Examples Of Discrimination In Sports

Improvement of Discrimination in Sports

Discrimination has improved significantly since the Civil Rights Movement, but it still happens in places you don’t notice: on the field, on the track, on the course, on the court, on the mat, on the ice, and in the water. As stated in “The Economics of Sports” by W. Kern (2000) it looks as though professional sports have improved greatly since the 1940s. Before the 1940s on the other hand, black players were banned from professional sports. Since the 1990s, African Americans are much more equally represented in sports. Even though we are able to see great improvement there is evidence stating that fans have preferences for their same race (Kern, 2000, pg.126-127).

History of Basketball Between the

There were barriers for black players in the NFL according to Conlin and Emerson’s research (Kern, 2000, pg. 123-124) In the NFL 56.0% of the players were black in 1988 (Kahn, 1991, pg. 395)

Forms of Discrimination Found in Sports According to Conway and Roberts, observers have given discrimination another definition: “the setting of unequal standards in allocating job opportunities or pay level (Kahn, 1991). As stated by Kahn (1991), discrimination can come from many sources and can come in many forms. Before World War Ⅱ there were racial barriers in entering U.S. professional sports (Kahn, 1991).

Hiring Discrimination Hiring discrimination is defined as unequal job opportunities for someone of different race but same ability (Kahn, 1991). The most noteable sport that contains hiring discrimination is hockey. As stated by Kahn (1991), NHL (National Hockey League) had seen discrimination against French-Canadians. As well as hiring discrimination French-Canadians faced salary discrimination, positional segregation and customer discrimination (Kahn, 1991).

Customer

“Burdekin and Idson reveals that not only is higher attendance associated with increases in the percentage of white players on a team but that the matching of team to city racial composition also increases attendance, at the margin (“The NBA...Earning”, 1999).” “Kahn and Sherer found that, all else equal, during the 1980-1986 period each white player generated 5,700 to 13,000 additional fans per year. Brown, Spiro, and Keenan; Burdekin and Idson; Hoang and Rascher describe, “the dollar value of this extra attendance more than made up for the white salary premium (Kern, 2000, pg. 122-123).” Hassen states that during the 1954-1972 period white baseball players added fans (Kern, 2000, pg.123). According to Kahn (1991) black players actually gained a bigger home audience in 1950s. On the other hand Scully explains that black players lowered the team's revenue by the 1960s. Customer discrimination had been found in baseball and basketball. During 1980-1986, Burdekin and Idson reveal that the attendance at basketball games were affected negatively due to black players (Kahn, 1991). In hockey, with the French-Canadians being away from their native home customers were hesitant and stereotyping causing customer discrimination. Decades later there is no evidence in baseball, that states customer