Asian People in Sports
Right now, Asian people comprise 6.3% of the total current US population, black people 13.6%, and hispanic people around 19.1%. When comparing the percentage of Blacks, Hispanics, and Asians in the current US population to their prevalence in modern popular sports, there are some common trends. Hispanic and black people are overrepresented in some sports, but not others. However, Asians are vastly underrepresented in all of the major sports leagues in the US. Why is this?
Again, going with the nature vs nurture argument, is this trend because Asians are biologically weaker or less athletic than other races, or does this trend happen because the majority of Asians were raised to be less athletically oriented?
Primarily, it needs to be pointed out that Asians as a racial group are significantly ethnically diverse and different, that a few generalizations aren’t enough to cover the amount of different cultures and perspectives across the biggest racial group by far. That being said, there are a few trends we can see when it comes to biology and environment that most Asian people share.
Over a century ago, when sports in America were just starting out, restrictive immigration greatly prevented immigration of certain ethnic groups, and those that managed to surpass those barriers faced racism and discrimination. Xenophobic ideologies, like the “yellow peril” gave rise to Asian exclusion from various sports. Consequently,as the sporting industry boomed, it did so without many Asian Americans that came here. While Jackie Robinson broke the color barrier for the black community in 1947, Asians weren’t truly able to vote until 1965. For this reason, the community was never truly associated with certain sports as African Americans were associated with football, or hispanics with soccer.
Furthermore, individuals have made the argument that Asians are just biologically smaller or weaker than other races to justify their exclusion from modern sports. However, according to Stan Thangaraj, a New York professor who has written about Asian Americans in sports, that theory is “complete BS”. He states that all elite athletes are outliers in their own field.
The flood of Asian immigration combined with the exclusionary principles of America, lead to the emergence of stereotypes such as the “model minority”. Ideas such as Asians are good at math, and high achievers were formulated as a consequence. Additionally, many Asian immigrant parents hold the ideology that education is the best path towards a successful life. The immigrant Asian ideal is to get a job, work hard, save your money, and don’t take too many risks. Sports, as a career, is viewed as a risk due to the minimal chance an athlete has making a living off their game. The Asian immigrant ideology combined with racial stereotypes has led Asian students away from sports and towards a life of academia, resulting in less Asian representation in the major league sports.
This trend has continued to the modern day, where Asians make up 20% of physicians, and 21% of scientists and engineers, despite only accounting for 6.3% of the population. When present Asian students look for a career path, they see themselves reflected in almost all STEM related fields, but not in sports at all. While this disparity continues today, it’s important that diversity is reflected in all sports, and hopefully more inclusive opportunities can lead to more Asian inclusivity within sports.
Sources:
https://www.census.gov/quickfacts/fact/table/US/RHI725222
https://www.ncaa.org/sports/2018/12/13/ncaa-demographics-database.aspx
