Racism In Sport

Racism in sports has been a prevalent issue throughout the world, and in particular racism towards African Americans has been especially severe over the course of the history of sports in the United States and around the world.

The Human Rights and Equal Opportunity Commission (HREOC) released a report in 2007 fro
What's the Score?
(16 October 2007) stating that racial abuse and vilification is commonplace in international sports, in places such as Australia, Europe, and America.

By sport

Association football

Racism has a long history in association football, and has prompted response from numerous political and footballing organisations. The topic of racism in association football has been widely covered by the media as well as academic studies. Scholars have described an "invisible centrality of whiteness" that permeates the upper levels of football in Europe. Non-white football players in Europe are frequently stereotyped in a racialised manner. In response to these incidents, numerous anti-racism organisations have been formed, including Show Racism the Red Card, which was established in 1996. Other organisations include Football Against Racism in Europe and Racism Breaks the Game.

On January 3, 2013, supporters of Italian football club Pro Patria made racist comments during a match against AC Milan. Ghanaian footballer Kevin-Prince Boateng was consistently racially abused during the match:

“When Boateng touched the ball for the first time, a small part of the crowd made monkey noises: Oo -- oo -- oo -- oo...Fifty or so people called him an animal. He locked eyes with them and could see the hate. He pointed to his head, to say, 'You're an idiot.' The chants went on for 20 minutes: Oo -- oo -- oo -- oo...Finally, after about twenty more minutes of the chanting, Boateng picked up the ball, kicked it into the stands and walked off the field. The team then boarded its bus and headed back to the AC Milan compound. "

During a Euro 2020 qualifier match between England and Bulgaria, the match was stopped twice after Bulgarian fans shouted racist chants at the English players, with four fans being arrested after the match. Racist incidents in 2018 rose by 67% in professional games, a sharp increase compared to other types of discrimination. Discrimination is especially targeted at referees of colour by players sent off due to bad conduct. Joel Mannix, a referee, recalls one instance of another referee telling him:

"I'm just refereeing a game. I may have got it wrong, I may not have got it wrong, but is there any reason to act like that?"

Josh Magennis, a striker for the Northern Ireland team, has called for a "paper trail" for football tickets after several instances of racism from fans while playing football at a professional level.

Rugby

Australia

Anthony Mundine, a rugby league player, claimed that New South Wales was so racist that he quit rugby and took up boxing. He believed that due to his race, he was never truly appreciated for his talents in the league, being forced to sit out and play different positions, despite proving himself to be among the most talented in the league. Even as a professional boxer, Mundine still feels that there is racism in Australian sports, and he decided to sit during the national anthem before his fight against Danny Green on February 3, 2017. He believes that the national anthem is not representative of the black people, who are still being oppressed in Australia, and did not acknowledge it.

* News.com.au reports that television commentator and former rugby league great Andrew Johns had been banned for allegedly calling Greg Inglis a "black cunt" while addressing the New South Wales rugby league team. Additionally, it was alleged that Johns had referred to Timana Tahu as a "black cunt", "abo", "coon", "nigger" and "monkey".

Italy

The Italian club Benneton Treviso suspended a player after Cherif Troare, a black Italian member of the team, received a banana as a joke "Christmas gift" and other players laughed when Troare opened the gift.

Professional baseball

Negro leagues

As sports progressed, race relations progressed at a comparable rate. In baseball for instance, African Americans were barred from participation in the National Association of Baseball Players because of regional prejudice and unofficial color bans dating back to the 1890s."Negro League History 101 - An Introduction To The Negro Leagues." Negro League Baseball Dot Com. Web. 13 March 2012. . Due to this segregation, blacks worked together to create the Negro leagues. These leagues comprised mostly all African-American teams. As a whole, the Negro leagues became one of the largest and most successful enterprises run mainly by African Americans. Their founding and resilient growth stood as a testament to the determination and drive of African-Americans to battle the imposing racial segregation and social disadvantage.

Jackie Robinson

Jackie Robinson was born in Cairo, Georgia in 1919 and was the youngest of five children. At an early age, his father deserted the family and his mother, Mallie Robinson, decided to move the family to Pasadena in California. Here, Robinson began to excel at many sports, especially baseball. Jackie Robinson is arguably one of the most historically significant professional baseball players in Major League Baseball, next to Babe Ruth during their era. Jackie Robinson constantly faced discrimination throughout his entire life but would overcome the discrimination when he made his way into Major League Baseball.

After serving in the military, Robinson joined the Kansas City Monarchs of the American Negro Leagues and excelled with elite fielding and a batting average above .300. Although he was playing well, he did not like competing in a racially segregated league that was put in place by the Jim Crow laws. Branch Rickey, president of the Brooklyn Dodgers, signed Robinson to the Montreal Royals in 1946, which was an all-white minor league team. He faced much adversity with racist comments from his own team members and especially during away games where opposing white players would spit, hit, and slide into him with sharp metal cleats.

Despite this adversity, Robinson led the International League in both batting average (.349) and fielding percentage (.985) and was called up to play for the Brooklyn Dodgers. He played his first game on April 15, 1947, becoming the first African-American man to ever play professional baseball. The harassment in the Major Leagues only got worse with multiple opposing team's managers and players yelling derogatory terms and trying to inflict any harm possible. Robinson went on to have a successful baseball career, being inducted into the Major League Baseball Hall of Fame and having his jersey number retired.

Golf

Tiger Woods

Only a few minority players, such as Tiger Woods, have dominated professional golf. Woods is of African American and Asian-American descent. With 83 percent of golf participants being white, a white majority dominates golf. Woods has the second most major wins of any individual in golf history, with 15. His excellence was well recognised as he became one of the most marketable players in the world. Woods helped tear down the imposing racial discrepancies in golf by not only competing with golf's current best but also by challenging other accomplished golfers for being the best of all time. In 1997, he became the first black player to win a Men's major golf championship at just 21 years of age. After winning the 1997 Masters Tournament, Woods faced ridicule from Fuzzy Zoeller, who won this championship in 1979. Zoeller responded to Woods' win by stating, "That little boy is driving well and he's putting well. He's doing everything it takes to win. So you know what you guys do when he gets in here. You pat him on the back and say congratulations and enjoy it and tell him not to serve fried chicken next year. Got it." Zoeller says his comments were misconstrued, and later apologised.

In 2011 Woods' former caddie Steve Williams described him as a "black arse", which sparked much controversy over the racial dynamic between Woods and the world of golf. His comments opened a debate on the racial tensions present in golf. Williams described his comments as "stupid" and not racist, and later apologized.

Broadcaster Kelly Tilghman was suspended from The Golf Channel after joking about Tiger Woods being "lynched in a back alley" during final round coverage of the Mercedes-Benz Championship.

Basketball

In the 1940s through '60s, many NBA teams had unofficial quotas on the number of Black players on their teams. Many players joined other professional leagues, including th
Eastern Professional Basketball League
The Eastern Professional Basketball League (1946-78) was fast and physical, often played in tiny, smoke-filled gyms across the northeast and featuring the best players who just couldn’t make the NBA—many because of the quotas.

Donald Sterling

Donald Sterling was the previous owner of the Los Angeles Clippers, who was banned from the NBA for life for racially insensitive remarks he made about African-Americans. After seeing a picture that his then-girlfriend, V. Stiviano, posted with Magic Johnson, Sterling was recorded saying:

"It bothers me a lot that you want to broadcast that you're associating with black people. Do you have to? ... You can sleep with them lack people You can bring them in, you can do whatever you want. The little I ask you is not to promote it on that...and not to bring them to my games."

These remarks outraged his players and coach Doc Rivers (who is African-American), who threatened to boycott games and called for Sterling to be removed as owner. Despite the remarks, players kept striving to advance in the playoffs. The NBA commissioner, Adam Silver, and the NBA Board of Governors officially approved the sale of the Clippers to Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer for $2 billion, and effectively banned Sterling from the NBA for life.

Philippines

After a loss to Iran in the 2013 FIBA Asia Championship, several of the Philippine national basketball team's fans made messages in Facebook ridiculing the Iranian team as 'foul-smelling'.

A utility staff from the Cagayan Valley Rising Suns of the PBA Developmental League was reprimanded for heckling Nigerian NLEX Road Warriors player Olaide “Ola” Adeogun with monkey chanting and repeatedly calling him 'monkey' several times.

Cricket

* 2006: Former Australian cricketer and commentary Dean Jones called South African cricketer Hashim Amla a "terrorist" on 7 August 2006. When Amla, who is a Muslim with a full beard, took a catch, Jones was heard to say "the terrorist gets another wicket". Jones made the comment during a commercial break, but the comment went to air live in South Africa as its broadcast had not been interrupted. Jones was fired as a commentator, and later apologized to all concerned.
* 2007: South African player Herschelle Gibbs was banned for two Tests when a stump mic captures him saying to the crowd "You fucking bunch of fucking animals, fucking go back to the zoo, fucking Pakistanis."
* 2008: Indian player Harbhajan Singh reportedly called Australian cricketer Andrew Symonds a "monkey".
* 2015: An Australian cricketer referred to English player Moeen Ali as "Osama", presumably in reference to Osama bin Laden.
* 2015: English cricketer Craig Overton reportedly told Pakistani cricketer Ashar Zaidi (playing for Sussex at the time) was told to "get back to own country".
* 2015: Zimbabwe player Mark Vermeulen was banned for a racist post on social media.
*2019: Pakistani player Sarfaraz Ahmed was banned for four matches for racist comments to Andile Phehlukwayo.
*2019: A spectator in New Zealand allegedly directed racist remarks at English player Jofra Archer.
* January 2021: Australian spectators allegedly directed racist remarks at two Indian cricketers Jasprit Bumrah and Mohammed Siraj during the third test of India against Australia in Sydney.
* August 2021: English spectators allegedly shouted racist comments at the Indian cricket team and its supporters during the second day of a test match between England and India at Trent Bridge, Nottingham. The spectators allegedly referred to Indian cricketers Virat Kohli and Mohammed Shami as "wa**er Kohli" and "Sh**y Shami" respectively, in addition to shouting "Delta" at supporters of the Indian cricket team, in reference to the Delta variant of SARS‑CoV‑2, which originated in India.

Motorsport

Lewis Hamilton

Lewis Hamilton became Formula One's first black driver when he made his debut in the 2007 Formula One season in the McLaren team, scoring a podium on his maiden race at the season-opening Australian Grand Prix before taking his first pole and win at Canada, just only his sixth race entry. During the course of the season, he had developed a rivalry with team-mate and double world champion Fernando Alonso, resulting in him being the target of racist abuse for Spanish fans. However, both Hamilton and Alonso lost against Kimi Raikkonen in 2007. During pre-season testing in the 2008 Formula One season, several Spanish fans were seen dressed in black, with shirts bearing the words "Hamilton's family 'sic''.html"_;"title="sic.html"_;"title="'sic">'sic''">sic.html"_;"title="'sic">'sic''_and_made_racist_chants._This_prompted_the_'sic''.html"_;"title="sic.html"_;"title="'sic">'sic''">sic.html"_;"title="'sic">'sic''_and_made_racist_chants._This_prompted_the_Fédération_Internationale_de_l'Automobile">FIA_
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