Editing Sociology of sport (section)

==Race and sports==
===1936 Berlin Games===
There was controversy around the [[1936 Berlin Olympic Games]], as the rhetoric and laws of the host country ([[Nazi Germany]]) encompassed, and indeed were largely based on, overt and extreme racism. Many Germans were dismayed that nonwhite athletes were allowed to compete; the "Nazis were deeply offended by sporting contacts with 'primitive' races and by competing against Negro athletes, in particular."<ref name="oxford">{{cite book |last1=Edelman |first1=Robert |last2=Wilson |first2=Wayne |title=The Oxford handbook of sports history |date=2017 |publisher=Oxford University Press |location=New York, NY |isbn=9780199858910 |page=31}}</ref> 

[[Adolf Hitler]] agreed with the proposition people who had ancestors who "came from the jungle" were "primitive because their physiques were stronger than those of civilized whites."<ref name="oxford" /> and wanted to impose racial segregation on the games, but the Olympic Committee refused. The Nazi regime did, however, use any results they could to propagandize the superiority of what they called the Aryan race.

===Historical racist theories===
Sport has always been characterized by racial social relationships. The first scientific look at race came at the end of the 19th century, when count [[Arthur de Gobineau]] attempted to prove the physical and intellectual superiority of the white race. Darwin's theory of [[natural selection]] was used in service of racism as well. After the athletic ability of black sportspeople was proven, the theory shifted toward physical ability at the expense of intellect.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Miller |first1=Patrick B. |title=The Anatomy of Scientific Racism: Racialist Responses to Black Athletic Achievement |journal=Journal of Sport History |date=1998 |volume=25 |issue=1 |pages=119–151 |jstor=43606920 |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/43606920 |access-date=1 February 2021}}</ref>
[[File:Arthur_de_Gobineau.jpg|thumb|Arthur de Gobineau]]

Several racist theories were advanced. Black people were athletically able because animals ate all the slow ones.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Olson |first1=James |last2=Roberts |first2=Randy |title=Winning is the Only Thing: Sports in America since 1945 |url=https://archive.org/details/winningisonlythi0000robe_v0p9 |date=1989 |publisher=Johns Hopkins University Press |location=Baltimore, Maryland |pages=[https://archive.org/details/winningisonlythi0000robe_v0p9/page/45 45]|isbn=9780801838309 }}</ref> The myth of "[[middle passage]]" posited only the most athletically able of black people were able to survive the [[Atlantic slave trade|slave trade]] and [[plantation]] work.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Hoberman |first1=John Milton |title=Darwin's Athletes: How Sport Has Damaged Black America and Preserved the Myth of Race |date=1997 |publisher=Houghton Mifflin Harcourt |location=Boston, Massachusetts |isbn=9780395822920 |pages=194–195}}</ref> The matriarchal theory suggested that [[Father absence|absent fathers]] made black people channel their anger into sports, with coaches becoming father figures. The mandigo theory assumed that the most physically potent black men were bred with the most physically potent black women. The psychological theory claimed that black athletes did not have the intellectual capacity to assume leadership positions in sports. The "[[Jock (stereotype)|dumb jock theory]]" saw black people enrolling on sport [[scholarships]] as they were unable to find success in academia. Lastly, the genetic theory suggested that black sportspeople had more of certain [[muscle]] fibers.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Sailes |first1=Gary A. |editor1-last=Sailes |editor1-first=Gary A. |title=African Americans in Sports |date=1998 |publisher=Routledge |location=Abingdon |isbn=9780765804402 |pages=190–196 |chapter=The African American Athlete}}</ref>

===Current sociology===
Young [[African-Americans]] see sports as means of upward social mobility, which is denied to them through conventional employment.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Giulianotti |first1=Richard |title=Sport: A Critical Sociology, 2nd Edition |date=November 2015 |publisher=Polity Press |location=Cambridge |isbn=978-0-745-66993-9 |page=73 |edition=2nd}}</ref> Race often interplays with [[Social class|class]], [[gender]] and [[ethnicity]] to determine how accessible certain sports are, and how the athlete is perceived. For example, [[golf]] is inaccessible to African-Americans less because of race, and more because of the high economic and [[social capital]] needed.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Lapchick |first1=Richard B. |title=Five Minutes to Midnight: Race and Sport in the 1990s |url=https://archive.org/details/fiveminutestomid0000lapc |date=1991 |publisher=Madison Books |location=Seattle |page=[https://archive.org/details/fiveminutestomid0000lapc/page/290 290]}}</ref>

Race is often connected to gender, with women having less opportunities to access and succeed in sports. Once a woman does succeed, her race is downplayed and her [[Human sexuality|sexuality]] is accentuated.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Captain |first1=Gwendolyn |last2=Vertinsky |first2=Patricia |title=More Myth than History: American Culture and Representations of the Black Female's Athletic Ability |journal=Journal of Sport History |date=September 1998 |volume=25 |issue=3 |pages=552–553 |url=https://www.researchgate.net/publication/242419674 |access-date=1 February 2021}}</ref> In certain cultures, especially Muslim ones, women are denied access to sports all-together.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Zaman |first1=Hasima |editor1-last=Humberstone |editor1-first=Barbara |editor2-last=Clarke |editor2-first=Gill |title=Islam, Well-being and Physical Activity: Perceptions of Muslim Young Women |date=1997 |publisher=Palgrave Macmillan |location=London |isbn=978-0-333-64231-3 }}</ref>

In team sports, white players are often placed in central positions which demand [[intelligence]], decisiveness, [[leadership]], calmness and reliability. Black players are in turn place in positions that demand athletic ability, [[physical strength]], [[speed]] and explosiveness. For example, white players in the role of [[Midfielder#Central midfielder|central midfielders]] and black players as [[Midfielder#Winger|wingers]].<ref>{{cite book |last1=Maguire |first1=J. |editor1-last=Jarvie |editor1-first=Grant |title=Sport, Racism and Ethnicity |date=1991 |publisher=Routledge |location=Abingdon |isbn=1850009171 |edition=1st |chapter=Sport, racism and British society: a sociological study of England's elite male Afro/Caribbean soccer and rugby union players}}</ref>