Racism in Sport: Critical Race Theory - Literature review Example

Racism in Sport: Critical Race Theory By Sport is an important element of the human society, and this facilitates a high level of interaction among individuals from different backgrounds. However, like in any other domains, the sport domain today is characterised by different deviancies. There are various practices in sport that are unaccepted due to their adverse implications on individuals and teams participating in sport. Racism is a major deviancy in sport that has persisted through the decades. The nature of this deviancy is complex; hence efforts to address it have failed to achieve total success. This paper examines racism in sport, basing on the social theory of critical race. Using this theory, the paper will explore how aspects of power relations shape and define individuals in the sport domain with regard to their race. This theory is also applied to show how it can lead to the development of a new perspective that can be utilized to control racism. Nonetheless, from the perspective of the critical race theory, it will be possible to understand the nature of racism in sport, and how this can be controlled. Critical race theory (CRT) is considered to be a movement of collection of activist scholars whose main interest involves transforming the relationship among race, racism and power. CRT started as a movement in law in the early 1970’s with Derrick Bell as its principal figure, but spread rapidly to other disciplines, including Sociology (Delgado & Stefancic 2012). Critical race theory is characterised by an activist dimension. In addition, as opposed to other theories, this theory does not only seek to understand our social situation, but it also attempts to change it (Delgado & Stefancic 2012). In this case therefore, critical race theory sets out to ascertain how society organizes itself along racial lines and hierarchies, and provides a platform for transforming this situation. Hylton (2005) identified five major tenets that the critical race theory holds, and which remain relevant and can be applied to racism in different contexts, including sports. First, it is considered that racism is ordinary and not aberrational. This is mainly because racism has become an everyday experience of people with colour. This therefore depicts the fact that it is highly challenging to address or cure racism in our society. Second, critical race theory argues that the system of white-over-colour ascendancy serves significant psychic and material purposes. This is also referred to as interest of convergence or material determinism. Here, racism is seen as promoting the material interests of white elites and psychic interests of the working class. Therefore, there is limited incentive that can be used to eradicate racism. Social construction is also an important theme in critical race theory. This considers race and races as resulting from relations and social thought. The society invents races, as this is not biologically inherent (Smith 2010). For this reason, it is possible for society to retire the categories of races, if only society will stop to ignore important scientific facts. The fourth tenet of critical race theory involves differential racialization. This points to the way the dominant groups racialize the minority groups at different times, in response to the changing needs in society, such as the labour market. Therefore, at one time, Mexicans, as opposed to blacks, might be useful in society as agricultural workers. At another time, blacks might be more useful than Mexicans. Nonetheless, basing on these and other principles, the critical race theory attempts to understand the aspect of racism in society, and provides a platform on which this issue can be addressed (Hylton 2005). Critical race theory remains relevant in society today. This is for the major reason that the aspect of racism is still evident today, even though it is not as extreme as it was in the past centuries. Therefore, there is still need to understand racism and eradicate it today. Critical race theory can thus help us understand and eradicate racism in society today, hence its importance. On the other hand, sport continues to be an important element in society throughout history. This is characterised by a high level of interaction of people from different backgrounds. According to Bonilla-Silva (1997), racism is mostly evident in situations where people from different backgrounds interact. Therefore, racism continues to be a major issue in sports to date. However, by applying the critical race theory, it is possible to understand how racism in sports, as well as mechanisms that can be adopted to provide a solution to the situation. Anderson (1996) notes that sport are unarguably an integral aspect of society today, as millions of people tune in to watch their teams and their favourite games. For this reason, it is possible to notice all actions, including negative actions. Therefore, incidences of racism and discrimination in sports usually make big news. Recently, there have been numerous incidents of racism in the professional sports world. Racism in sports is exhibited by various parties, including players, fans, team management, and the media, among others. For instance, a recent case of racism that raised controversy was that where in April, 2014, a fan threw a banana to a Brazillian player, Dani Alves, in a professional soccer game in Spain (Sweetman 2014). This and other racist actions in sports are indicative of how racism persists in society. Nonetheless, the critical race theory is capable of contributing to our understanding of racism in sport and society in general. Racism in sport can be informed by critical race theory, which is underpinned by critiques of domination and oppression. There are various examples of critical race theory that are being used to challenge racism in sports. Critical race theorists are considered to be pragmatics, who possess wide experience and reading f various academic and policy sources, as well as past historic events. These concede that racism is endemic in society; hence it is a waste of resources to study the existence of racism in society prior to taking necessary action against it. Whenever critical race theory is used in sport, it adopts an anti-racism perspective. A case in point is the situation in 2007, where British Asians were excluded from the English Premier League (Kilvington 2013). This can be considered a series of racial acts that lead to racial formations, which in this case reinforces whiteness in mainstream grassroots football, in addition to professional football. The British Asians are known to have a high level of involvement in sport; hence their exclusion from the highest level of soccer is yet to be understood. Nonetheless, using the critical race theory, it is possible to understand this scenario, basing on the theory’s tenet of social construction. The negative myths and stereotypes about British Asians can be considered as a basis for their exclusion (Hylton 2009). These stereotypes are based on British Asians’ physicality, competence in sports, religion, and diet, among others. The justification of racist practices is based on self-exclusion and dissonance, which further emphasizes “colour-blindness,” hence the exclusion of British Americans (Kilvington 2013). Although the number of minority groups such as African-Caribbean, has been greatly restricted in some sports by team management and officials, players from these minority groups have reached the highest level of sports as players. In addition, the fact that the white people dominate the positions of power in management of teams depicts the relationship between inequalities and power, as well as maintaining a status quo in administration and management of sport (Kivel & Arai 2009). Research findings on racism in football and other sport suggest that there is the existence of racialized presences and absences (Hylton 2009). Football has been identified as the professional game, which has been unable to articulate what anti-racism is, and trivializes the aspect of racism with its consequences. Similarly, the sport of cricket has equally been found to have a limited view of racism in the sport. The critical race theory in this case has helped to show how “race” is constructed in the sport arena, and acknowledged racism as the complex manifestation of the constructions of race, as well as the important process of racialization. The practice of stacking in sports refers to the overrepresentation or underrepresentation of certain racial and ethnic groups in specific positions in team sports. This is a result of racial stereotypes and biases that people in society hold about other racial or ethnic groups. In team sport today, central and strategic leadership positions are mostly given to individuals from the dominant groups. In addition, there are biases regarding the physical and mental capabilities of whites and blacks, and this has increased the tension between different groups. According to McDonald (2009), whiteness contributes to the formation of identities. In sport, whiteness can then be used to understand the aspect of racialization, as outlined in the critical race theory, in sports. Form the given examples of racism in sport, including stacking; it is clear that whiteness is considered invisible, while rendering blackness visible. Racialization in sport today can also be understood from the media dimension. Black people are usually remarked in the media. For instance, reporters will say, “black sportsman” “black entertainers,” among other representations. However, media reports rarely take the form: “the white footballer,” “white robbers,” white musicians,” among others (Hylton 2009). Therefore, in sport, the racialization of players with colour makes them to be more conspicuous. For instance, in golf, Tiger Woods and Nancy Lopez have become conspicuous owing to their racialized persona. Similarly, Lewis Hamilton of formula I and Serena and Venus Williams in Tennis are a reflection of racialized representations. In these sports that were previously dominated by whites, there was no any such discourse. In addition, when describing the ability of athletes and players, the media utilizes predefined racial attributes (Hylton 2005). An example is when a sport commentator portrays a black footballer as “naturally gifted” while a white footballer with the same capability is portrayed as hardworking and a technician of the sport. Therefore, whiteness can be considered to represent normalised identities that are “raceless,” while the “other” is black (Kivel & Arai 2009). Nonetheless, the critical awareness of whiteness is paramount in understanding how modalities of power are expressed in sport, which is one of the most racialized sites. Racism in sport has is undesirable, and has a negative impact, just as in other arenas. Yet it is in the domain of sport that black people, so often the underdog, are depicted as winners, heroic, and successful. Racism in sport influences individual players and groups in different adverse manner. Therefore, it is important that the issue of racism in sport be addressed in order to create a more conducive environment for all players. McDonald (2009) notes that, in applying the critical race theory it is possible to get a perspective that could result in the opposition of the established practices, knowledge, and resources that promote racism in sport. Kivel & Arai (2009) recognizes that the critical race theory embraces social justice as one of its major tenets. The commitment of this theory to the elements of liberation and transformation as they relate to social justice, considers awareness of important social processes that structure the society. Therefore, the aspect of racism in sport that marginalizes the black people becomes a centre of interest for this theory (Kivel & Arai 2009); hence researchers will ensure that racism in sport is at the core of their investigations, rather than at the periphery. Therefore, the critical race theory can be applied as a framework to challenge the inequalities that are racialized in the sport domain, hence promoting anti-racism in the domain. In conclusion, racism continues to be a major issue in the sport domain today, even as evidenced by the recent racist events. The complex nature of racism has however been a great impediment to its successful control. Applying the critical race theory to racism in sport can however be instrumental in enhancing the understanding of racism in sport, and provides an appropriate perspective that can be adopted in order to address the issue. In order to address racism in sport in an adequate manner, the principle of social justice of the critical race theory must be embraced by researchers and all individuals, as this is a collective role. Therefore, only through understanding the aspect of racism and its dynamics in the sport domain, and embracing the major principles of critical race theory, shall we move closer to solving this issue. Most importantly, more research efforts should be diverted to this issue in order to increase its understanding. Works Cited Anderson, P 1996, “Racism in sports: A question of ethics,” Marquette Sports Law Review, 6(2): 357-408. Bonilla-Silva E 1997, “Rethinking Racism: Toward a structural interpretation,” American Sociological Review, 62(3): 465-480. Delgado, R. & Stefancic, J 2012, “Critical race theory: An introduction,” NYU Press, New York. Hylton, K 2005, “‘Race’, sport and leisure: lessons from critical race theory,” Leisure Studies, Vol. 24, No. 1, 81–98. Hylton, K 2009, “Race and sport: Critical race theory,” Routledge, New York. Kilvington, D 2013, ““British Asians, Covert Racism and Exclusion in English Professional Football”, Culture Unbound, Volume 5, 2013: 587–606 Kivel, B.D. & Arai, S. 2009, "Special issue on critical race theory and social justice perspectives on whiteness, difference(s) and (anti)racism in leisure studies", Journal of Leisure Research, vol. 41, no. 1, pp. 1-3. McDonald, M.G. 2009, "Dialogues on Whiteness, Leisure and (Anti) Racism", Journal of Leisure Research, vol. 41, no. 1, pp. 5-21. Smith, E 2010, “Sociology of sport and social theory,” Human Kinetics, New York. Sweetman, T 2014, “Dani Alves winning racism fight with banana gesture,” CNN, May, 1. Viewed 26 September, 2014 < http://edition.cnn.com/2014/04/30/sport/football/football-alves-racism/> Read More