sportsandracism-blog

[sportsandracism-blog]

 Wendell Scott is the only black driver to have won a NASCAR race — that came in 1963 — but he was not declared the winner until a few hours after the race. “Everybody in the place knew I had won the race,” a 2005 NASCAR.com story quoted Scott as saying years earlier. “But the promoters and NASCAR officials didn’t want me out there kissing any beauty queens or accepting any awards.”

[sportsandracism-blog]

The Fab Five: College Basketball Breakthrough

For practically every sport there has been a singl pioneer to tear down the racial barrier. For golf it was none other than Tiger Woods, for hockey it was the previously mentioned Willie O'ree and for baseball it was the notorious Jackie Robinson.

College sports are insanely popular in the United States, right up next to the professional sportsl. Fans are completely committed to their favourite schools, or their alma maters. The NCAA has always been a venue for athletes of all ethnicities and backgrounds to display their athletic talents. College basketball in the early 90s was still prodominantly a white mans sport as back then the athletes could turn pro immediately after graduating from high school.

In 1991 the University of Michigan would change the dynamics of college baskerball forever. Their recruiting class of top high school basketball players consisted of 5 african american athletes. On opening day and all through the season, barring injuries, these 5 were the starters every game and went on to lead the university to a national championship. They are now the infamous "Fab Five" of Jalen Rose, Chris Webber, Ray Jackson, Juwan Howard and Jimmy King.

These 5 men were amazingly skilled, brash and arrogant as well along the way. They made a seemingly boring game of college basketball suddenly appeal to the masses. They changed the way coaches and managers looked at other black basketball prospects similar to themselves. Coaches learned via the fab five that recruiting should be solely based on skill and ability and not what colour of skin they had or the ethnicities of their parents. These 5 men single handedly changed the culture of NCAA basketball and up to this day the up and coming basketball players make reference to the group. Many black basketball players have attributed their drive to make it to the NCAA ranks to the past success of the Fab Five.

While the Fab Five was enjoying themselves and winning basketball games, they had no idea they were indirectly paving the way for the young black basketball players behind them who would follow in their footsteps.

[sportsandracism-blog]

African Americans in Professional Hockey

Hockey has been Canada's national sport and favourite past time for the past century and some. Not unlike the other professional sports there was once a colour barrier within the professional hockey ranks. This was broken by none other than Willie O'Ree of the Boston Bruins in 1958. Willie O'Ree was born in Fredericton, New Brunswick and beat the odds to finall crack an NHL lineup after a late season call up to the Bruins. He is often referred to as the Jackie Robinson of hockey.

This was groundbreaking in the hockey world and since that day many other players of numerous ethnicities have freely played in the National Hockey League. Although they are able to freely play in the NHL, it goes without saying that many instances of racism still hover over these players.

Wayne Simmonds is a forward who is a member of the Philadelphia Flyers. Wayne is born and raised in Scarborough, Ontario and is of African-American decent. He has suffered through two major racially based events in the past few years that no professional athlete should have to suffer through.

In an NHL exhibiton game in London, Ontario Simmonds was up in a shootout against the Detroit Red Wings. When he was breaking towards the net on his attempt, a fan in the stands threw a banana in his direction and it landed mere meters away from the NHL star. This was an obvious sign of complete ignorance on the person that threw the object, and a sign that sadly racism still exists in the beautiful game of hockey. Simmonds went on to score on the attempt but was well aware of what had just happened in his post game interview he took the high road and had this to say about the incident:

"When you're a black man playing in a predominantly white man's sport, you've got to come to expect things like that," Simmonds said. "Over the past 23 years of my life, I've come to expect some things like that. But I'm older and more mature now, I kind of just left things roll off [my back]. I try not to think about stuff like that."

It is truly unfortunate that hear in the 21st century incidents like this still frequently occur in the world of sports.

Just this year during the NHL lockout Simmonds travelled to the Czech Republic to play professional hockey and once again was at the center of controversy was opposing fans began to chant racial slurs at him and his fellow teammate, Chris Stewart. The fans were constantly chanting the word "Opice" which when translated to english means monkey whenever Wayne was on the ice.

These actions by sports fans are completely ignorant and doing nothing to advance the world of sports. As issues such as these continue to occur during both professional and amateur sporting events, we need to further promote the need for racial acceptance and to educate our youth on the level of multiculturism that is needed in our world to become one.

The hard part is that for every 10,000 fans or supporters that are properly behaved and appreciate the many different cultures involved in our sports world, it only takes one idiot to bring back the black cloud over sports. Education is key and we must make every attempt to teach our youth that the colour of someones skin does not make the slightest differnce to their personality or the fact that they are human beings just like me and you.

[sportsandracism-blog]

Are team names and mascots racist?

The debate about some professional and college sports team's names being racially based and in some cases derogatory has gone on for decades. The main accused in this particular care are the National Football League's Kansas City Chiefs and the Washington Redskins, the MLB's Cleveland Indians and the Atlanta Braves as well as NCAA's Florida State Seminoles. Now by just looking at those names we see one commonality, the reference to the Native American culture.

In some cases it is simply the name, or the logo that many observers find offensive, in others it is the actions of supporters of those teams or the appearance and often times the name of the club's mascots.

Let's look at one racial aspect that coers a few of these teams. This is often the fan's rallying cry "The Tomahawk Chop" when the tens of thousands of supporters in attendance pretend to chop in front of them. This is a notorious staple for the Atlanta Braves fans, but also occurs at many Florida State Seminoles games and also during Kansas City Chiefs contests. At first glance this is nothing more than the common wave in a sports arena, but when looking into the depth and background of this movement combined with the constant "oh, oh, oh" sound that comes along with the chop many find this to be offensive to the Native American Culture.

The Mascot is another touchy racial subject within the sports world. The Atlanta Braves once had two mascots who were named Chief Noc-A-Homo and Princess Win-A-Lotta who would pretend to live in a teepee in the stands and come out to dance when the Brave were to hit a home run or score a run. This is clearly offensive to the First Nations communites across the world and the chief and princess have since stepped down from their roles. Thankfully.

Lastly we have the logos of sports teams as another possibility to find racism in sport. Just take a look at the Cleveland Indian's logo and you'll quickly notice the serious bright redness of the skin colour along with the feather at the back of the picture. Very stereotypical of a Native American it seems.

These are just a few examples of the pure ignorance of racial tones being sent out by professional sports teams across North America, and this is without getting into the Washington Redskins case.

[sportsandracism-blog]

Trouble in our City

When looking at this topic as a whole, I expected to pick up events from across the world or in some of the major sports leagues throughout North America. I hardly imagined blogging on a sports event mere minutes away from our campus here at Saint Mary's University, but now I know better than to overlook our local happenings.

The Halifax Mooseheads are a Major Junior hockey team that act as a breeding ground for future professional hockey players, in fact they are currently the best junior hockey team in all of Canada and have 3 players on their roster who will in all likelihood be drafted in the first round of this year's NHL draft. Simply put they are getting plenty of media attention this year and for the most part it has been all positive. Except for the black cloud surrounding last weekends game against the Val-d'Or Foreurs.

To quickly summarize the situation that happened, Halifax captain Trey Lewis is a big tough defenceman who often stands up for his teammates and plays the game hard. He is a proud Mi'kmaq from the Elsipogtog First Nation in New Brunswick, and has come to Halifax to pursue his pro hockey dreams. After a whistle in the 2nd period, Val-d'Or forward Vincent Dunn was engaged in a verbal war with Lewis this is when the referee immediately signalled a game misconduct to Dunn. Many onlookers did not know the immediate reason and may have found it harsh, but through today's social media (Twitter) it quickly became evident that he had made racial gestures and used racial slurs towards his opponent.

What makes this case much different than some of the racism in sport cases that I have looked at in the past is the way it was handled. The player was immediately punished (kicked out of the game) firstly. Secondly after the game both coaches were not angry or mad about the situation, yet embarrassed about it and admitted that acts like these have no place in the game. Trey Lewis said in his post game interview took the high road as well and just wanted to move on and not focus on the low point of a positive win for the Mooseheads. As a finishing note the league further suspended Vincent Dunn for 2 games and fined the team for the racial slurs.

It is refreshing to see that sports leagues in our country, our city have no time for racism in any form. The quick action and resentment by the coaches and leaders of these teams shows that here in Canada we are making a concious effort to curb racism in sport and going to any length to stop or prevent it from happening. So good on you Trey Lewis for taking the high road after game, as well as both coaches for condemning the act without causing more friction over the situation.

[sportsandracism-blog]

About the blogger

I am a 25 year old Sociology major attending Saint Mary's University in Halifax, Nova Scotia. 

This is a topic that I have paid attention to over the last decade or so as I have played sports in a competitive nature. During my journey throughout the hockey world in specific I have played with numerous players of different ethnicities and races, even living with them on different occasions. This has given me insight into just how much they have to put up with and hear on a nightly basis. 

This has been my inspiration to write this blog and hope to shed some light in this issue in our sportsworld and beyond.

Justin

[sportsandracism-blog]

The Beautiful Game

Most of us here in North America have now come to appreciate and are used to seeing a very multi cultural professional sports team. All of the major sports in our continent has broken the colour barrier and has each had their fair share of superstar players of all colours. Also with the rare exception of some ignorant people still out there, we have accepted all races and ethnicities into our sporting word.

Meanwhile, in Europe it is clear that soccer is their sport of passion. Fans are absolutely attached to their hometown club teams and the players that represent them. On the other side the fans are often wild and at times completely out of control. They will do just about anything to anything to distract, get into the heads or cause trouble for their team's opponents and will seemingly let no barriers get in there way to do so. Combine this with some of the Eastern European views towards racism and stereotyping and it leads to a very volatile situation. 

In this video the actions of some fans is astonishing. From throwing bananas onto the field, to chanting derogatory terms and even having coaches with racial slurs in a team practice it is far different from our sports events. To make matters worse the home teams responsible for their fans and coaches actions did nothing to deter or stop these things from happening. The coach who was filmed making racial slurs was fined a whooping $5,000 which is peanuts compared to his 7 figure salary he was making that year. It took the minority soccer players themselves to campaign against racism in professional soccer in a few TV commercials. The leagues took notice and have drastically ramped up their stance on anti-racism within the soccer community. 

It is a shame to see such a historic and beautiful sport such as soccer having to still deal with these problems in the year 2012. We all know racism exists on some level in every sport, but the extent of racism in soccer, especially in Europe seems to be through the roof. It is saddening to see that after all the years of education and episodes of racism we have experienced in our lifetime stuff like this still goes on. The fight for equality amongst races in professional sports is seemingly an everlasting battle.

[sportsandracism-blog]

Obit of the Day (Historical): Jackie Robinson (1972)

October 24, 2012 marks the 40th anniversary of the death of Jackie Robinson, who broke the color barrier in Major League Baseball in 1947. There are myriad sources telling of Mr. Robinson’s career and legacy. Obit of the Day will, instead, share some little known facts:

Jack Roosevelt Robinson was born on January 31, 1919. He was named for President Theodore Roosevelt who died on January 6 of that year.

Jackie attended UCLA and was the first student to letter in four sports: baseball, football, basketball, and track.

He won the NCAA Long Jump championship in 1940.

While at UCLA his worst sport was baseball.

During World War II Robinson enlisted in the Army. In 1944 while serving at Ft. Hood in Waco, Texas he was court martialled for refusing an order to move to the back of a bus because of his race. He was found not guilty.

Robinson would play one season in the Negro Leagues for the Kansas City Monarchs. According to Robinson, if Branch Rickey of the Dodgers hadn’t recruited him for the majors, he would have quit playing baseball and become a coach at Sam Houston College.

Robinson was 28 years old when he stepped on the field on April 15, 1947 as the first African American major leaguer in over 60 years. He won the Rookie of the Year award, which is now named for him.

Here are his stats for his career with the Brooklyn Dodgers which included the 1949 MVP Award as well Brooklyn’s only World Series victory in 1955.

Jackie played himself in The Jackie Robinson Story (1950), his wife was played by Ruby Dee.

He was traded to the New York Giants, the Dodgers NL rival, after the 1957 season. He never played for the Giants having already signed a contract to work for Chock Full O’ Nuts - a coffee company.

In 1965 Robinson became the first African Americans sports analyst when he worked on ABC’s Game of the Week.

Robinson was a Republican, supporting Richard Nixon in the 1960 election as well as Nelson Rockefeller’s presidential and gubernatorial bids. He left the party in 1968 after they failed to support civil rights legislation in the 1960s.

Robinson’s last public appearance was at game 2 of the 1972 World Series (October 15) where he threw out the first pitch in honor of the 25th anniversary of the integration of baseball. The Cincinnati Reds were playing the Oakland A’s.

He died at the age of 53 from a heart attack in his home. His eulogy was given by the Reverend Jesse Jackson.

In 1997 Jackie Robinson became the first, and so far only, player to have his uniform number retired throughout all of baseball. (Wayne Gretzky is the only other professional athlete to earn that honor.)

Family notes:

Jackie’s brother, Mack Robinson, won the silver medal at the 1936 Berlin Olympics in the 100 meter sprint. Jesse Owens finished first.

Jackie’s wife, Rachel, was an associate professor of psychiatric nursing at Yale University at the time of Jackie’s death.

Jackie’s son, Jackie Jr., died in a car accident in 1971. He was only 27.

Sources: NYTimes, jackierobinson.com, Wikipedia, IMDB, The National Archives, baseball-reference.com

(Image is copyright of the Associated Press and courtesy of nabnyc.blogspot.com )

And here’s the trailer for the April 2013 release of the film 42. Yes that’s Harrison Ford as Branch Rickey and Chadwick Boseman as Jackie. Music by Jay-Z.

[sportsandracism-blog]

Introduction to Racism in Sport

This is a blog I have created while studying sociology at Saint Mary's University in Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada. I will be looking into the racial themes and racism associated with sports over the past century. There will be many different aspects covered and I hope to find new stories and events to cover on a regular basis. I will be re-posting blogs that cover the topic of race in sports as well as writing a comment blog every once in a while. I look forward to interacting with any viewers or readers so feel free to post on the discussion page at the top or send me a message at any time.

I am looking forward to keeping up with my first blog, I hope you all enjoy. Thank you.

Justin Wallingford