are the difference in pay that certain players are making. When talking about the amount people are paid it is not necessarily the superstars of the sport but the average players in the team. It was found that the white NBA player is being paid 18% more than his black counterpart (Leonhardt, 1997). There also being another suggestion that black NBA players are being paid $17,000 to $26,000 less than there white counterparts (Koch & VanderHill 1988). The owners and managers of teams explain these high wages down to the fact that they believe that the white players are encouraging more people to come and watch there team (Washington & Karen, 2001). These issues are need to be sorted out as it has an impact on the whole game, it will make more players not want to play in the NBA because they don’t get the right pay as someone of a similar ability. There is a problem with the American system at the moment is that the higher positions in the organisations are run by predominantly white. This goes from the owners to coaches with a very low percentage of any managerial positions being taken up by a black person (Eitzen, 1999).
When people think of racism in sport they tend to believe that it is in the minority and it is not a big factor controlling sport. What they don’t realise is that although it is not shouting from the stands every match racism there still is the problem behind the scenes and in the minority of stands. To try and stop this racism and get more inclusion of the smaller minorities there has to be a change in attitudes of the elder statesmen at clubs as they are stuck in the past letting things slip and not trying to change there sport for the good. There are initiative coming through to try and promote sport for the best and get people involved in there cause. The English premiership has started with the Kick it out campaign which was worn on the shirt of every player during the premiership matches. So with more initiatives coming through it will only help to stamp out the racism in sport.