DISCUSSION: Race, Racism and Sport -- The myth of the superiority of the Black male athlete

The prompt to this discussion dictates I articulate why the “common sense” notion that African-Americans dominate sports is false. Excuse me for playing the devil’s advocate, and hopefully I do not lose points for disregarding the instructions, but after reading the chapter I see things differently and an important point needs to be made. If anything, I am inclined to argue Coakley’s hypothesis, along with the other research and history included therein, does more to reinforce the idea that African-Americans dominate sports than it does to discredit the notion that has developed into a stereotype. In my opinion, Coakley’s hypothesis serves to provide sound reasoning and explanation as to how, and why, African-Americans have come to dominate sports in modern America. When I say, “dominate sports” be aware I’m using the phrase quite loosely. I’m referring to the overwhelming majority of African-Americans that make up professional basketball and football teams as well as their collegiate counterparts. In no way am I saying that African-Americans are more talented or perform better statistically; instead, I mean to say that they dominate the populations—there are just way more of them on the field of play. Hold that field of play term in the back of your mind as we move along. Before I go on, let’s check out some numbers courtesy of the Institute for Diversity and Ethics in Sport at the University of Central Florida, by way of analytics and statistics site, fivethirtyeight.com. We can see above that it is pretty clear what group makes up the majority of NBA players. African-Americans dominate the league in terms of roster spots by a more-than-sizable margin and they make up a good portion of coaches as well. Here we can see where the field of play, or roster spots, are dominated by African-American athletes. Now shift your attention to the other categories above, management and executive positions. The numbers speak for themselves. Here we can see where the field of play, or roster spots, are dominated by African-American athletes. Lets take a look at the other American sports leagues and check out the findings of the study.

As we turn our attention to the NFL—the professional league for the sport Coakley describes as, “most commonly associated with the American identity,”— the margin is not quite as large in terms of roster spots. But, interestingly, NFL coaches are much more overwhelmingly white than their NBA counterparts. Again, notice the other two categories. Lastly, we will take a look at Major League Baseball

The MLB has a large Latino population, with African-Americans being very underrepresented in comparison to the other two major American sports leagues. When it comes to the managers, again, similar to their coaching counterparts in the NFL, African-Americans are very underrepresented. While the makeup of players and coaches across the major American sports leagues seem to vary, whites dominate ownership and league office positions.

A long history of social and cultural conditions including, but not limited to, slavery, racial segregation, discrimination, and inequality helped to create a racial ideology that dictates African-American men are both biologically and culturally ordained to be dominant athletes. That, at least, is what I understand her hypothesis to state. Her challenge to the stereotype is that African-Americans are funneled into sports at a much higher rate due to their cultural and social history. And it’s this “funneling”, not a disparity in God-given talent, nor a biological advantage that has ultimately given us the stereotype that they are superior athletes. I agree with Coakley’s challenge. African-American men don’t dominate sports; they just dominate the rosters of the major American sports leagues.

Coakley, J. (2009). Sports in society: Issues and controversies (10th ed.). New York: McGraw-Hill