Race and Ethnicity:

1. Race and Ethnicity: Are they important in sports? (Ch. 6)

2. Terminology • Racism = system of advantage based on race • Prejudice = preconceived judgement or opinion, often based on limited information • Race = category of people, socially distinct because of genetic characteristics • Ethnicity = cultural heritage, not biology

3. Bigots in the Ivory Tower-An alarming rise in hatred • “Whoever haunted Sabrina Collins’ room in Longstreet Hall had a knack for terror. The black Emory University freshman came home one evening last month to find her teddy bear slashed, her clothes soaked with bleach and NIGGER HANG written in lipstick on the wall. When death threats began arriving in the mail, college officials supplied extra locks and an alarm system. This month, as she got ready to move out, she lifted the rug to find DIE NIGGER DIE written in nail polish on the floor. Sabrina collapsed and was hospitalized for “emotional traumatization.” (New York Times, 1995)

4. Quad-WCU: What are we going to do about it? • On Thursday, Oct. 17, 1996, Danielle Hargrove was assaulted by three white males on her way home from Choir practice. She was referred to as a “black bitch,” and was also told that the next time she bumped into him he would “blow her fu…’ing head off.” He proceeded to reach into his pocket to imply that he had a gun. This has been only one of the many race related incidents that has happened on WCU’s campus. (Oct. 28, 1996)

5. Question: Prejudice or Racist? • Skiing: “That’s another downhill medal won by the Swiss! Those white people from Switzerland must have a skiing gene, or they must have natural abilities to twist their bodies around slalom gates.”

6. “I truly believe AA may not have some of the necessities to be a field manager… They are gifted with great musculatur... But as far as having the back- ground to become club president...(Pres. Of Player Personnel, LA Dodgers, 1987) “…the crazy theories of black intellectual inferiority are alive and well… (coaches and) managers have to think, and the conventional wisdom among sports’ ruling elite is that…blacks don’t think as well as whites” (Arthur Ashe) Question: Prejudice or Racist?

7. Focus of Lecture: • to replace race related myths and stereotypes with accurate information about what it means to be AA in the US society and especially in sport • 2 issues: • Racism in sport? • Capoeira Angola:Resistance and Survival

8. Major Men’s Team Sports, USA 1997-8

9. Issue 1: Racism in Sport?(p113f)History – Black Involvement • No records of sport in days before slavery • during slavery: horse racing, canoe racing, archery foot racing, acrobatics, wrestling, stick fights… • late 1800 “Jim Crow Laws”- separate but equal, separation of black & white teams • examples of racism: 1900 boxing, 1936 OG • Jackie Robinson 1947 breaking color barrier • 1960s desegregation of sports -> money!!

10. Black Dominance in Sport? • Facts: see P. 115 • Biological/Genetic Interpretations • Psychological Interpretations • Socio-Cultural Interpretations

11. Racial Discrimination in Sport: • Identity of black youth through basketball/culture • Bb – means of social status among bl. Youth • Sport Opportunity Structure: • blacks learn the game of basketball differently than whites • blacks have been denied membership in private clubs • no/little access to certain sports tournaments (i.e.,golf, automobile racing) • Overrepresentation in revenue sports, under-representation in non-revenue sports

12. Racial Discrimination in Sport: • Stacking = positional segregation • Ability and Opportunity • Reward and Authority: • blacks lower income than whites • no equal rewards for athletic performance, endorsements, speeches, public appearances… • fewer opportunity after playing days are over • officiating: mostly white • coaching: mainly white • black women: double jeopardy (race, gender) • blacks are excluded from exec. positions

13. Arthur Ashe, 1992 • [Fewer] than 900 black athletes are earning a living in sports - and not more than 1,500 overall including coaches and trainers. By comparison, there are perhaps 3 million black youths between the ages of 13 and 22 who dream of a career as an athlete. The odds are 20,000 to 1 or worse. Statistically, you have a better chance of getting hit by a meteorite in the next 10 years than getting work as an athlete.”

14. Arthur Ashe, 1992 • Gifted black athletes will usually make out all right, but what happens to the thousands of young un-athletic children whose only heroes are sport stars? How many brilliant doctors, teachers, lawyers, poets, and artists have been lost because intelligent, but uncoordinated black youths had been led to believe by a racist society that their only chance for getting ahead was to develop a thirty foot jump shot or to run the 100 in 9.3

15. Issue 2:Capoeira Angola – A Symbol of Cultural Resistance and Survival • Capoeira Angola: • unifying force and symbol of resistance and survival for Africans in contemporary society • Rediscover African heritage with distinct values • Focus: community building, not self-serving

16. Origins of Capoeira Angola: • African/Brazilian martial art/dance • War against African captivity, enslavement • Slaves uprising and escaping • CA = dance fight, playful sparring involving wit, style, flexibility, music high spirited acrobatic dancing • 1940: CA = official sport in Brazil

17. Theoretical Perspectives • Deprivation of African culture in “new world” (diaspora) • CA: symbol for courage, resilience, and determination of African people • African world-view: individual as thinking, acting, feeling, experiencing, knowing, dynamic being interlocked with supreme life force • African norms: youthfulness, vitality, flair, playfulness, music, song, dance, language • CA symbolizes self-determination, survival of oppression

18. Important Concepts in CA: • Nature of rhythm • Self-identity • Movement aesthetics • Major characteristics – p. 130 • >>>> we need to include this knowledge into our mainstream educational programs, especially PE, in order to foster multi-cultural understandings