Racist discrimination in sport
How are ideologies, beliefs and visions penalty?
Basically this is the problem of racism in sport. The history of sports discrimination began along with the professionalization of disciplines. Things have changed and yet there are reminiscences of the problem.
We are far from the times when Jackie Robinson signed a contract accepting racist insults and contemptions. However, we can still see racial hate samples today. In current sport, demonstrations are usually public, televised and notorious.
How is racist insult used in current sport?
At present, racism is usually used as a deconcentration method. There are documented cases of players who become offensive to disrupt some rivals. Football is perhaps the sport where these antisocial behaviors can be seen most.
This problem does not occur only in the male leagues in the world. For example, in February 2019 the Barcelona F coach.C. Female denounced a racist insult towards one of his players. The victim that time was Andressa Alves, who was expelled after reacting angrily to the attack.
Racist attacks are not exclusive to football. In the largest League Baseball and in the basketball Euroleague there have been recent cases. Another problem of sports racism expressions is that they can have multiple directions.
Anyone can be a victim of racism in sport
Current professional sports involve exhibition and direct contact between players and public. Often racist songs and expressions often affect athletes. However, this is not always the case.
On April 6, 2019, a delegate from the RCD Espanyol team had a racist expression against an amateur. It is not only an unbalanced unbalanced resource used between competitors. There have been cases of entire stands saying racist insults against an athlete.
The curse lived by Jackie Robinson has been lived by current players such as Mario Balotelli, Samuel Eto, among others. Trainers, referees and other people who make life within a discipline have also been affected.
It is difficult to regulate but there are advances
The difficulty of racism in sport is that it is not easy to penalize. Even when it constitutes something negative, preventing it is to attempt against freedom of expression. Added to this, there are countries where being racist is not even considered as bad. The key example is Russia and this has been observed in Olympics and the World Cup.
Regarding this last sport, UEFA is promoting some rigor in the application of sanctions. Article 14 of its discipline regulations base the punishment when the dignity of an athlete is violated by their race. At present, a referee can stop a match if he notices racist insults even by fans.
In this case, those who end up paying the consequences of discriminatory acts are clubs. Recently three European teams were sanctioned with the partial closure of their stadiums. The payment of a fine is also stipulated. The clubs: Lazio, Dinamo de Zagreb vs Shakhtar Donetsk vs Dinamo de Zagreb.
Of course this is much simpler in football due to the internationalization of sport. In other cases such as baseball and basketball, everything will depend on the idiosyncrasy of different countries.
Education is the key
It seems that just as it happens in states, sports institutions have opted for educational campaigns. After all, racial discrimination is an idea and fights from thought. You can’t censor what people say, but reaching new more tolerant generations.
Sports media also influence condemning racist acts. The reeducation of people takes time, but it could be the most effective path. FIFA’s ‘Say Say No To Racism’ is an excellent example of what anti -racist propaganda should be.
In short, the problem of racism in sport goes beyond sports practice. The challenges are cultural, educational, psychological and social. Nelson Mandela managed to defeat racial segregation in South Africa through rugby. Today sports authorities have at least one agenda to encourage tolerance.
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