The Prevalence of Inequality in Sports

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Recommended: Racial Inequality in Sport

Sports, admittedly, have had a huge impact on our culture. Some of us even use sports as an excuse to gather our family for some quality time with each other, whether they just hangout for the sake of entertainment or engage in a meaningful conversation full of fervid passion when discussing spectacular plays, athletes, and coaches. However, people talk about the multitude of positive traits that sports are associated with, one must be informed about the abundance of issues that sports face; issues that keep sports from being what we want it to be- free from malicious intent and more along the lines of a peaceful collaboration perpetuated by authentic equality; coming together to proclaim our love for the game. Inequality, for example, is an issue inhibiting that peaceful collaboration. In this essay, I plan to explore two types of inequality that are associated with sports- racial and gender.
Take a look at an excerpt from Maya Angelou’s autobiography entitled, “I Know Why The Caged Bird Sings” The unsettling; apprehensive mood was set, everybody at a local general store just sitting anxiously over the outcome of a boxing match. Angelou writes with such clarity for us to comprehend how significant it was that Joe Louis wins,
“My race groaned. It was our people falling. It was another lynching, yet another Black man hanging on a tree. One more woman ambushed and raped. A Black boy whipped and maimed. It was hounds on the trail of a man running through slimy swamps. It was a white woman slapping her maid for being forgetful” (486).

Here we get to the most powerful part of her story; making these comparisons why sports, at this particular moment, mattered so much for Black culture. Consequently, if Joe Louis lost, it would mean ...

... middle of paper ...

...ultimately encompass- A peaceful collaboration where anyone can go out and share their love for what they do.
Angelou and Maratta share a connection of the inequality that has existed in the realm of sports and still is prevalent to this day. We have come a long way as far as providing opportunities for the individual; free from discrimination, but as far as achieving that peaceful collaboration between male and female, black or white, we still have a long way to go.

Work Cited
Angelou, Maya. “Champion of the World.” They Say/I Say. Ed. Gerald Graff, Cathy Birkenstein, Russel Durst. New York: Norton, 2012. 484-488. Print.
Maratta, Sam. “Move Over Boys, Make Room in the Crease.” They Say/I Say. Ed. Gerald Graff, Cathy Birkenstein, Russel Durst. New York: Norton, 2012. 537-543. Print.
Rodriguez, Ana. “Female Athletes Still Face Inequality.” The Daily Sundial. Web.

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