Sports in Racism

I am disgusted with calling myself an American after watching 42, Glory Road, and Remember the Titans and how racism ruled society. Throughout our nation's history, there has been racism towards all races, especially towards blacks after the Civil War. An example of this has been in sports. The sports of America in the past was highly segregated, with white (being the major form of entertainment and professional standards) and black leagues. Baseball was one example of a segregated sport. The professional teams were made up of white men, whose teams were well managed and funded by wealthy backers. However, there was an underfunded league for blacks, whose games were not taken seriously and just served as a means to play baseball for Negro players. This was the way of life in America until a player named Jackie Robison, a negro player who played in black leagues, was drafted into the major league on the Brooklyn Dodgers. This was the first case of a black baseball player on an all white team. This was taken seriously by crowds of baseball fans whose views still discriminated against blacks. They believed that blacks were not capable or fit enough to play with white players, and Robison had to take not only racial slurs and hateful shouts at games, but being threaten and pressured to leave the game. However, Robison pushed on and in 1948, helped win the World Series for his team. Similar cases of mixing blacks with white teams happened in other sports too, such as football and basketball. Overall, the change between two different leagues separating blacks and whites and joining the two was a long and challenging process. During present times, there are still racial tensions in sports, but mostly because of a player's performance and not the color of their skin. There is still more effort to be done with the total destruction of not only racism in sports, but in our society as well.