Race, as Michael Banton details in the article Theories of “Race”, was first academically described by the intellectuals in Europe. Observing the inequalities between European colonizers and the impecunious colonized, many “attributed inequality in development to different biological inheritance” (Banton 1).

Furthermore, race was used as a classification system, as discussed in another article by Mariel Mikalia and Arthur Lemonik. One can certainly claim today that race is not the sole cause of poverty or underdevelopment; the first analyzers of race, I believe, were mistaken. I believe the educated Europeans who initially explored race studies confused with an observation with an explanation and failed to delve deeper into certain topics.

To start, I believe these academics noted the disparities in the quality of life between themselves and those in their colonies. Unable to explain this phenomenon, they attributed the gap to race, since these trends of racial minorities in squalor were nearly ubiquitous throughout the age of imperialism. Then, these academics hence failed to examine further than this point until Darwinism introduced new ideas of fitness and survival, which were subsequently linked to caucasian superiority.

However, I agree with the writer in his claim that racism is a learned behavior, not an inherited one. It is a prejudiced habit that human beings are socialized into based on the instruction and environment the individual is immersed in. This article thus raises the contentious debate of nature vs. nurture. In regards to sports, this illumination leads to inquiries about the nature of fandom. I do not mean to suggest that developing an ardent preference for one team over another is prejudice.

I mean to ask if our passion for one team is developed through our own reasoning and choices or our athletic affinities products of the environment that we raised in? There are links between sociology and soccer.

An important point, I contend, that Mariel Mikalia and Arthur Lemonik raise in their writing “Race” is the fascinating notion that race is attempt to order and organize humanity. In fact, one of the pioneering efforts in the science of the eighteenth century was formulating “taxonomies of racial difference” (Mikalia and Lemonik 5).

Sports bring order into society as well, through their tendency to divide and unite people. The authors additionally comment on the “one-drop rule”, whereby the recognition of mixed racial heritage is invalid: an individual is either wholly one race or another (Mikalia and Lemonik 6). I find that view nonsensical. There is no justification to suggest that a diverse ancestry requires such insular outlooks on race.

In “Nation” and “Nationalism”, David Miller defines a nation who form a consensus of their unique qualities and wish to achieve or preserve autonomy. Many people purposefully choose to form solidarity around their nation through political means, such as organizing a government, or through cultural means, like common language or religion.

Some of these traits have overlaps into a soccer team’s, or any sport team’s, fan base. A fan base, like a nation, I argue, is a body that has mutual agreement upon the what they place worth on.

I found the author’s address on doubtful points about the “received content of national identities” very fascinating (Miller 16). One commonality between the writer’s discourse and my view that a fan-base is like a nation is a nation’s perceived impression of “homogeneity” (Miller 16).

Many people are unable to see or are unaware of the diversity within a group. For instance, the British club Manchester United has supporters not just in the English Midlands, but, increasingly, all over the world.

My father, American born, although a London denizen for over a decade, is a fiery United fan. The author continues to discuss nationalism. One note that I found interesting was nationalism as a two-edged sword: it can promote immense kindness through pride and the development of cultural feats while potentially inspiring hatred and hostility.

The globalization of soccer, as explored in Mapping the Global Football Field by Richard Giulianotti and Roland Robertson, entails many aspects of exporting the sport. One note is the “brawn drain” of athletes from all over the globe (Giulianotti and Robertson 225). Players from South America and Africa are contracted to play in European soccer clubs often. Samuel Eto’o, originally from Cameroon, plays for Chelsea.

This phenomenon is mentioned, in the article, in the context of neo-liberalism, whereby markets are de-regulated to allow for the freer flow of commodities. Pivotally, neo-liberalism, soccer, and “brawn drain” raise the question of what constitute a commodity in the international soccer business. Furthermore, it more importantly put forward the notion of soccer players as commodities.

One notable feature of football’s globalization and omnipotently expanding influence, as noted in Mapping the Global Football Field, is the power the sport has over social conflicts, discrimination, and often crime. Many groups use it as a tool to elevate themselves out of marginalized and disenfranchised positions in society.

For instance, many women in Latin American nations sedulously mastered the sport to gain notoriety and well-respected posts in the global athletic establishment. An outside example, Marta, the Brazilian female footballer, serves an example of football’s capacity for vertical, social mobility. Furthermore, the draconian presence of organized crime in soccer organizations, in both the rich and developing world, frequently leads to the corruption of officials and, regrettably, violence due to excessive gambling.

Seizing on soccer’s lucrative reaping, opportunistic drug lords or other racketeers find immense profits in the athletic industry. Notably, the Colombian mobster Pablo Escobar, now deceased, earned incredible money from controlling the Colombian soccer league, financing the sport, and supporting the international team during several FIFA World Cups. However, some dishonest practices were employed in the process and his involvement in Colombian soccer helped his drug empire proliferate throughout South America.

The globalization of soccer as means that there is growing diversity in the sport that has not been seen beforehand. Coaches, players, and owners are becoming more varied in their national origin than beforehand.

To show, the manager of Arsenal, Arsène Wegner, is a French national in the employment of a British club and in possession of an OBE, Officer of the British Empire, bestowed by the monarchy. This diversity shows how football no longer is confined to borders.

However, ensuring diversity in clubs and leagues is now, importantly, a priority of athletic associations. In other words, many clubs actively pursue policies and acts that encourage diversity.

Questions

1.  Are competitive athletes, humans, now goods that able to be traded with some of form of compensation?
2. Is our passion for one team is developed through our own reasoning and choices or our athletic affinities products of the environment that we raised in?

Additional Quotations

1. “The utility of research postulate that racism is manifested in changing forms is dependent upon the reliability of the method for identifying what lies behind the form” (Michael Banton 3)

2. “Thus, ‘race’ is a complex system of representation learned through socialization, and them acted upon as if these distinctions were ‘real.’ In short, ‘race’ appears to be a biological fact of absolute physical difference when it is actually a socially constructed and culturally reproduced set of ideas” (Ben Carrington 9).

3. “On the one hand it stands for a people’s right to protect and develop their inherited culture and to be politically independent in association with those they regard as their compatriots. On the hand it stands for forcible indoctrination in the national culture and the promotion of the national interest abroad at the expense of other peoples” (David Miller 17).

4. “International relations emerged from the expansion of colonialism, heightened international diplomacy, and global welfare, and have been marked more recently by the explosive growth in formal organizations that administer individual activities and social life” (Richard Giulianotti and Roland Robertson 226).

5. “In football, and other sports, these discourses are often conveyed in essentialist corporate messages and popular mythologies regarding the world-unifying powers of the ‘global game.'” (Richard Giulianotti and Roland Robertson 229).