White Sports/Black Sports: Racial Disparities in Athletic Programs
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White Sports/ Black Sports Recent Titles in Racism in American Institutions Brian D. Behnken, Series Editor The Color of Politics: Racism in the American Political Arena Today Chris Danielson How Do Hurricane Katrina’s Winds Blow?: Racism in 21st-Century New Orleans Liza Lugo, JD Out of Bounds: Racism and the Black Athlete Lori Latrice Martin, Editor Color behind Bars: Racism in the U.S. Prison System Volume 1: Historical and Contemporary Issues of Race and Ethnicity in the American Prison System Volume 2: Public Policy Influence(s) toward a Racial/Ethnic American Prison System Scott Wm. Bowman, Editor White Sports/ Black Sports Racial Disparities in Athletic Programs LORI LATRICE MARTIN Racism in American Institutions Brian D. Behnken, Series Editor Copyright © 2015 by Lori Latrice Martin All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, except for the inclusion of brief quotations in a review, without prior permission in writing from the publisher. Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Martin, Lori Latrice. White sports, black sports : racial disparities in athletic programs / Lori Latrice Martin. pages cm. — (Racism in American Institutions / Brian D. Behnken, Series Editor.) Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 978–1–4408–0053–5 (hard copy : acid-free paper) — ISBN 978–1–4408–0054–2 (ebook) 1. Racism in sports—United States—History. I. Title. GV706.32.M385 2015 796.089096073—dc23 2014038633 ISBN: 978–1–4408–0053–5 EISBN: 978–1–4408–0054–2 19 18 17 16 15 1 2 3 4 5 This book is also available on the World Wide Web as an eBook. Visit www.abc-clio.com for details. Praeger An Imprint of ABC-CLIO, LLC ABC-CLIO, LLC 130 Cremona Drive, P.O. Box 1911 Santa Barbara, California 93116-1911 This book is printed on acid-free paper Manufactured in the United States of America To Barbara Ann Johnson and Larry Darnell Matthews Contents Series Foreword ix Acknowledgments xi 1. Toward a Unifying Perspective of Race, Racism, and Sports 1 2. Race, Place, and Sports 21 3. A Perfect Combination: The Mass Media and Representations of Race in Sports 35 4. Race Thinking and Minority Athletes in Football 51 5. America’s Other Favorite Pastime: Baseball 67 6. The New Plantation?: Racism on the Hardwood 81 7. Black-Free Zones: Black Athletes on the Course and on the Court 105 8. Sports and the Myth of a Color-Blind Society 123 9. Conclusion 145 Notes 161 Bibliography 175 Index 201 Series Foreword White Sports/Black Sports is the second book in Praeger Publisher’s series Racism in American Institutions (RAI) to explore racial disparities in American sports and the second offering from Lori Latrice Martin. The RAI series was designed to examine the ways in which racism has become, and remains, a part of the fabric of many American institutions. For exam- ple, while the United States may have done away with overtly racist policies such as disfranchisement laws, racism still affects many of America’s estab- lished institutions from the local voting registrar to political advertisements that marginalize communities of color. Law enforcement, like much of the American legal system, is supposed to be impartial, and yet people of color make up the majority of those incarcerated in American prisons. Recent twenty-first-century examples of racism in sports, from mascots that cari- cature Native American figures to sportscasters who argue that African Americans make superior athletes because of the legacy of slavery, also abound. This open-ended series of works examines the problem of racism in established American institutions. Each book in the RAI series traces the prevalence of racism within a particular institution throughout the his- tory of the United States and explores the problem in that institution today, looking at ways in which the institution has attempted to rectify racism, but also the ways in which it has not. In White Sports/Black Sports, Lori Latrice Martin shifts our focus to the myriad ways race has shaped sports as an institution. Many Americans seem to think that certain ethno-racial communities somehow naturally occupy certain sports. For example, some people believe African Ameri- cans are naturally better at basketball. Martin challenges these beliefs, dem- onstrating that racial socialization—the process by which members of various ethnic groups learn what is expected in U.S. society—has gone far in establishing the beliefs and opinions of Americans about race and sports. This may mean the widespread acceptance of black players in basketball, while simultaneously a widespread rejection of blacks in, say, NASCAR or x Series Foreword professional golf. Martin demonstrates that numerous social issues outside of the sports arena have caused this socialization. Martin, a sociologist by training, has published widely in the fields of income inequality and race studies. Her published works and academic training make her the perfect author for a book like White Sports/Black Sports. Despite the increasing presence of black athletes in a variety of American sports, as well as other athletes of color, racism in sports endures because it has become institutionalized over time. White Sports/Black Sports explains how that institutionalization happened. Brian D. Behnken Iowa State University Ames, Iowa Acknowledgments The author wishes to acknowledge the support of the following individuals throughout the development of this project: Shanielle Mosely Thomas, Dione Cooper-Footman, Hayward Derrick Horton, Mark Naison, Teresa A. Booker, Kwando and Imani Kinshasha, Lee and Edith Burns, Walter Martin, Leroy Evans, Calvin and Ethipia McIver, Sonya Williams, Dorthea Swann, Raynette Hilton, Elizabeth Butler, Everett Newton, Raymond C. Caliman, Eugene Jones, Sr., Johnnie G. McCann, McKinley and Sue John- son, Raymond Jetson, Mondrall Eathers, Christopher Tyson, Kenneth Fasching-Varner, Emir Sykes, Derrick Martin, Leola Graham, Vivian Grantham, Elma Warren, Raymond Graham, Sidney J. Rand, Daisy McDaniel, Doris Graham, Lee Burns, Mahima Christian, Emily and John Thornton, Constance Slaughter Harvey, Roland Mitchell, Melinda Jackson, Dari Green, Peter Massenat, Keith L. T. Wright, Cheryl Ellis, Kelly Norman Ellis, Carolyn Slaughter, Constance Harvey-Burwell, Michael Thornton, Henry Louis Taylor, Bill Batson, Frances Pratt, Joseph Adams, LaToria Burns, Alicia Crowe, Patricia Bullock, Mary White, James Herschberger, David Rudder, Geraldine Jones, Alice Crowe Bell, and Michael Wilt. Chapter 1 Toward a Unifying Perspective of Race, Racism, and Sports For some Americans, race is a significant determinant of one’s chances in life. Given that the United States has historically been characterized as hav- ing a biracial classification system, this has meant that some actions, behav- iors, and activities are either black or white. Just as some names are said to “sound white” or to “sound black,” some sports are more closely associated with some racial and ethnic groups than with others.1 How did this happen? How did we come to associate certain sports with certain races? To what extent have those associations changed over time? What has been the role of racial socialization, historically and in contempo- rary times, in undermining or supporting ideas about white sports and black sports? This book examines the social processes by which individuals learn the ways of society that pertain to those who have membership in a particular racial group. Through the process of racial socialization, blacks and whites come to learn what is expected. Through agents of racial socialization such as sports, the media, schools, peer groups, and the family, blacks and whites gain an understanding of what constitutes whiteness and blackness. Members of each group gain a key understanding about their position in society in relationship to one another. The process of racial socialization not only leads to the identification of selected sports as white sports or black sports, but failure to adhere to racial norms and racial etiquette can lead to overt manifestations of racism. The mere existence of racial norms and racial etiquette that govern expectations about behavior in itself is evi- dence of racism—the multidimensional system whereby a dominant group oppresses and scapegoats one or more subordinate groups. Population and structural changes in the society at large and in sports can exacerbate overt manifestations of racism, which may range from differences in the media coverage of black and white athletes engaged in deviant acts to the 2 White Sports/Black Sports institutionalization of seemingly race-neutral laws that target black players. Central to the discussion, examination, and exploration of racial socializa- tion and the identification of sports by race is an analysis of other key the- ories and theoretical perspectives, including: critical race theory, colorism, the population and structural change thesis, and the critical demography paradigm. The analysis enhances the understanding of the canyon between American idealism and realism in sports and in the society as a whole. American Sports and Intergroup Relations The association of certain sports with certain racial groups has its origins in early American history, when Americans forcefully separated individuals by race in a number of areas of public and private life. The nation has, at one point or another, supported the forced separation of people by race in houses of worship, cemeteries, schools, and neighborhoods; on buses and railcars; in the labor market; and even in the world of sports. While the history of segre- gation in some areas of society is well known, the history of segregation in other areas—particularly segregation in sports—is arguably less understood.2 Most Americans are probably familiar with the name Jackie Robinson and his role in the integration of modern Major League Baseball in 1947. Fewer people know about the history of segregation in professional football and the role of Charles Follis in bringing it to an end.3 In his book Outside the Lines, Charles K.