¶ … Stereotypes -- Why are Black People Good at Sports?
In the United States black people, African-Americans that is, make up roughly 1/16th of the population. Yet, if one looks at professional sports, in particular, football, basketball, and baseball, relative to their overall population percentage (1/16th) they make up a disproportionate percentage of professional athletes. The NFL is roughly 70% African-American, as is NBA, and baseball, which has seen a relative decline in the number of black athletes over the year (for various reasons) still boasts a healthy figure. Moreover, even in sports where black athletes are not traditionally known for being preeminent figures, i.e. golf and tennis, black athletes have, in recent years, made their mark (Tiger Woods, The Williams Sisters). Unfortunately, as a result of their success, black athletes have been forced to confront stereotypes that pretend to explain and/or rationalize their athletic prowess and relative dominance in the world of sports - here one can pause and just rattle off examples, Best golfer: Tiger Woods; Best NBA player: MJ; Best NFL player: Jerry Rice, Best Baseball Player: Willie Mays, etc. These stereotypes include suggestions that black athletes have different bones in their body than other races, ethnicities, that black athletes had to pursue athletics because they didn't possess a high enough IQ to learn and/or study in school, that black athletes have a different musculature than other races, etc. It is the purpose of this paper to discuss these stereotypes as well as others used to explain the unparalleled success of black athletes both in the U.S. And abroad.
Before one addresses stereotypes the concern black athletes, he/she should consider where stereotypes in general emerge. That is to say, most stereotypes emerge from a climate...
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The Sopade (underground messages to the Social Democratic Party's headquarters in exile) confirmed that a plurality of attitudes towards Jews -- ranging from virulent hatred to apathy and indifference -- continued to exist during the Third Reich and that these attitudes were shaped as much by geographical, class, and religious affiliations as by propaganda (Brown, 2002)." An example of Christian in 2004, Director Mel Gibson became embroiled in controversy for
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