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A&E Networks Television. (2021, October 15). Jackie Robinson. Biography.com. Retrieved November 30, 2022, from https://www.biography.com/athlete/jackie-robinson

Archie, A. (2022, March 29). NFL is requiring teams to hire women or minorities as coaches for 2022 season. NPR. Retrieved November 30, 2022, from https://www.npr.org/2022/03/29/1089386609/nfl-diversity-dei-women-minorities-owners-meeting-coaches#:~:text=For%20the%20roles%2C%20the%20NFL,backgrounds%2C%22%20the%20NFL%20said

PositiveCoaching. (2020, June 12). Marti Reed, voices from the black community at PCA. YouTube. Retrieved November 30, 2022, from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zjyiLtPmrmo&ab_channel=PositiveCoachingAlliance

Racism in sports defies athletes to find a place in their country. Annenberg Media. (n.d.). Retrieved November 30, 2022, from https://www.uscannenbergmedia.com/2021/12/29/racism-in-sports-defies-athletes-to-find-a-place-in-their-country/

Wright. (2017, December 20). Lebron James: 'equality is all about understanding our rights'. Andscape. Retrieved November 30, 2022, from https://andscape.com/features/athlete-of-the-week-lebron-james-equality-sneakers-is-all-about-understanding-our-rights/

YouTube. (2022, November 24). Black World Cup stars subjected to racism on Twitter. YouTube. Retrieved November 30, 2022, from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CVuYEOZMnLE&ab_channel=TRTWorld

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This video from the positive coaching association talks about dealing with discrimination in sports.

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Marti Reed, Voices from the Black Community at PCA

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This video shows a very recent example of how athletes experience racism through social media.

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Black World Cup stars subjected to racism on Twitter

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One CRE 151 concept that can be observed in sports is intersectionality. A lot of people see athletes playing the sport they love and making millions of dollars, and they think that these people must have the perfect life. What these people fail to realize is that these athletes have other identities besides just being an athlete, and sometimes these identities can create issues. For instance, a black football player could receive racist messages on twitter after they lose a game.

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Lebron James uses his platform to promote equality

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Lebron James uses his platform to promote equality

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Professional athletes preform in front of millions of people, and have millions of other people viewing their content on social media everyday. It's pretty clear that athletes have a strong influence on society, and some athletes have decided to use this influence to drive positive change. For example Lebron James wore shoes during an NBA game with "equality" written on them to try and start a conversation around racial equality. Additionally, he shared in an interview after the game, "'Us as Americans, no matter the skin color, no matter the race, no matter who you are, I think we all have to understand that having equal rights and being able to stand for something and speak for something and keeping the conversation going [is important]'" (Wright, 1).

https://andscape.com/features/athlete-of-the-week-lebron-james-equality-sneakers-is-all-about-understanding-our-rights/

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He's having an unprecedented individual season, posting numbers and dominating like no player before him in a 15th NBA season. We've never seen anything like the 6-foot-8, 250-pound LeBron James - not as big, strong, agile and versatile on the court, and consistently brave enough to be vocal on social issues without fear of backlash.

Sunday's game against the Washington Wizards ended as another W for the streaking Cleveland Cavaliers, their 18th victory in 19 games, but it was James' new kicks that stole the show and made the message about more than basketball. He wore a special pair of LeBron 15s: A white sneaker on his left foot and a black sneaker on his right foot, with "EQUALITY" inscribed on the back in gold stitching.

For that, James is our Undefeated Athlete of the Week.

"We all know where we are right now, and we know who is at the helm here," James said when asked about his choice of footwear after the Cavaliers' 106-99 win. "Us as Americans, no matter the skin color, no matter the race, no matter who you are, I think we all have to understand that having equal rights and being able to stand for something and speak for something and keeping the conversation going [is important]. ...

"Obviously, I've been very outspoken and well-spoken about the situation that's going on at the helm here, and we're not going to let one person dictate us, us as Americans, how beautiful and how powerful we are as a people. Equality is all about understanding our rights, understanding what we stand for and how powerful we are as men and women, black or white or Hispanic. It doesn't matter your race, whatever the case may be, this is a beautiful country, and we're never going to let one person dictate how beautiful and how powerful we are."

We'd be disingenuous if we didn't acknowledge that James was throwing shade at President Donald Trump. But his choice of footwear, and its message, has less to do with "45" and more to do with his track record of speaking out on social issues affecting African-Americans and other people of color.

"I just wanted to keep the conversation going," the four-time NBA MVP has said. "We know what we're going through. We know what we went through as a nation, as a world. So I had an opportunity to use a platform for the greater good and keep the conversation going. Why not?"

Our sentiments verbatim at The Undefeated.

Liner Notes

Mark W. Wright is a Charlotte-based sports journalist and documentarian.

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LeBron James: 'Equality is all about understanding our rights'

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He's having an unprecedented individual season, posting numbers and dominating like no player before him in a 15th NBA season. We've never seen anything like the 6-foot-8, 250-pound LeBron James - not as big, strong, agile and versatile on the court, and consistently brave enough to be vocal on social issues without fear of backlash.

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One concept from CRE 151 that can be observed in sports is social construction. One example of this is how I mentioned earlier that there are a lot of white people who own sports teams, and they give an unfair advantage to white candidates for jobs. The idea of social construction in sports is always evolving. Take for example how the MLB used to only allow white people into the league, but now they are quite diverse.

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Jackie Robinson, a Key Historical Figure in the Battle for Equality in Sports

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Jackie Robinson, a Key Historical Figure in the Battle for Equality in Sports

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If you turn on any major league sports games today you will likely see a pretty good amount of diversity amongst the players, but it wasn't always that way. Many years ago, a lot of professional sports league had a "color barrier" preventing non-white people from joining the league. Many people are familiar with Major League Baseball, but you might have never heard of the Negro Leagues that existed in the early 20th century. Black athletes would have to play in these negro leagues no matter how good they were while white athletes got to play in the MLB and get all the fame and fortune that comes along with it.

That all changed when Jackie Robinson was selected by Branch Rickey, a president of an MLB team, to join his team and help integrate the Negro Leagues with the MLB (Jackie Robinson Biography, 1). Jackie received a lot of backlashes when he joined the league, and he was the victim of many racist acts. Most people wouldn't have been able to endure what Jackie went through, but he fought through it. Jackies Bravery has had a huge impact on American sports, and he is one of the main reasons why we are able to enjoy non-segregated sports leagues today.

https://www.biography.com/athlete/jackie-robinson

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NFL Regulations Aiming to Solve Hiring Discrimination

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NFL Regulations Aiming to Solve Hiring Discrimination

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One of the biggest examples of racism in sports is that a lot of non-white people aren't given the same access to opportunities as white people. When it comes to filling coaching roles, a lot of organizations will prefer to hire a white person for a coaching role, even if they are underqualified. Additionally, there are countless times where a team has a white head coach or owner and they will hand an assistant coaching position to a family member regardless of their background.

The NFL has recognized that this is an issue, and they are taking steps to try and solve it. The article titled NFL is requiring teams to hire women or minorities as coaches for 2022 season mentioned, "(the NFL is) requiring its 32 teams to employ a "female or a member of an ethnic or racial minority" as an offensive assistant..." (Archie, 1).

https://www.npr.org/2022/03/29/1089386609/nfl-diversity-dei-women-minorities-owners-meeting-coaches#:~:text=For%20the%20roles%2C%20the%20NFL,backgrounds%2C%22%20the%20NFL%20said.

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The National Football League set forth new diversity and inclusion efforts for the 2022 season at its annual owners meeting, such as requiring its 32 teams to employ a "female or a member of an ethnic or racial minority" as an offensive assistant, the league said in a statement.

Candidates must have at least three years of collegiate or professional experience in coaching football. Those persons will receive a one-year contract with a salary and benefits, the organization announced

For the roles, the NFL will reimburse teams up to $200,000 in 2022 and $205,000 in 2023 from a league fund for coaches.

"In recent years, head coaches have predominantly had offensive backgrounds," the NFL said. "We believe this resolution will assist greatly in continuing to source and identify diverse candidates earlier in their career, providing pipeline depth and furthering developing the diverse offensive pipeline."

According to league data, the percentage of people of color in coaching positions increased from 35% in 2020 to 39% in 2021.

During that time, the number of minority general managers increased from five to seven. The number of minority assistant general managers went from three to six, while the number of minority defensive coordinators went from 13 to 15.

"While the increases noted above is a positive step, our diversity numbers are stagnant in the head coach and special teams coordinator roles and have slightly declined in the offensive coordinator role," the league statement said.

The NFL also will now consider women for all qualifying roles under its Rooney Rule, an initiative established in 2003 in which at least two "external minorities" must be interviewed for head coaching positions, and one minority must be interviewed for a coordinator job.

Before, women could only satisfy the requirement for positions such as club president and senior executive.

NFL teams are currently submitting their diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) plans for the 2022 season. Some initiatives include "diverse recruiting," "DEI education and training," "hire head of DEI" and a "pay equity analysis," the league said.

The statement also said the league would highly regard the inclusion of people from diverse backgrounds when evaluating prospective ownership groups.

"While we have made important progress, we have more work ahead of us to ensure we are approaching DEI holistically - including the need to evaluate and adjust policies, incentives, and additional requirements to ensure effectiveness and result in better outcomes for women and people of color."

According to the statement, senior level coaching hires were less diverse, while league office jobs were held by 25% women and 20% people of color, the highest percentage yet.

There are seven Black general managers in the league and 12 women had coaching positions during the 2021 football season.

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NFL is requiring teams to hire women or minorities as coaches for 2022 season

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The National Football League set forth new diversity and inclusion efforts for the 2022 season at its annual owners meeting, such as requiring its 32 teams to employ a "female or a member of an ethnic or racial minority" as an offensive assistant, the league said in a statement.

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As I mentioned previously, racism in sports can take many different forms. One of these forms is national governments discriminating against athletes.

A prime example of this come from a story involving Cindy Ong, who is a Malaysian swimmer that's won 5 world championships. The article titled Racism in sports defies athletes to find a place in their country shared, "In 2019, Cindy Ong approached the Malaysian government before starting to prepare for the World Masters Championships, to compete in the swimming category. She requires assistance to pay for her uniform, plane tickets and training, in order to represent Malaysia appropriately. She was rejected" (Preve-Durrieu, 1). The reason why she was rejected was due to her Chinese roots, even though she was born in Malaysia and won them 5 world championships. This story is just one example of how national governments discriminate against athletes.

https://www.uscannenbergmedia.com/2021/12/29/racism-in-sports-defies-athletes-to-find-a-place-in-their-country/

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In 2019, Cindy Ong approached the Malaysian government before starting to prepare for the World Masters Championships, to compete in the swimming category. She requires assistance to pay for her uniform, plane tickets and training, in order to represent Malaysia appropriately. She was rejected.

Ong is a five-time world champion Malaysian swimmer who has been competing since 1989. She, however, has never found the deserved recognition from the government as she is not considered Malay. In Malaysia, 60 to 70% of the country is Malay and receives benefits from the government, like discounts on properties and easier access to education. The remaining are Chinese and Indian, who struggle to find their place in society. Ong was born in Malaysia, and even though she has Chinese roots, she has no affiliation with China.

"My kids and I are 100 percent Malaysian, we were born and raised here," Ong said. "I'm the fourth generation Malaysian and still being discriminated against and called an immigrant."

Racism resurfaces in sports in countries that have unresolved racist roots. Athletes are victims of the attacks if they don't belong to the dominant race of the country they represent. During 2020, the Black Lives Matter movement brought to light Colin Kaepernick's actions in 2016. He was a quarterback at the San Francisco 49ers NFL team and kneeled during the national anthem before a game, in protest of the police brutality in the country. To this, former president Donald Trump demanded the NFL to not allow these behaviors and asked the audience to not watch "those people."

Professor Ted Johnson, a senior fellow at the Brennan Center for Justice, who explores the interaction between race, political behavior, and policies that result in socioeconomic disparities, considered these tensions were a result of Trump claiming that the actions represented an insult to the United States. Johnson believes that, when a person who belongs to a racial minority mixes politics with sports, and the majority disagree, they are racially targeted; instead of attacking their ideas, they attack who they are and the race they belong to.

"What Trump did was make this a question of whether or not these Black athletes are gracious for being in America and if they are representative of excellence in their pursuits, which is another quality Americans like to put up," Johnson said.

Racism in sports is a controversial topic and often ignored; games are surrounded by fans, uniforms, and the athletes receive big amounts of money and fame because of their representation to the country. Without realizing it, racist scenarios can start in high school and college athletics. Stanley Thangaraj, a socio-cultural anthropologist with interests in race, gender and class, believes that there is a tendency of believing that African-Amercian and Black athlete-students are "lucky" to be in that position; they are seen as athletes before being seen as students, as it is believed that they are not "as committed to education" and considered "outside the boundaries of belonging in the educational sphere."

"Anyone that speaks out is seen as not fit for that space and for college, especially Black student athletes," Thangaraj said. "They are not allowed to speak out about their experiences of marginalization within college settings because they are not imagined as students with the same type of rights."

The final of the Euro 2020 was not only marked by Italy's victory, but by the racist slurs the fans threw at the three English Black players, Marcus Rashford, Jadon Sancho and Bukayo Saka, who missed the penalties.

Thangaraj considered that this episode is different from when a person from the dominant race fails a game; his failure is a call to better represent his nation. However, the three English players are blamed to have failed mainly because of their race.

"The slurs we saw on social media after the English loss showcased that these folks have never been considered full citizens, and their failures are a sign that they are not quite seen as English enough," Thangaraj said.

The heat in the game among fans comes out when there is a loss; to remove that frustration, they take it out on the player. Johnson considered that if the player who failed belonged to the same race as the majority in the nation, they blame his failure on variables like age and health status. However, if the player belongs to a racial minority, they put race at the center of the attacks.

"That's the problem that we're seeing; for some athletes who belong to a racial minority, race is what people begin to attack," Johnson said. "That symbolizes a society's unwillingness to view a multiracial, multicultural society as one."

Even though the Black Lives Matter movement highlighted Kaepernick's actions, and the NFL has now removed the requirement of having to stand up during the national anthem, Kaepernick has still not been signed onto any new team.

After not receiving support from the Malaysian government because of her race, Ong decided to swim with the Singapore team in 2019, who sponsored her entire trip and training. She won five gold medals and two silver ones.

"I felt like I belonged to a team," Ong said. "If I would have changed the scenario and told the government that I'm Malay, I am absolutely certain that I would have gotten the sponsorship from the government."

According to Thanjarad, we must address how racism is part of sports and provoke changes to the structure of the community to erase racism. He considered that a lot of companies have "cosmetic and esthetic" sayings but don't change the actual systems of racism in which they operate.

"The change has to be something that brings in communities to speak and to lead, rather than owners and president of clubs."

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Racism in sports defies athletes to find a place in their country

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In 2019, Cindy Ong approached the Malaysian government before starting to prepare for the World Masters Championships, to compete in the swimming category. She requires assistance to pay for her uniform, plane tickets and training, in order to represent Malaysia appropriately. She was rejected.

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Racism in sports is an issue that has existed for a long time, and it still affects millions of athletes around the globe in different ways. Racism in sports can take many different forms such as players being harassed when in another country, or a white person being hired for a coaching job even though they are less qualified than a non-white candidate for the same job. Many controversies have arisen from these situations such as when Colin Kaepernick took a knee during the national anthem.

I find this topic to be interesting because sports are usually something that brings people together, and I can't comprehend why some people feel the need to bring discrimination into the equation. This presentation will take a look at the history of racism in sports as well as current issues surrounding the topic and what is being done about them.