Discriminatory Rhetoric in Athletics

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On April 15th 1947, Jack Roosevelt Robinson played his first game for the Brooklyn Dodgers. Jackie, went without a hit in a game which would have been noted only in sports almanacs were it not for the color of his skin. At Ebbet's Field that day, Robinson broke baseball's “color barrier.” The integration of Black athletes into White mainstream sports had begun. Robinson endured a variety of slanderous yells, racial epithets and even hurled objects. The fact that African Americans would be discriminated against in sports was never more apparent. Today, that same vitriol manifests itself in various forms of discrimination. Rhetorical forms of discrimination are just as damaging today as outright bigotry was then. Though rhetorical racism is not as overt, it continually influences an audience that is largely unaware of its existence.

One of the most common, subversive and least understood rhetorical tools of racism is racialism. Racialism is the practice of identifying a person’s character traits, abilities, weaknesses and strengths solely on the basis of their race (Tyson 367). A familiar example of racialism is seen in the title of the film White Men Can’t Jump. The title of this film asserts that men of the white race are incapable of jumping (seemingly) because of their race. A belief in racialism is a belief that some races are inherently less intelligent, less gifted athletically, more aggressive, more deviant in behavior, etc (Tyson 367). Racialism defines a person based on erroneous and at times offensive stereotypes. The rhetoric of racialism plays out continually among sportswriters and sports broadcasters. David Niven, Ohio University, notes that when players from the Nation Football League are discussed ...

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...l of Sport & Social Issues 31 (2007 ): 45-58.

Niven, David. "Race, Quarterbacks, and the Media - Testing the Rush Limbaugh Hypothesis." Journal of Black Studies 35 (2005): 684-692.

Shelton, Christine, and Don Seigel. "Sport: In Search of the American Dream." Smith College. Smith College, Web. 6 Jan 2010.

Simons, Herbert. "Race and Penalized Sports Behaviors." International Review For The Sociology of Sport 38 (2003): 5-22.

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Tyson, Lois. Critical Theory Today: A User-Friendly Guide. 2nd ed. New York: Routledge, 2006. 367-378. Print.

Woodward, JR. "An Examination of a National Football League College Draft Publication: Do Racial Stereotypes Still Exist in Football." Sociology of Sport Online 5.2 (2002): n. pag. Web. 6 Jan 2010. .

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