Ariana Isakson

Stereotype essay

College Prep Writing

22 January 2018

African American Stereotype

As time has progressed in the last few decades so has the world of sports. Sports in

today’s society are highly dominated by African Americans, especially in the world of

football and basketball. As sports have become more publicized in more recent years it has

come to the public’s attention that these sports are more dominated by African Americans

and this general observation has paved way for the stereotype “all black people are

amazing at sports”.

Sports have always been a big part of America’s culture throughout history and

brought many people together. Many sports are dominated by African Americans such as

football and basketball. According to the Unofficial 2013 NBA player census African

American players make up to 72.2% of the league (Cooper). The first African American to

play in the NFL was Earl Lloyd, and he began playing on October 31, 1950. He had broken

the color barrier of the sport and ever since then African Americans had started engulfing

the league. Just like basketball, football is also dominated by African Americans. More than

70% of the NFL’s players are African American. Even college football is comprised of more

African American athletes than white athletes. On average African Americans, hold 57-70%

of the positions in college football (Goodman).

While African Americans dominate football and basketball, white people more

commonly dominate sports such as golf and hockey. A lot of this is because sports such as
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hockey and golf tend to have equipment that is overly expensive, and basketball and

football are more commonly less expensive because the most a player would need is shoes

and a ball. Basketball and football has also been viewed as a large part of African American

people’s heritage; therefore, making it easier for them to excel at it since they would have

been playing the sport since they were quite young (Why Black People are Good at Sports).

Colleges also recognize the fact that African American athletes generally dominate

sports. Most scholarships for football and basketball are given to people from African

American decent. The University of Central Florida receives grades for racial and gender

hiring practices and they received a B in both of those categories. In 2012, they received 81

points for their racial hiring practices, which is down from 2011’s 82.2 points. The coaching

staff is also gaining more and more African American coaches. As of the 2012 report card

18.6% of all coaches for Division I, basketball were African American. As for the student

athletes, African Americans still dominated the boards. African Americans accounted for

more than 51.6% of the Division I football student athletes while 43.3% were white and the

rest were Latino and Asian. African American. African Americans also hugely dominate

basketball with them accounting for 57.2% of student athletes while white people

accounted for 29.4% of student athletes. Female student athletes are also dominating the

sports scene with 47.9% for women’s basketball while white women at only 38.8%

(Lapchick).

Sports have always been very popular in the United States and in recent years, it has

come to the public’s attention that a few sports are widely dominated by African

Americans. Basketball and football are sports that are very popular in African American

culture, and has a very low cost for people to participate in. The discussion of race in
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sports has become a very taboo subject, but it is something that is very hard to overlook

especially when people look at the collegiate league and the professional league.
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Works Cited

“Why Black People Are Good at Sports.” POPULAR SOCIAL SCIENCE, 21 Jan. 2013,

www.popularsocialscience.com/2013/01/21/why-blacks-are-good-at-sports/.

Lapchick, Richard. “The 2012 Racial and Gender Report Card: College Sport .” Tides, Making

Waves of Change, 2012,

www.ncaa.org/sites/default/files/Final%2B2012%2BCollege%2BRGRC.pdf.

Entine, John. “BREAKING THE TABOO ON RACE AND SPORTS.” The New York Times, The

New York Times, 2000, www.nytimes.com/books/first/e/entine-taboo.html.

Gane-McCalla, Casey. “Athletic Blacks vs Smart Whites: Why Sports Stereotypes Are

Wrong.” The Huffington Post, TheHuffingtonPost.com, 19 Apr. 2009,

www.huffingtonpost.com/casey-ganemccalla/athletic-blacks-vs-

smart_b_187386.html.

Goodman, H. A. “Colin Kaepernick Should Be Praised, Not Condemned.” The Huffington

Post, TheHuffingtonPost.com, 23 Oct. 2017, www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/70-of-

nfl-players-are-black-men-colin-kaepernick_us_57c7b12be4b07addc4114047.
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