Racism in
Sport
Football/Soccer apeared to have most racism at a professional level by far when I first started the project. Most of my research was done on Football/Soccer, and at the end of the project I can conclude that Football/Soccer does experience more racism than the other sports. It varies from racial names being called at players, to chants, songs, dances, and even throwing bananas. All of these episodes have happened during professional football games. Football/Soccer is struggling to deal with Racism and it seems that more and more people are getting involved. Football/Soccer fans are some of the most passionate fans ever, and often yell verbal abuse at opposition players without thinking about it. Some people argue that Football/Soccer struggles with Racism so much because fans are trying to put people off, but the sheer number of cases, and how brutal they are becoming, shows otherwise.
Ice Hockey
Ice hockey does not seem to experience as much racism as other sports. Despite it being a very physical sport, and many fights occuring through-out one game, there is not very many recorded cases of racial abuse happening. After my interview with Ryan Gardner it became clear that Ice Hockey, especially in Switzerland, appears to be doing fine for itself. He says he has never really been involved with any sort of racism, and has never really heard it from fans. There are some cases in the National Hockey League (NHL) of racial abuse towards some players, however it is much less than any of the other sports.
There has been one very recent Racism case has struck basketball; the incident with LA clippers owner Donald Sterling. There was evidence that Mr.Sterling made racist comments towards a number of African American players and people whilst talking to his wife. After this hit the news, he was forced to leave the LA clippers and was banned for life to never be allowed to be involved with the NBA ever again. Overall, Basketball experiences quite a bit of Racism. Fans and players throw verbal abuse at each other through out the game. Basketball is mainly an American sport, however is still played all over the world. Most of the cases of reported Racism, this may be because America suffers the most from Racism, or it may just be because that is where Basketball is most famous.
American Football
Richard Sherman, an American Football player who plays for the Seattle Seahawks, spoke about Racism in American Football during a local press conference. "Racism is still alive and active in the NFL and America in general." American Football is not played world wide, and many nations opt more towards Rugby instead. However despite this, American Football still suffers a lot from Racism. Fans can be the main cause of this. They yell abuse towards players, and speak offensively on social media and other internet sites. The players say much less Racist remarks towards each other, however it is still happening. Many other NFL players have already said that Racsim is a large issue in American Football and that they want a change, and they want it as soon as possible.
Basketball
Football/Soccer
I chose to look at Football/Soccer, American Football, Ice Hockey, and Basketball. I chose European Football because thats my favourite sport, and it was my first idea for my project. I was going to do "Racism in Football" however I wanted to compare sports against each other. I chose the other 3 sports because they were sports that I found interesting and that would be easy to research and compare to each other. I also had some friends and contacts that participate in each of these sports, so it allowed me an opportunity to speak to them and get first hand information.
What sports did I look at?
