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Social Synthesis Essay: The Role Of Social Class In Sports

677 Words3 Pages

Sports and Social Class Social stratification is a universal norm that has been used by distinct societies to define their values and belief systems. Seemingly, the impacts of social stratification are evident in aspects such as technology, sports, and employment rates among others. This has instigated societies to form principles that are the root cause of prejudice, inequality and segregation. With the world, emphasizing individuals’ physical difference and socioeconomic world, sports has become a subject of segregation. Instead of being a unifying factor, it has been identified as a symbol of racial divide with certain sports been linked to specific ethnic groups. The racial divide in sports has spread to high school and colleges; evidently, it begins earlier in elementary and middle school. Unfortunately, students have labeled some sports as white sports and other black sports and few would dare to cross this divide for fear of underperforming. Presumably, the white sports include swimming, golfing, and soccer while the black sports include American football, basketball, and track events. This notion explains the participation barriers and sports performance depicted in …show more content…

However, a close analysis was indicating that the actual divide was based on social class. Evidently, social class is the key determinant to the nature of sports that individuals from distinct ethnic groups undertake. According to the Marxist theory, society is a system of structures and relationships shaped by the economic status of individuals. In regards to sports, the theory argues that a sport promotes perpetual power of the elite groups in the society. In this respect, the elite group refers to the whites. The theory also implies that the society is arranged in layers. The layers produced by social stratification are labelled as upper class, middle class and working

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