Deck 6: Racialethic Minorities and Sport Main Themes

Question 1

Functionalist theorists emphasize the socially constructed nature of race and consider it to be based on inherently racist social assumptions.

Answer 1

False

Question 2

The occupational limitations faced by African Americans in American society explain why they are overrepresented in all American sports.

Answer 2

False

Question 3

The Harlem Globetrotters reinforce the "Sambo" stereotype of African Americans.

Answer 3

True

Question 4

Biological explanations of positional segregation of African Americans in football and baseball are strongly supported by a number of well-designed studies.

Question 5

The main theme of the section on social mobility through sport for African Americans in your textbook is that sports serve to move large numbers of blacks into higher social class standing.

Question 6

Proportionately, there are just as many African American athletes today in professional individual sports as there are in team sports.

Question 7

During the past twenty years, one of the best-documented forms of assignment of players to a position on athletic teams based on ascribed status rather than achieved status is popularly known as "stacking."

Question 8

The pattern toward desegregation of sport has been primarily motivated by financial profits.

Question 9

The situation in which minority group members are relegated to specific team positions and excluded from competing for others is called centrality.

Question 10

There have been significant positive changes in college and professional sports, and today equality of opportunity is the rule.

Question 11

Latinos were excluded from Major League Baseball until after Jackie Robinson broke the color line in 1947.

Question 12

Blacks, compared to Latinos and Asians, have the largest representation in Major League Baseball.

Question 13

Latinos participate in sports less proportionately than whites in high school.

Question 14

In the National Football League (NFL) the Rooney Rule adopted in 2002 mandated that any team with a head coach opening must employ at least one minority for the job.

Question 15

With the exception of professional basketball, the corporate and decision-making structure of
professional sports is still about as white as it was before Jackie Robinson entered Major League Baseball in 1947.

Question 16

Information on the racial desegregation of sport shows that African Americans

A) are overrepresented in all professional sports.
B) receive the majority of athletic scholarships given in colleges and universities.
C) constitute a numerical majority in professional football and Major League Baseball.
D) were systematically excluded from racially mixed sport participation until the 1940s.

Question 17

The desegregation of professional sports for African Americans has been primarily motivated by

A) federal legislation.
B) financial profits.
C) the concerns of liberal coaches and owners.
D) the need to appease black political leaders.

Question 18

According to your textbook, existing empirical studies lead to the conclusion that

A) African Americans actually possess physical traits superior to those of whites.
B) physical differences probably do account for differences in sport performances between blacks and whites.
C) African Americans' personalities allow them to adapt to sports better than whites.
D) we do not know whether African Americans actually possess physical traits that account for differences in sport performances between blacks and whites.

Question 19

One reason that African American athletes have been more successful in certain sports, such as football and basketball, is that

A) these sports require natural exceptional physical skills.
B) there is wide public access where these sports can be learned and played.
C) African Americans have a good chance of making it to the professional ranks in these sports.
D) these are the types of sports their ancestors brought with them from Africa.

Question 20

Leadership positions in intercollegiate and professional sports tend to be held by _.

A) proportionately/African American and whites
B) disproportionately/African Americans
C) disproportionately/whites
D) None of the above

Question 21

The situation in which minority group members are relegated to specific team positions and excluded from competing for others is called

A) centrality.
B) discrimination.
C) holding out.
D) stacking.

Question 22

The idea that "sport is a way out of the ghetto"

A) has encouraged African Americans to develop useful skills that are in relatively high demand in the job market.
B) died out in the early 1980s.
C) is a meaningless statement that distorts reality for African American youth.
D) is based on the fact that professional sports can employ a significant segment of the black population.

Question 23

In the view of your textbook authors, the research shows that the most significant factor explaining African American dominance in some sports is

A) genetics.
B) social structure.
C) culture.
D) Both B and C

Question 24

Daniel Snyder, owner of the Washington NFL team, has resisted efforts to change the team name, saying,

A) "I'll change it only when our fans vote to change it."
B) "I'll never change it."
C) "I'll change it when the other NFL owners demand it."
D) "I'll change it in 2020."

Question 25

Your textbook authors suggest three possible explanations for the overrepresentation of African American athletes in several popular sports. Explain what are they and describe the arguments that are used in support of two of them.

Question 26

What is "stacking" as a form of discrimination in sports? Summarize the evidence and give examples of where it has existed in sports.

Question 27

Respond to the following statement: "Although many positive changes have occurred, sport remains racist in many respects." If you think the statement is true, describe the ways that racism exists; if you think it is false, describe the evidence showing that it is false.

Question 28

About one-fourth of Major League Baseball players are Latino, with an overrepresentation of foreign-born Latinos. What is the dark side to the mining of baseball talent from the Caribbean and Central and South America?