Sports Social Inequality in the Global North
Justain Masasi - GEOG 106
Introduction
What are you researching?
My topic is about sports social inequality and how it affects our culture in the Global North. Also how different types of races and genders are affected by these inequalities. I will also be trying to find solutions to social inequality and how we can keep spread more awareness to stop these issues.
What are the major/relevant themes/issues mentioned in what you’ve found?
Some major themes I found out is that mainly black cultures that are in the sports world are mostly racially profiled. There is also a big gap in race which shows how many players been affected by social inequality. But most of the black culture has tried to be given a place to speak on their problems. Another theme I have found is that sports community is a great place for athletes to spread awareness of social inequalities.
Why are you choosing to focus on it in this course?
I am choosing to focus on this course because I really want to know what ways we can improve on making sports social platform more equal. And to find more ways we can spread awareness of these type of issues and how can we stop letting these issues just fly by and not have anything to do to try and stop it.
3 questions to guide my story map
- What problem are players facing outside of their sports?
- Is there a solution to shortening sports inequality, and how will it affect the whole world?
- How has the states of the Global North been affected by this new culture influenced by sports?
Annotated Sources
1) Eoin J.Trolan, 2013, The Impact of the Media on Gender Inequality within Sport, Elsevier Ltd. https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1877042813025512
What is the source about, or what is the author’s point?
This source is about how women are portrayed athletes and how they are compared to men athletes. It's also about how women don't get the fair share of what men get. The authors point was to show how there are many inequalities when comparing genders in sports especially the ratio of women to men.
How does this specific source contribute to your research? What did you learn from it?
This source specifically contributes to my research because it relates to the global north challenges and how sports inequality is still known.
2) Tina Nobis & Nihad El-Kayed , 2019, Social inequality and sport in Germany – a multidimensional and intersectional perspective, European Journal for Sport and Society, Published online: 8 Jan 2020, https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/16138171.2019.1577328
What is the source about, or what is the author’s point?
This source is about implementing sports in Germany and making sure all genders have fair play and share in schools. The authors point in making this was to show how working together can create equality in sports socially. Finally, that it could create a better understanding in how we view each other in plethora of aspects related to sports social inequalities.
How does this specific source contribute to your research? What did you learn from it?
This source specifically relates to my research because it shows how we can solve our problem to social inequality in sports. It also shows how we can come together and debunk all the rumors about us on social inequality in sports as stated before. Finally, I learned that not only in the U.S is there social inequality in sports.
3) Donnelly, Peter, 2013, Sport and Social Inequality: Recent Canadian Research on Sport Participation, EBSCO, https://web.a.ebscohost.com/abstract?direct=true&profile=ehost&scope=site&authtype=crawler&jrnl=19202121&AN=94592082&h=qhwxsA6%2bjBFS4Xq103nc9g1IDv%2f9W19BGK8WTmG4k3QItK8fZ2bFtYL9ZRt%2bSrpvYeLsLrpFGQ5thHU%2f%2fU1Fgw%3d%3d&crl=c&resultNs=AdminWebAuth&resultLocal=ErrCrlNotAuth&crlhashurl=login.aspx%3fdirect%3dtrue%26profile%3dehost%26scope%3dsite%26authtype%3dcrawler%26jrnl%3d19202121%26AN%3d94592082
What is the source about, or what is the author’s point?
This source is about how participating in sports can cause some sort of social inequality. It's also about ways we can unify and take down inequality in social activities in sports. The authors point taken from this source is that he wants to give people an idea of how we can deal and protect others from sports social inequality.
How does this specific source contribute to your research? What did you learn from it?
This source specifically relates to my research because it shows some reasoning with solving inequalities in sports social activities. What I learned from this was that people should consider being educated into solving inequalities in social sports activities. Finally, I learned that most people aren't as bad as they presume to be until you get to know them and it's culture.
4) Cameron Fields, 2021, The role of sports and athletes in social-justice movements will only continue to grow: Power of Sport Summit, https://www.cleveland.com/news/2021/04/the-role-of-sports-and-athletes-in-social-justice-movements-will-only-continue-to-grow-power-of-sport-summit.html
What is the source about, or what is the author’s point?
This source is about the struggle of being player of any sport and being black has a tough task at hand when related to social justice. It also talks about the past situations where players have been told to shut up and dribble and other times when players tried to stand up for themselves such as Kaepernick, and the NBA and WNBA for the death of George Floyd (Fields, 2021). The point the author was trying to tell us was that coming together as a community is one solution for making a community stronger. Also, that could lead to more people joining the movement into something bigger and better.
How does this specific source contribute to your research? What did you learn from it?
This contributes to my research because it shows how race and culture is much related to sports. There are many issues in the global north especially that has to do with racial inequalities and players have tried to use their platforms to spread awareness. I learned that there are many players who have brought awareness to the issue and have been breaking barriers to end social inequality.
5) Hesham Zafar, Ahmed Median, 2021, How the power of sport can bring us together and drive social justice, https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2021/01/uniting-the-world-through-sport-what-can-we-learn-from-sport-in-enabling-social-cohesion/
What is the source about, or what is the author’s point?
This source is about ways we can drive away social inequality and one way is through sports. Sports can be a way of spreading awareness to the social inequality issues and can teach others who don't know the issue and make a difference. The authors point they were trying to say was that sports could be a a way of communicating to the people who have no idea what is going on with social inequality and make us come together and make more bigger movements to something greater.
How does this specific source contribute to your research? What did you learn from it?
This specific source relates to my research because it shows how we are being culturally divided by the way we view social inequality. But, we could learn from those who are spreading awareness such as the NBA or any other big sports platform who keep trying to do justice for those who are being involved in social inequality. I learned that sports media is a great way to spread a message towards the any sort of problem and how we could try and help solve the problem.
6) Woojun Lee, George B Cunningham, 2019, Moving Toward Understanding Social Justice in Sport Organizations: A Study of Engagement in Social Justice Advocacy in Sport Organizations, https://www.researchgate.net/publication/331532106_Moving_Toward_Understanding_Social_Justice_in_Sport_Organizations_A_Study_of_Engagement_in_Social_Justice_Advocacy_in_Sport_Organizations
What is the source about, or what is the author’s point?
This source is about what kind of social inequality is happening in the world currently. It shows how sports in one of those who have many type of social inequalities and have been trying to express their concerns through players and team organizations of pass events. I believe the authors point they are trying to say is that sports is just one of many brands that relate to the problems of social inequality.
How does this specific source contribute to your research? What did you learn from it?
This specific source contributes to my research because it shows how many cultures are divided in sports due to social inequality. But, there are many things we can take from our past events and create changes for the better of our future. I learned from this article that we must learn to engage more in social justice movements and must learn more of how we could help in the movement.
7) Marcus Blackwell, 2020, The intersection of sports and social justice in 2020, https://www.revolt.tv/article/2020-07-02/74269/the-intersection-of-sports-and-social-justice-in-2020/
What is the source about, or what is the author’s point?
This source is about times when the sports world came together and were spreading awareness to a problem related to social inequality. It also showed how there could be racial setbacks to those who try to make a stand for social inequality in the sports world. And this is mainly towards the people of color, for example Kaepernick took a knee during the national anthem and was cut from the NFL because he was a person of color trying to spread awareness about the social inequalities. The author point they were trying to tell us was that even though we try to stand up for whats right there will be some major setbacks but that shouldn't stop us from doing what is right for our communities.
How does this specific source contribute to your research? What did you learn from it?
This specific source relates to my research because it shows how there are still racial inequalities in the global north rather than the global south. Also, it shows how our communities must band together to try stop this social inequality and stop letting these set backs mess with our inspiration for a better world. I learned after reading this article that there have been people from the 90's that have try to end social inequality and have started many movements for us currently.
Interpretation and Conclusion
Having completed your research, what have you learned?
I have learned that there are many solutions to solving my problem and that coming together as a whole unit is better than divided units. We also must not let small setbacks stop us meeting our goal of having a better world of peace and togetherness and bonding.
What does what you’ve learned have to do with themes, concepts or issues we’ve covered in class?
The things I have learned relate to class concepts by the culture of different races and how it complies with sports. Iv'e also learned more about the term of social inequality, and social justice.
What claims can you make about your topic and the Geographies of the Western World more generally?
I can claim that the Global North has more sport related inequalities than the Global South. The Global North also has a lot of variety of cultures that somewhat are remnant to sports and pop culture.
