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Racism in English football
Initiatives that promote anti discriminatory
Initiatives to promote anti-discrimination
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Football as it is know outside North America (Soccer) is among the most ubiquitous and beloved sport in the world. The worldwide audience for the FIFA World Cup typically exceeds 1 billion, and hundreds of thousands of spectators flock to watch their countries team participate. One of the fundamental concerns surrounding the game today revolves around the prolonged occurrence of racism, especially racial abuse to players by fans. Omi and Winant (1994) have identified, elements of racism with a strong correlation relating to sport, such as ‘temperament, athletic ability and sexuality.
Given its recent history of anti-racist activity, English football is often cited as a figurehead example of challenging racism through popular culture and encouraging ethnic minority participation. (Garland, and Rowe, 2001) Although the growing example of black players in the professional game in England has greatly risen over the last decade, there is still increasing concern. With 568 players competing in the English Premier League (EPL) 183 black, 379 white and eight Asian, of all the players 32.22 percent are black. Of the 232 English players in the EPL 80 are black, a small 34.47 percent considering the EPL is the largest and wealthiest league in the world (Omi & Winant, 1994). Players from ethnic minority backgrounds are rarely represented in the English game and yet the biggest target for racial descent. In the other parts of the football industry, particularly in coaching and managerial positions or roles with real power and authority we don’t see genuine ethnical diversity.
Nowadays clashes between elite powerhouse teams are subject to extensive media coverage: footage of events replayed frame by frame, in context of a constant media envir...
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Omi, Michael, and Howard Winant. Racial Formation in the United States: From the 1960s to the 1990. London: Routledge, 1994.
Rawlinson, A. (2009). Stand Up ! Speak Up. The Story 2005-2009. King Baudouin Foundation, n/a. Retrieved April 23, 2014, from http://www.furd.org/resources/Stand%20Up%20Speak%20Up%20The%20Story%202005-2009.pdf
Rowe, M., & Garland, J. (2012). Paying the price? Why football still has a problem. Criminal Justice Matters, 88(1), 30-31.
Souvik Naha (2013) Race, ethnicity and football: persisting debates and emergent issues, Soccer & Society, 14:4, 569-572, DOI: 10.1080/14660970.2013.791574
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In Odessa, an oil-rich town in West Texas, there is a line that separates the two races of blacks and whites. They called it “the American version of the Berlin Wall – the railroad tracks that inevitably ran through the heart of town” (Bissinger 91). The tracks are the symbol of the barrier, tension, and attitude that stand between the two races. To the Odessan whites, African Americans are often considered extraneous, with few hopes and dreams to follow. It is also a common part of everyday language to blurt out the word “nigger,” without ever categorizing it in a racist context. To escape the predisposed perception, the football stadium, where the night lights shine, is the solitary premises where blacks accepted as an identity, as well as athletes. In the non-fiction book, Friday Night Lights, H.G. Bissinger explores this phenomenon of racial tension and the low expectation that are imposed upon black athletes. Through the use of descriptive imagery, revealing dialogue, and anaphora, Bissinger describes the underlying message of Odessan’s racial division, coupled with the meager education that the general population receives while obsessed with high school football.
Omi, Michael, and Howard Winant. "Racial Formation in the United States." 1994. The Idea of
De Varona, D. (2003). ‘M’s’ in football: Myths, management, marketing, media and money. A reprise. Soccer & Society, 4, 7-13.
The cultural importance of soccer is essential to an understanding of the progression of cultural practices in Brazil and the formation of culture in Brazil today. In particular, soccer in Brazil has greatly broken down barriers of a racial stigma that still exists in many well-developed nations today. Franklin Foer discusses this importance in his essay “The Brazil Syndrome.” One of his first main notes is that soccer arrived in Brazil at just about the same time as emancipation in the country, in the late nineteenth century (Foer 41). The significance of this fact is not that soccer was something for every Brazilian to turn to at the time, but that there was a certain shame in the separation of white and black soccer players. The slaves were recently freed and became very intrigued by the sport, as did many of the elite white Brazilians. The elite Brazilians were very prejudiced but were quite undecided about allowing blacks onto their teams, especially considering the shame of slavery due to the recent emancipation. Regardless, African-Brazilians made it onto some soccer teams, whether they were allowed or they snuck on by hiding their skin color in some way. Eventually, the allowance of African-Brazilians onto soccer teams became a requirement for the teams to be successful, because the teams that were not mixed race were simply not good enough to compete with those that
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 ...
Have you ever heard about racial discrimination and what is it? Racial discrimination is defined as the action of a persons who treat differently or who excludes another person just for his or her racial or ethnic origin. Racial discrimination continues to exist in the world and may never end with it. For example, in the documentary "Linsanity" Lin mentions that he was a victim of racial discrimination and that despite everything that happened, he was able to reach the American dream. Finally, from watching this documentary, I can strongly be argued that Discrimination is also present in sports, and that depends on what privileges you enjoy will be easier the way to reach what you want.
...will decide how much tribalism they wish to get involved in, even if it is simply wearing the jersey; or getting involved in heavy duty teasing with the rival fans of their favorite football team; or even if they simply decorated their own home with every piece of team collectables available for purchase. Whatever an individual does or decides to continue to do I remain convinced that it is actually the tribalism that is more important that the football and if that tribalism dies, than professional football becomes starved of its founding roots and dies. And that my friends, is the scariest thought of it all. Even though I am a strong supporter of tribalism in football, I do feel as that the extreme football hooliganism violence that takes place in the book “How Soccer Explains The World” is unnecessary and the violence does not need to happen along with tribalism.
Shropshire, Kenneth L. 1996. In black and white: race and sports in America. New York: New York University Press.
The growing debate about the mascots, logos, and team names used in sports has been an issue since the 1960’s-1970’s. The argument that is at hand is depicting if these symbols are a representation of pride or if they can be classified as racist. There are many supporters to both sides of this debate. Many on one side are arguing that the symbols are clearly racist while others on the opposing side are making claims that the symbols are an honor to whom they are portraying and are negatively connected to racism. There also the individuals who do not identify with either side, obtaining the belief that these symbols are a representation of the organization itself rather that creating a backstory or an image associated to anything other than the organization represented by an image. With many debates and issues regarding the topic happening annually, the question remains, what should be done about the racism issue in the sports industries?
Research guided by conflict theory generally falls into the following categories: 1) studies of how athletes become alienated from their own bodies; 2) studies of how sports can be used to coerce and control people; 3) studies of sports and the development of commercialism in society; 4) studies of sports and various forms of nationalism and militarism; and 5) studies of sports and racism and sexism. (Coakley, 1998) In the book, Meggyesy provided examples of each of these categories which occurred during his footba...
When examining the issue of criminal acts in sports it is easy to realize that there are many places where these acts occur. The range of these acts is far more vast than just in the professional arenas. This is, however, what the public sees and hears about most often. While this is one of the major topics of this paper, criminal acts are found in all of sport ranging from professionals, to college, high school, and in youth sports, including the reaction of the fans. This paper will take an in-depth look at the four major points regarding criminal acts in sport: the acts themselves; the consequences of those acts; the possible reasons for the acts occurring; an analysis of a few major events that have occurred and the possible solutions to the problem of criminal acts in sport. In the section about fan reaction to sport, there will be an overall account of the individual acts and not personal cases due to the overload of personal events that occur.
Dealing with the issue of sport and ethnology, three major factors come to mind; prejudice, racism, and discrimination. These factors span across gender, ethnic, racial, religious, and cultural groups. In the following paragraphs, I will discuss how these factors have played a part in the evolution of sport in our society. The first issue tackled in this paper will be racism in sports, followed by prejudice and discrimination.
In a society filled with people that strongly believe that sports is an industry that is removed and immune from the ills of the world—racism. Many fans and spectators of sports, such as baseball, basketball, football, and many other sports that include players of different races and ethnicities considers that racism is a thing of the past because of the inclusion and acceptance of all races in different sports. However, the misconception of living in a post-racial (colorblind) world is prevalent. Even though racial discrimination in sports and society in general, are not overt as in the past, racism continues to plague the industry. Regardless of fans and spectators wanting to ignore the racial biases and discrimination in the sports industry,
Football is the most obvious sport whose commercial value has been tainted by the actions of its players. While the game still attracts multimillion-pound investment from brands due to the massive media spotlight it enjoys, many are questioning the wisdom of their associations in light of a seemingly never-ending stream of negative headlines.