Racism and Bigotry in sports

This year in the world cup we saw all kinds of young heroes emerge, stars
fade and nations rejoicing. But we also caught a slight glimpse of the ugly
side of sports: Bigotry. There has been a campaign to combat racism in
European soccer (which is far worse than it is here in the US, it's about as
bad as it was in Hank Aaron or even Jackie Robinson's day.) with marquee
players like Thierry Henry speaking out against fan racism. But there's a
whole other side to this issue, and that's within the clubhouses and players
themselves. As sports become more and more prevalent in our popular culture
and the stars gain even more influence as role models, it is imperative that
these athletes don't follow the crowd but instead lead it.


Baseball had a long history of racism. Ty Cobb refused to room with Babe
Ruth on barnstorming trips because he suspected that Ruth had some black
blood in his system. Baseball was without a single black player from 1884
until 1947, a period of 63 years where the major leagues were completely
white despite the presence of some of the greatest baseball players ever
(Pop Lloyd, Newt Allen, Satchell Paige, Josh Gibson, Cool Papa Bell, etc.)
in the Negro Leagues. The simple fact that these men were descended from
slaves and had brown skin kept many Americans from witnessing some of the
most talented athletes to have ever lived. In many respects, baseball
helped to shape American society and the civil rights movement. Branch
Rickey, the hall-of-fame executive, saw a void in the major leagues and
recognized the injustice of segregated baseball and put young Jackie
Robinson in the white minor leagues to develop him as the first black major
leaguer in 63 years. He made his debut in 1947, but it wasn't until 1967
that all teams had at least one black player to appear in their uniform.
That's a far cry from where we're at now, with the majority of players being
non-white, but it took way too long to happen.


European soccer is far worse than American sports in terms of the racism.
Black players are subject to entire stadiums heckling them, or worse (like
making monkey noises every time a black player touches the ball, sometimes
even throwing bananas onto the field) and the players are known to be very
bigoted towards one another. The incident between Zinedine Zidane and the
Italian player Marco Materazzi (
http://soccernet.espn.go.com/news/story?id=373723&cc=5901 ) has gotten tons
of press since Sunday, but the real issue here is that Zidane would be so
sensitive about his heritage. He's been known to have reacted violently,
like on Sunday, to any insults regarding his Algerian/Muslim heritage. If
Materazzi actually called him a terrorist (judging by his rediculous denial:
"I insulted him, but I categorically did not call him a terrorist. I'm not
cultured and I don't even know what an Islamic terrorist is." there's almost
no way he didn't), that's a clear sign of the ignorant bigotry that is
rampant throughout the sports world. The fact that Materazzi claims that he
doesn't even know what an Islamic Terrorist is has convinced me that it's
exactly what he said. How can an Italian World Cup (not to mention the fact
that he plays for AC Milan, one of the top 20 European Football clubs),
player not know what an Islamic Terrorist is? Maybe it's just me, but if
EVERY American knows something, I'd think an international sports star might
have an idea. After all, the World Cup (and Italian Serie A games) had very
heightened security as a direct result of Islamic Terrorism. Materazzi knew
what he was saying and has a history of incidents involving altercations
with other players.


While making fun of blacks is completely off limits nowadays (in the US for
anyone without African ancestry), it's not the same for other groups.
Chinese, North Koreans, Arabs, fat people, homosexuals and the mentally
challenged are all acceptable targets of insults and jokes. Even "The
Ringer", a Farrelly Brothers film starring Johnny Knoxville sponsored and
endorsed by the Special Olympics was designed to change people's perceptions
of the mentally challenged, but not everyone got that point. Many people
just watched the movie because it was funny to see Johnny Knoxville play the
part of a man pretending to be mentally disabled man. Hell, people post
things like "___is like winning at the Special Olympics, if you win, you're
still retarded" and think that it's inoffensive to everybody. I am not one
who is personally offended by much, but I am offended by people who show
others no respect. Just as making fun of black people is not okay, the same
goes for Chinese, North Koreans (how many jokes about eating dog have you
heard?), Arabs (people assume all arabs are Muslim, they aren't; that all
Muslims are repressive religious zealots, they aren't; that all Muslims are
violently anti-American...they aren't), fat people, and especially
homosexuals.


The prevalence of intolerance for homosexuals is simply unacceptable. In
the sports world, being a homosexual is simply against the rules. It's not
a coincedence that there hasn't been a single recognizable player to have
come out of the closet. Do you actually think that even though at least 5%
of the population is homosexual, that there isn't a single active athlete in
the 4 major American sports who is gay? The ESPN Original Series Playmakers
had a storyline about a star TE who comes out of the closet as being gay and
it ends his career because of the abuse from his teammates and the fear of
the ownership. What if Pedro Martinez (finally) came out of the closet,
what would happen to his fans? If we're so scared of admitting our
effeminate hollywood stars (like Tom Cruise, Jude Law or any other 5'6" "sex
object") are gay, how can we possibly admit that our masculine ideals are
actually homosexual? Esa Tualo is the only NFL player to have come out of
the closet, but even he had to wait until after his career was over before
he could come clean to the public.


This world is modernizing, but it's still in the dark ages. We don't accept
people for who they are, and are unwilling to accept anyone different from
us. We place our athletes on a pedastal, they're allowed to basically do
and say anything. Neither Zidane nor Materazzi are innocent, both escalated
a situation that should've only been about the game. Sports have become
such a major part of society that the athletes hold a lot of power over the
masses. Kids will see what Zidane did and think that it's acceptable to
retaliate physically against words. I play a lot of street basketball and
hear some trash talk (especially since I'm a small, well for basketball
players, white guy who looks like Justin Timberlake), but you'll never see
me get back in their face. I learned this as a high schooler, but even then
I always knew that it was just a game and should be treated as such. Our
pros are simply that, pros. They shouldn't just be professional in terms of
their skills, but also in terms of their sportsmanship. After all, it is
just a game.