Discussions of race and sports in the United States, where the two subjects have always been intertwined in American history, have focused to a great extent on African Americans.Gems 2009, p. 238. Depending on the type of sport and performance level, African Americans are reported to be over- or under-represented. African Americans compose the highest percentage of the minority groups active at the professional level, but are among those who show the lowest participation overall. And though the list of African Americans in professional sports remains high, it only represents a small fraction of aspiring black athletes. The Journal of African American History's (JAAH) Special Issue on African American participation in sports in the 19th and 20th centuries demonstrates that African Americans have often used sports to challenge the social subjugation of their communities and stigma of the society.
Overview In 2013, while 2.8% of full-time degree-pursuing undergraduates were black men, the group comprised 57% of college football teams, and 64% of men's basketball players, according to Shaun R. Harper. While blacks predominate in football and basketball, whites predominate in many other regulated sports.
In the words of William Ellerbee, basketball coach at national powerhouse Simon Gratz High School in Philadelphia, "Suburban kids tend to play for the fun of it. Inner city kids look at basketball as a matter of life and death" (Price, 1997a). Thus, one might speculate that black inner city kids, whose stature in their community is defined by their physical prowess (Hoberman, 1997) start earlier in life, practice more hours, experience greater activity specific developmental changes, and possess greater self-efficacy in sports such as basketball, football and track than white youth. On the other hand, suburban white children view sport involvement more as an adjunct to other activities in which they engage than one of life's central themes. Because of economic advantages and social reinforcement, these kids are directed into many different sorts of sport related and non-related activities, rather than into just a few team sports. Despite such evidence, pseudo-scientific conceptions of race continue to play a role in the way many in the United States understand African-American contributions to sports.
For all races and sports, from 3.3% (basketball) to 11.3% (ice hockey) are successful in making the transition from high school varsity to an NCAA team. From .8% (men's ice hockey) to 9.4% (baseball) successfully transition from NCAA to professional teams. Therefore, the overall success rate of high school athletes progressing to professional athletes was from .03% (men and women's basketball) to .5% (baseball). The annual number of NCAA athletes drafted into professional sports annually varied from seven (men's ice hockey) to 678 (baseball).
Athletics have been increasingly subsidized by tuition. Only one in eight of the 202 Division I colleges actually netted more money than they spent on athletics between the years 2005 and 2010. At the few money making schools, football and sometimes basketball sales support the school's other athletic programs. The amount spent on an athlete in one of the six highest-profile football conferences, on average, is six times more than the amount spent to educate the non-athlete. Spending per student varied from $10,012 to $19,225; cost per athlete varied from $41,796 to $163,930.
By race
Various individuals, including scholars and sportswriters, have commented on the apparent over-representations and under-representations of different races in different sports. In 2019, African Americans accounted for 74.8% of players in the National Basketball Association (NBA) and 58.9% of players in the National Football League (NFL). However, in 2008, about 8.5% of Major League Baseball players were African American (who make up about 13% of the US population), and 29.1% were Hispanics of any race (compared with about 16% of the US population). In 2020, less than 5% of the National Hockey League (NHL) players are black or of mixed black heritage.
NCAA sports have mirrored the trends present in American professional sports. During the 2005–2006 season, black males comprised 46.9 percent of NCAA Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS) and 58.9 percent of NCAA Division I basketball. The NCAA statistics show a strong correlation between percentage of black athletes within a sport and the revenue generated by that sport.
Despite the frequency of such speculation, suggestions of biological differences in athletic ability between racial groups are considered unscientific.
"Black athletic superiority"
"Black athletic superiority" is the theory that black people possess certain traits that are acquired through genetic and/or environmental factors that allow them to excel over other races in athletic competition. Whites are more likely to hold these views; however, some blacks and other racial groups do as well.Sheldon 2007, p. 33.Wiggins 1997, p.197.
Various hypotheses regarding racial differences of black and white people and their possible effect on sports performance have been put forth since the later part of the nineteenth century by professionals in many various fields.Wiggins 1997, p. 177. In the United States, attention to the subject faded over the first two decades of the twentieth century as black athletes were eliminated from white organized sport and segregated to compete among themselves on their own amateur and professional teams.Wiggins 1997, p. 179. Interest in the subject was renewed after the 1932 Summer Olympics in Los Angeles and Jesse Owens's record-breaking performances at the 1935 Big Ten Track Championships. In 1971, African-American sociologist Harry Edwards wrote: "The myth of the black male's racially determined, inherent physical and athletic superiority over the white male, rivals the myth of black sexual superiority in antiquity."
"East Asian athletic views" In the United States, East Asians are stereotyped as being physically and athletically inferior to other races. This has led to much discrimination in the recruitment process of professional American sports, which contributes to Asian American athletes being highly underrepresented in the majority of professional sports teams (a fact that has been noted by many sources). Professional basketball player Jeremy Lin believed that one of the reasons why he was not drafted by an NBA team was his race. This belief has been reiterated by sports writer Sean Gregory of Time magazine and NBA commissioner David Stern. In 2012, despite making up 6% of nation's population Asian American athletes only represented 2% of the NFL, 1.9% of MLB and less than 1% of the NBA and NHL. Brandon Yip was the only player of Chinese descent playing professional hockey in the NHL in 2011. Basketball is a sport that noted for the fact that it has one of the lowest numbers of Asian athletes. This is despite the fact that the sport's color barrier was broken by Wataru Misaka in 1947, an Asian American athlete who was the first American racial minority to play in the NBA.
In American sports, there has been a higher representation of Asian American athletes who are of mixed racial heritage in comparison to those of full racial heritage such as former football player Roman Gabriel who was the first Asian-American to start as an NFL quarterback. Another fact to note is that a majority of Asian American athletes who are currently drafted/recruited to compete professionally tend to be in sports that require little to no contact.
Discrimination
The baseball color line, which included separate Negro league baseball, was one example of racial segregation in the United States.
In the United States, a study found that a form of racial discrimination exists in NBA basketball, as white players received higher salaries than do blacks related to actual performance. Funk says this may be due to viewer discrimination. Viewership increases when there is greater participation by white players, which means higher advertising incomes. This explains much of the salary gap.
Researchers have looked at other evidence for sports consumer discrimination. One method is comparing the price of sports memorabilia, such as baseball cards. Another is looking at fan voting for all-star teams. Still another is looking at willingness to attend sporting events. The evidence is mixed, with some studies finding bias against blacks and others not. A bias, if it exists, may be diminishing and possibly disappearing, according to a study on fan voting for baseball all-star teams.
National Basketball Association
Although Japanese-American Wataru Misaka broke the National Basketball Association's color barrier in the 1947–48 season when he played for the New York Knicks, 1950 is recognized as the year the NBA integrated. That year African-American players joined several teams; they included Chuck Cooper with the Boston Celtics, Nat "Sweetwater" Clifton with the New York Knicks, and Earl Lloyd with the Washington Bullets.
National Hockey League
On November 16, 1926, Native American Taffy Abel joined the New York Rangers, breaking the NHL color barrier and making history as the first ever Native American to play in the National Hockey League since its founding in 1917. On January 18, 1958, Willie O'Ree joined the Boston Bruins in a game against the Montreal Canadiens, making history as the first ever black person to play in the National Hockey League. Some 16 years later, Mike Marson became the second black player to join the league with his expansion to the Washington Capitals. Decades later, a 2020 analysis revealed that people of color still comprise less than 5% of players in the National Hockey League and that out of 377 head coaches hired over 102 years, only one has been black.
Though black people are evidently under-represented in the National Hockey League, this is not at all reflective of their involvement in the sport and its development. In 1895–22 years before the establishment of the National Hockey League—the Colored Hockey League took form in Nova Scotia, Canada. This was hockey's first ever organized league, and at its peak contained hundreds of players throughout more than a dozen teams. Political and racial tensions forced the league to disintegrate in 1905 as they were no longer allowed to use arenas at all, regardless of the time of year. In 1921, the league re-formed on a smaller scale with just three teams, but by the mid-1930s, the National Hockey League had become hugely popular while the Colored Hockey League had disappeared altogether.
Professional Golfers' Association Throughout the game's history, golf has not included many African-American players, and they were often denied the opportunity to golf. However, many found a way to play the game anyway. According to an article by the African-American Registry titled African-Americans and Golf, a Brief History, "the Professional Golf Association of America (PGA) fought hard [...] and successfully maintained its all-white status. Black golfers (then) created their own organization of touring professionals." In 1961, the "Caucasians only" clause was struck from the Professional Golfers' Association of America constitution.
Tiger Woods has had a major impact on the game of golf, especially among minorities. The article, African-Americans and Golf, a Brief History, states "With the ascent of Tiger Woods and his golf game comes an increased interest and participation from young minorities in the game. He himself envisions this impacting in the next ten years as they come of age and develop physically as well." Woods hopes minority participation will continue to increase in the future.