African American Athletes’ Experiences of Race in Sport

Abstract

This study is a qualitative exploration of male and female African American athletes' experiences of race and race discrimination with regard to specific incidents that occurred during their athletic careers. Eight African American athletes from different competitive levels and sports were interviewed to obtain a deeper understanding of their experiences of race and race discrimination and the role it played in their careers. The interviews revealed five themes that were identified as: 'being hurt', 'outrage and shock', 'team togetherness', 'being empowered', and 'differences'.

“You'll Face Discrimination Wherever You Go”: Student Athletes’ Intentions to Enter the Coaching Profession

“…On the contrary, athletes of color in this investigation expressed greater intentions to be a collegiate coach, even in the face of perceived barriers. Thus, the underrepresentation of coaches of color appears to be a function of human resource decisions (i.e., personnel selection; Cunningham & Sagas, 2005); historical precedents (Hill, 2004); donor and alumni expectations (Wong, 2002); or discrimination (Brown, 2002; Lawrence, 2004; Sagas & Cunningham, 2005).…”

Investigating a Coed Sport’s Ability to Encourage Inclusion and Equality

“…Considering the plethora of unique environments created by sport, ICT has specifically been used as a framework to investigate the participants. For example, researchers have used ICT to frame investigations of sport-for-development initiatives targeting ethnic groups within countries with conflict, such as the work of Football4Peace, an organization that used soccer with Israeli and Palestinian youth by placing them on the same teams in an effort to reduce existing stereotypes (Sugden, 2006), In Sri Lanka, the Asian German Sports Exchange Program brought Sinhalese, Tamil, and Muslim participants together under a theme of "Games for Peace" (Schulenkorf, 2010), Others have used ICT to investigate racial issues on the sporting field, including a phenomenological study involving interviews with four African-American athletes on their experiences and relationship with their teammates (Lawrence, 2004), A similar research endeavor used ICT to assess the impact on racial perceptions of first year college athletes (2002), Sexual minorities have also been a subject of recent inquiry within the sport industry in an effort to determine if contact had a positive impact on perceptions and minimized prejudice (Sartore & Cunningham, 2009;Cunningham & Melton, 2013), Results in each of these studies revealed positive impact occurring through contact within a sport setting.…”

The salience of sport in cross-race friendship selection

“…In addition, racial imbalances within sport settings may create status differences that reduce the likelihood of forming cross-race friendships among adolescents (Floyd & Shinew, 1999). While previous research has focused primarily on characteristics of sports that are thought to contribute to cross-race friendship formation, such as teamwork and identity (Lawrence, 2005), there has been less work examining the broader social structural features of sport activities. This limitation is noteworthy considering the racial and social characteristics of sport settings play an important role in providing the conditions necessary for cross-race friendship formation.…”