Azgordon

2/9/17

A few years ago I had an interest in this subject which resulted in a research paper on european racism in football (soccer) and how it affects black, or any skin color darker than white, players psychologically and physically. Through my research, which much of is touched on in the Wikipedia article, I found that it is inarguable that black players receive negative effects in their play due to the largely outspoken racism supported by many players, club owners, as well as administrative officials of leagues. This, I found, to be one of the largest problems on this issue because the only acts against this are from player groups, or supportive fans. This creates an immense problem because the only real change is going to come from those at the top, managers and administrative officials, and if they support, or allow, this type of racist behavior, there is not a whole lot that can be done.

It would be useful to add European football to this wikipedia article because it is one of the biggest places for the biggest game on the planet and because there is little to no information on the article. The article only mentions european football when it mentions a few groups that actively work against the problem. It would be crucial to include the lack of serious effort on the part of administrative officials because this problem needs to be understood and in order to understand it the culture must be evaluated. There are small campaigns put on by FIFA, the world governing body of football, but other than these there are no real efforts that can be seen in public.

Additionally, it would be helpful for the article to contain video evidence of racism in sport. To see the actual events in the article would be very powerful because describing them in words does not get the entire message across. Also, people sometimes skim through wikipedia pages, so if there could be a video, or even a link, it would help people’s understanding further. This problem relates to black lives and deaths because sport is one of the few unifying elements of being human, and if some players are subject to taunting, harassing, and physical violence, that others aren’t, as a result of a culture, then a major problem exists. In order to tackle this problem people need to be aware of its realities, and the harm it causes. Adding to this wikipedia article would help aid this problem and also to claim it as a world problem, rather than a specific country’s problem.

Giving this issue a bigger world sense and view would help the article because claiming it as a continental, or nation, problem diminishes the point of the article. The article needs to highlight that this is a problem that affects black, and other darker skin toned groups, and them only. As other issues we have discussed in class, and some that we will be discussing in the future, black lives and deaths is a topic that is worldwide and sport is a worldwide game. This wikipedia article is important to those who wish to understand the violence taken against blacks and the article has areas of improvement that I would love to make.

Racism in sport Detroit race riot of 1943 Driving while black