Racism in high school athletics

Introduction

Race is a marker of difference among humans based on physical features such as skin color or hair color/texture. Historically, race was treated as a biological or “scientific” method of human classification, in which racial “groups” were defined by the presence or absence of particular inheritable traits. This argument was tied to failed theories such as social Darwinism—which applied Darwinian notions of competition among species to competition within the human population—and environmental determinism, which argued that particular social traits were inherent to people living in particular, places due to the environmental and climactic characteristics of each place. These theories were developed during the colonial era and were used by those in power to rationalize the exploitation or extermination of particular “racial” groups. The scientific basis for race has since been refuted, as multiple studies have shown that there is greater genetic diversity within racially defined groups than exists among those groups.

Simply put, there is no biological basis for race. Yet, despite its failings as a scientific concept, race today exists as an extremely important socially constructed conceptualization of differences among humans. That race is such an important concept is the result of racism. Racism is the ideology of difference, which takes as its foundation the idea that particular (usually negative) attributes regarding behavior, intelligence, or culture are inherent within particular racial groups. This ideology is then used to justify arguments for the superiority of one racial group relative to another, which leads to the production of inequality between racial groups.

The normative understanding of racism is often limited to acts of violence, malice, or economic exploitation that are motivated by racial prejudice. Examples of these types of racism are hate-based crimes, or decisions by employers not to hire workers on the basis of their race. This narrow definition of racism does not acknowledge the informal ways in which racist ideology has been incorporated into economic, legal, educational, and other societal structures. The following sections discuss the dominant theoretical engagements with race and racism in geography, as well as some of the methodological challenges inherent to research on race/racism issues.

Discussion & Analysis

Racism in High School

High schools are sites of competition among different values and norms, interests, cultures and worldviews of diverse groups in multicultural nation-states. As one of society's key institutions, the role of High schools in the reproduction and perpetuation of the dominant group culture has been well documented in the history of colonial projects in many different nations (Banks, pp. 13-15). Historically, High schools in the United States have 'Americanized' immigrant and ethnic minority students by assimilating them into dominant Anglo-Saxon Protestant middle-class values, norms, and behaviors (Graham, pp. 54-65).

In the United States, the United Kingdom, France and other Western societies, many racial, ethnic and language minority groups are marginalized, concentrated in lower-status occupations, experience limited social and economic mobility, are politically alienated, and do not participate fully in the civic community of their societies (Banks, , pp. 13-15). High schools are integral parts of the ...