Racism and Social Class Influences on Youth Sports Participation

This essay delves into the pervasive influence of racism and social class on youth participation in sports, highlighting the disparities and challenges faced by minority youth. It examines how racism manifests in various forms, including discrimination and marginalization, affecting access to opportunities and fair treatment. The essay further explores the impact of social class, revealing how financial resources and cultural patterns create barriers to participation for lower and middle-class youth. It utilizes Critical Race Theory (CRT) to analyze structural and symbolic factors that perpetuate racism in sports, providing a framework for understanding the experiences of minority athletes. The essay concludes by advocating for inclusive environments, emphasizing the need for coaches and organizations to address these issues and promote equitable participation and development for all youth athletes, regardless of their racial or socioeconomic backgrounds. It emphasizes the importance of understanding the psychological needs and motivations of minority youth to increase participation and promote social responsibility in sports.

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Running head: RACISM AND SOCIAL CLASSES AFFECTING YOUTHS IN SPORTS
RACISM AND SOCIAL CLASSES AFFECTING YOUTHS IN SPORTS
Name of the Student:
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RACISM AND SOCIAL CLASSES AFFECTING YOUTHS IN SPORTS
Introduction
The integration of organised sports is highlighted by several sports associations. The
abstain is that sport is international and does not demand strong language competencies and
typically follows rules which are not challenging to deal with (Eime et al., 2015). However
irrespective of the alleged integration benefits of sports, it is claimed that youths with
immigrant parents have a tendency to involve in sports organisations to a lesser degree as
compared to young people coming from the majority of the population (Andersen & Bakken,
2019). Racism, discrimination and the gap between minority and majority in sports
participation are observed in several Western countries.
Racism and ethnic discrimination is a complex phenomenon and tend to manifest
itself in varied ways such as racist molestation of cultural or religious minority sports persons
by other athletes, spectators or coaches either in dressing room, training camps or in other
areas of sports practices (Lawrence, 2016). The thesis statement of the essay is "distinctive
means and motivation must be incorporated in order to make minority youth participate in
sports."
Discussion
Racism Impact on Youth Sports Participation
Racism is studied as an important factor that has been affecting boys and girls
especially the ones coming from racially minority groups. According to studies, ethnic
minority groups showing vulnerability towards racism marginalization and discernment is
considered to be a critical issue in several Western countries (Marshall, 2016). In previous
times, the provision of after-school sports activities in deprived communities were chiefly in
the arena of not-for-profit organisations, education institutes and recreation agencies.
However, at present, professional sport league associations like the Major League Baseball
(MLB) started to organise sports programs only to engage the deprived youth in sports and

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concurrently involve them with prospects to involve in positive team spirited activities which
will refrain them from negativity and increase their academic attainment (Andersen &
Bakken, 2019). However, these contributions are not strong enough to safeguard them from
the plethora of sociological factors associated with individual needs of the youth and
psychological characteristics and most importantly social and communal contexts. Youths
belonging to racially minority backgrounds exhibits greater inclination and representation in
subsidized sports by schools as compared to the private programs. Furthermore, economic as
well as physical challenges of admission to sport openings, apparatus as well as training are
critically reinforcing the level of inequality. Moreover, the significant connection between
racism and class more precisely signifies the discrimination and prejudice knotted to this
unfairness in addition to the distinctive disadvantages communities of minority experience.
Nonetheless, for minority youth athletes even though they get access to sport involvement,
problems of discrepancy treatment are also relatable. Problems linked to categorizing as well
as “stacking” youth of belonging to ethnically minority groups are involved in high profile-
racialised sports (Eime et al., 2015).
Social class background affecting youths’ sports participation
On the other hand, sports participation shows greater inclination towards the upper
and middle classes and youths with highly educated and economically affluent parents. To
certain extent it has been noted that while sports is considered to be a highly social leveller, it
shows greater appropriateness to consider it as a competitor ground that provides a fertile
base for production and arousal of social inequality (Roberts, 2016). In this context, social
class has a tendency to affects the participation level in organised sports in two ways. Firstly,
financial resources related to sports participation tends to make it easily obtainable for upper
and middle class young athletes. Secondly, in class cultural patterns, sports possibly will be
more highly appreciated and acknowledged among specific class factions. However, both of

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the aforementioned factors possibly will contribute to understand the gap between minority
and majority population in sports participation. There are researches which have compared
working class migrants, middle class migrants that put greater emphasis on participation and
involvement of their children. On the other hand, study on the role of class and social
economic resources in understanding the disparities between participation rates of minority
and majority groups has being scarce with certain exemptions (Andersen & Bakken, 2019).
Involvement in sport programs is also affected by a deficiency of resources obtainable to
young athletes coming from racially minor or working-class families. With direct expenses of
programs such as registration charges, families are frequently required to recompense for
“hidden” secondary charges related to equipment, transportation as well as uniforms that
typically averts youngsters of racially disadvantaged or minor socioeconomic status from
participation (Mauro, 2017).
Structural and symbolic factors are seen to propagate racism in society, subsequently
improve the understanding of the presence of racism in youth’s sports participation.
According to Spaaij, Farquharson and Marjoribanks (2015), from a structural perspective it is
argued that prejudice in schools delayed ethnically ethnic minority groups’ achievement and
claimed that culturally ethnic marginal groups are devoid of similar resources as majority
sections such as the Whites. Likewise, Lawrence (2016) indicate ways in which structural
discrimination is the outcome of social regulation over sports institutions during the period of
Civil Rights. Such social control led the racially majority class of Whites and their behaviour
to be considered as standards to measure social as well as moral value, in which sports spaces
are not hospitable, reachable, reasonably priced, nontoxic or most importantly ethnically
pertinent for racially cultural minority youth participants.
Critical Race Theory (CRT) to Understand Youth Participations in Sports

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CRT examines the racial factors related to youth participation in relation to racism
and experiences encountered by youth athletes belonging to minority groups. CRT related to
analysing racial discrimination in structural as well as symbolic factors in minority youth
participation by serving a framework has explicitly described the lived experiences of the
participants in relation to the continual absence of racial and ethnic minority young athletes in
the field of sports. However Bopp et al. (2017) claimed that the critical race theory could
function successfully within society for analysing the racial prejudice and discrimination and
comprehend factors related to colour blindness sports related activities. At this juncture, it is
important to understand that the aspect of colour blindness was perceived in ways in which
performance centric measures are implemented which factors like economic resources for
involving and promoting youth participants in sports (Strandbu, Bakken & Sletten, 2019).
CRT view positions racism as fundamental to individual experience and entrenched in
social systems as well as power structures. CRT puts emphasis on the likely problematic
suppositions which highlight positive youth development through sports such as its peripheral
account of racism and historical context in addition to individual centred and functionalist
orientation (Carter-Francique, Dortch & Carter-Phiri, 2017). Through such a perspective it
can be argued that current conceptualizations of positive youth development through sports
tends to risk the strengthening notions of social functioning which further perpetuate
oppressive social systems such as institutional discrimination. Moreover, problematizing
positive youth development through sports with the use of CRT framework can highlight a
more socially accountable approach which can authorize all sports participants of any ethnic
groups or skin colour (Marshall, 2016). However, even though positive youth development
through sports and CRT framework, accepts a strength-based perspective towards youth
social working, highlighting racism more thoroughly pose challenges to the expectations
concerning the extent to which the broader institutional arrangements can explain individual

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capacities, life abilities and development. Thus, in order to safeguard that sports domain serve
as a productive ground to support all athletes irrespective of any racial background and
ethnicities, interrogation of positive youth development by using the framework of CRT is
important (Andersen & Bakken, 2019).
Meanwhile, for athletic backgrounds to authorize all youths of any racial backgrounds
which involve athletes who encounter deficiency of privilege, sports coaches require to
generate inclusive sport environments. In the view of Eime et al. (2015), culture conception
within sport players as well as programs needs to support cultural and racial diversity as
asset. Explicitly, the sport in individual as well as team contexts must acknowledge the
intersectional individualities of youth participants instead of accepting insincere
multiculturalism or repressive and unjust assimilation. Furthermore, sports organizations and
coaches need to assimilate with youths in order to develop team standards as well as team-
building practices that can support and endorse distinctive racial and cultural uniqueness and
experiences of each player (Roberts, 2016). Thus, co-creating team standards as well as
practices with performers can support trainers and youth sports associations to guarantee that
team culture does not hamper players of significant characteristics of their racial
backgrounds, but assess them as strong points (Mauro, 2017).
Conclusion
Hence, to upsurge participation in sport programs amongst youth participants, there is
a need to understand the comprehensive range of issues that disturb their participation.
Moreover, to achieve its goals, there is need to take into account the essential psychological
needs as well as motivations that inspires youths of racially minor groups to participate in
sport, along with facilitators that make such involvement conceivable. It will underwrite to
the exceptionally limited works on ethnic changes in needs as well as motivations for
involvement in recreational sport amongst minority youth. It has been found that CRT can

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enlighten an applied reimagining of youth sport training to put into view a more socially
liable, dire praxis. Most significantly, sports organizations and coaches can use supervisory
recommendations to not simply authorize youth athletes of racially minor classes but also
motivate all players to critically support their developmental procedure as well as social
advancement.

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