Transparency: Who Is Playing Sports?
- Posted by: GOOD , Kiss Me I'm Polish
- on April 7, 2009 at 12:06 pm
It’s baseball season again, but what you might not notice amid the crack of the bat and roar of the crowd is that—a half-century after Jackie Robinson’s historic entrance into the game—the number of black players is at the lowest level in almost 20 years. In our latest Transparency, we take a look at the racial breakdown of four major sports. (Sorry, hockey fans.)
A collaboration between GOOD and Kiss Me I’m Polish
DISCUSSION: 17 Comments
This is interesting and I can agree with this, as a sister to a black short stop, he was often and almost always the only kid of color in all of his years of baseball and :gasp: is the sole black player on his D1 collegiete team as well. brothas simply just don’t play baseball, it was not a sport you could simply just pick up with a ball and go. like basketball or football. It cost money, it took time, which sadly, several families in the hood didn’t have, so they took to football and basketball. well that and… baseball seems to hold on the a ‘good ol days’ concept that doesn’t fit well with urban culture. fyi ’sweet home alabama’ played at most of his high school games. but look at super star brothers BJ and Justin Upton they are making waves and bringing back some interest in baseball again for young men, not just blacks, but young men in general.
*to a black brother who plays short stop
Who cares? As long as people are being selected on ability what difference does it make?
“the number of black players is at the lowest level in almost 20 years”Is this some sort of joke? From the chart itself… blacks: 66% NFL, 22% MLS, 76% NBA, All but one (MLB) of those sports shows blacks as clearly OVER-represented. The actual story in this is that whites are UNDER-represented in all of those sports, despite being at least 65% of the population today.
Trying to read those charts gave me a headache.
It’s funny how they don’t count hispanic as black or white. Like if somehow because you speak Spanish all of a sudden that’s a race in and of itself.
“The actual story in this is that whites are UNDER-represented in all of
those sports, despite being at least 65% of the population today.”Actually Asians are clearly under-represented. What’s up with that?
Ice Hockey?
The MLS instead of the NHL?Fail.
since when was MLS a major sport??the NHL has been around far longer and has enjoyed far more success..Maybe an infographic of country of origin for NHL players would be a bigger shock. As of right now i’m willing to bet there is a massive majority of european players.. At least these other North American sporting pass times are dominated by North Americans
MLS over NHL?!? What a joke. Morons.
Interesting graph- African-Americans make up about 12% of the total U.S. population, and about 8% of all baseball players; it’s a much smaller discrepancy than you see for Latinos, Asians, or Euro-Americans in other sports.
when my now 13 year old son (who plays hockey and lacrosse) finished his first baseball game way back when he actually asked me if baseball was a sport. he said he could do that all day and never get tired. can you guess what race he is from that comment? and really, major league soccer? are you kidding?
Would have been more interesting to show in the context of how much money the average family pays to keep a kid playing one of these sports. Then throw golf and tennis up there.
To sister to a black shortstop:The issue of money has nothing to do with blacks choosing football over baseball. Football requires similar space and even more equiptment.
I believe that Major League Soccer is included rather than the NHL, because, many people know that close to 95%+ of the league is white. Although efforts are being made by the NHL (Hockey is for Everyone campaign), to diversify their players and those interested in hockey, it remains, for lack of a better word, a “white” sport. The graph would be pointless to show compared to the other sports. Good choice GOOD.
It’s odd to me that we are willing to accept that the ratio of population to ratio of AA players in in baseball and football because spots are given based on ability. Therefore the fact that 15% of the population has 76% of the positions in basketball is irrelevant. But if you try to apply that same theory to coaching, well then the ratios need to be applied. “How can we have 76% of the NBA with AA players, and 76% of the coaches are white”? Can’t have it both ways can you?