Racism in the sports field
Introduction
This essay addresses the theme on racism in the sports field. Racism is a problem that stops the development and progress of human beings worldwide, because they are denied equality, they live harassment and in its maximum expression it has resulted in homicide. It is a phenomenon that can destroy people and fragment the social fabric.
It has manifested in different spaces, one of them is the sports field, in this the diversity of current societies is reflected, it can be a place of coexistence, however, sometimes it seems like a battlefield, so measures have been takenTo eradicate it.
With the intention of understanding this topic, the text divided into the following sections: concept and brief history of racism;conceptualized and described the historical panorama of racism in the world and in Mexico. In a second moment I focus on developing how the measures that have been presented and put into practice (racism in sport) have been projected in sport (racism in sport). Finally I make a reflection on the subject.
Concept and brief history of racism
No one was born hating another person for the color of their skin, or their origin, or their religion. People have to learn to hate, and if they can learn to hate, they can also be taught to love, love comes more naturally to the human heart than their opposite.
Nelson Mandela
According to Grosfoguel, almost at the end of the 15th century there was talk of "blood purity" in the Iberian Peninsula, between the Muslim and Jewish population, by the Catholic monarchy. An ethnic cleaning was carried out that implied a genocide against these populations, because they considered that these nations had a religion and a wrong god, it was more a type of religious discrimination, it still did not have the connotation that is given today, butThere he has its origins, because at that time the struggle for the empire and social classification were put into play, so the change from a religious power to one based on racial differences happened. The concept of race was born with the appearance of America and Africa in the radar of the Catholic monarchy. When Columbus arrived in America, he thought it was the territory of India, seeing the inhabitants of this continent, he described them as good servers, but the characteristic that I highlight the most, which gave rise to the way they would be treated is as follows:
[..], "Peoples without sect" at the time resulted in the notion of "peoples without religion". In the Christian imaginary of the time to say "peoples without religion" it has nothing to do with the contemporary interpretation that would mean "atheist peoples" without any other connotation about their humanity. But at the end of the 15th century the notion of "peoples without religion" has another connotation. In the Christian imaginary of the time all humans have religion. It can be the wrong god or the gods, there may be wars and kill themselves in the fight against the wrong God, but the humanity of the other, as a rule and as a form of domination, is not questioned. This is radically modified with the conquest of the Americas from 1492 and the characterization of the indigenous people by Columbus as "peoples without religion". An anachronistic reading of this phrase would make us think that Columbus referred to "atheist peoples". But not having religion in the Christian imaginary of the time was equivalent to not having a soul, that is, being expelled from the "kingdom of the human" towards the "animal kingdom". «Refer to indigenous people as subjects without religion takes them apart from the category of the human. As religion is universal in humans, the lack of it does not denote the falsehood of the proposition, but on the contrary, the fact that there are subjects who are not entirely human in the world »
This was the first form of racism, not one that referred to color, but to religion. The concern of that time was whether the "Indians" had a soul or not (they were human or animals), that debate was the first to be racist in the history of the world. In the Christian thought of that moment, if they had no soul, I justified in the eyes of God to make them slaves and give them the treatment of animals. Until the end of the 15th century, the humanity of the population that inhabited the intervened territories was not questioned. Medieval religious discrimination became racial discrimination of our times. The Spanish Empire led to the issue of whether the "Indians" had a soul. Sepúlveda was in favor of the idea that they had no soul, which is why they were subjected. Bartolomé of the argument houses that did have a soul but that were barbarians, did not have to be enslaved but evangelized. Here is "the two racist speeches used by Western imperialists through the next 450 years of European colonial expansion in the world: biological racist discourse and culturalist racist discourse". In the nineteenth century, I went from being a racist discourse based on Christian theology to a biologicist. In the 16th-century Bartolemian of being Barbaros-Christianize villages to the nineteenth century 19th century. Of the result of the trial held at the Salamanca School in 1552, it was said that the "Indians" if they had a soul, but that they are uncomfortable that have to be evangelized. Despite this, they were conferred on the work of the Encomienda and its slave place was occupied by Africans (villages without a soul). Then start the slavery of Africans, with them the racist colored discourse was enthroned.
The aforementioned had repercussions on the Muslim and Jewish population in Spain, because now the discourse (anti-indigenous religious racism) imposed in America to that population was transferred. The person who headed to a wrong God had no soul, was therefore considered a non -human or a human. This is how religious racism and color racism arise.
A definition that can be given about racism and that I also think is according to our time is as follows:
[..], racism is a global hierarchy of superiority and inferiodad on the human line that has been politically produced and reproduced as a structure of domination for centuries by the "imperialist/westernocentric/Christiano -centric/capitalist/patriarchal/modern/colonial" system ". People who are above the human line are socially recognized in their humanity as human beings with subjection and access to human/citizen/labor rights. People below the human line are considered sub-human or non-human, that is, their humanity is questioned and, therefore, denied.
There are various ways in which racism manifests: color, culture, language, ethnic origin or religion. While color racism is the most known in the world, it is not the only one. It is necessary to recognize that diversity, because if we take a concept and a category it is not applicable for all cases. There is a risk of saying, as the requirements listed in a concept do not meet, there is no racism then.
Currently, it can be considered that in Latin America there is no political group that openly expresses the existence of a higher race. In our continent it has an implicit expression, which is revealed in sociocultural valuations, for example, in the media, in advertising, family, loving relationships, the way to be inserted into the labor market, where it is demanded to comply withStereotypes, as Paris mentions indigenous or black, they are unlikely likely to occupy political, educational, cultural positions.
In the case of Mexico, Moreno says that in our country there is little information about racism is a relatively young issue. In Mexico it has been thought that racism does not exist, but racial prejudice (an unfavorable attitude towards an ethnic group). In our nation, various forms of exclusion derived from racialization processes are evidenced.
Racism in sport
Sport is the Esperanto de las races
Jean Giraudoux
In the previous section we reviewed a general panorama around how the concept of racism in the history of humanity, its concept and the various ways in which it is expressed at different times and spaces has emerged. The place at hand at this time to explore is the sports field. The offices of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, highlight the problem of racism in sport, but also emphasized how it can play a vital role in battle against racial discrimination.
Sports and human rights share many fundamental values and objectives. The principles that support the Olympic Charter, such as non -discrimination and equality, are the basis of human rights: «The objective of Olympism is to always put the sport at the service of the harmonic development of man, in order to promote a peaceful societyand committed to the maintenance of human dignity »
In such a way that the sport that takes those principles as fundamental and incorporates them into the values it promotes, discipline, respect for otherness, clean play, be supportive, teamwork, can help the integration of marginalized populations,so that the message I sent to the world is that social conflicts can be resolved. Durban’s statement and action program, I demand the firm commitment from the world’s nations, to fight racism, racial discrimination, xenophobia and intolerance. In each country, in collaboration with its institutions to intern, the International Olympic Committee and International and Regional Sports Federations, to put special emphasis on the battle against racism in sports. Similarly in 2010 the UN Human Rights Council, I invite you to work on the same line. In addition to this, the International Charter of Physical Education and Sports of UNESCO, dictates that "every human being has a fundamental right to access physical education and sports". With this we can see the collective effort to elaborate strategies and start them to eliminate racial discrimination in sport, and in turn worldwide, that is hope.
As we can see the intentions are, but in practice they continue to reproduce, especially in South Africa (Apartheid). Unfortunately in sport the reality of society resembles. Ruíz mentioned that: since the fifties-seventies;Racial barriers of that time are transferred, but there is an awareness around the salary of color athletes. From the seventies, confrontations are given by the opposition to black militancy. In the eighties in appearance there is no discrimination during the game, outside of it, there was rivalry between blacks and whites. In 1945, baseball leaders, the capacity of the League of Negros and began to bring players to the Major League. At that time the great mobilizations that happened and demanded equality, were a waters in the abolition of racial discrimination.
In 1968 at the Olympic Games in Mexico, it was marked not only by what happened in Tlatelolco, the social movements carried out worldwide, but also because in the middle of these games, it was known as "Black Power"that refers to a photograph in which two people Tommie Smith and John Carlos, appear with their fist, with a black glove, while the hymn of the United States sounded, this gesture was a mode of protest against racial discrimination, it is byothers mention that such an act cost them the race. On the other hand, in the same event, an Australian Australian athlete, Peter Norman, showed a distinctive of a movement for civic rights (Olympip Project for Human Rights), which encouraged color athletes to boycott the Olympic games that were heldin Mexico.
In the 1980s United States of America, it approaches greater integration, the participation of black coaches and managers, in football, baseball, basketball teams, in addition to an increase in their salaries, is evident. They gained ground in that sense, but as we saw in the previous section, the forms of racism are expressed in different ways, in this decade racism charges a new form, fans show resistance to the participation of women, add to this problem of this problem ofNational superiority and xenophobia, for this reason the Asians were considered liabilities, blacks seen as usurpers.
In the nineties, in Europe’s football, it was observed that the multiethnic element was being incorporated. This event is an example that can be taken, to promote in the world that if cooperated among people (players of various nationalities), there are achievements, that makes humanity grow and brings us closer. That is an advance towards equal rights and the disappearance of racism.
In these times, there are still signs that it has not started from the root, so we must continue to implement actions against racial discrimination in all its expressions. Social relations, in perpetual change, offer spaces of indignation to unequal treatment and invite one:
[..] awareness when sports just invites joy, but to contempt for skin color, ethnic origin, gender or sexual preference. […] Walking towards a rights society in the sports field implies that institutions, organizations and companies, public and private, structurally change their vision, so that public policies in the matter guarantee the inclusion of all people in sports practiceamateur and professional;that all sports infrastructure is accessible to people with disabilities and that those who are involved in all sports spaces receive specialized and permanent training on the right of all people to equality and non -discrimination.
Sport has a great responsibility to fight discrimination and racism in the sports field, taking up the phrase that I have placed at the beginning of this section, sport can be a universal expression of races, of course, respecting the diversity of thehumanity.
conclusion
In Mexico, the National Council to prevent discrimination, is the institution in charge of promoting structural changes in sports fair, the objective is that all people can access the sport, without any distinction, they also share that hope institutions of international cutting,that have the same concern and occupation: eliminate the borders that separate humanity, to raise awareness that we are all part of the fabric of life, that no one is more, no less. There are no people who are born with prejudices, but as mentioned in the initial section on history, this concept was built, but it has no solid bases that determine that there are races higher than others. As Mandela said, just as he has learned to hate, love, love for my otherness can be learned in reverse. It was very enriching to have done an investigation on this subject, I am clear where racism comes from, the efforts that have been made to eliminate it, specifically in sport. We can all contribute from the scope that we are.
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