Sports are among the general activities, which garner an international following uniting people from different ages, races, tribes, and localities. Equally, critical stereotyping, prejudice, and bias plague the sports ultimately overwriting the probability of achieving social cohesion and national unity (Spaaij, Farquharson, & Marjoribanks, 2015). Mainly, games are highly challenged by the high levels of gender bias and racial prejudice as well as stereotyping of the disabled constituting a major psychosocial quandary. Currently, people from different races form one team evident in sports like football and volleyball. Athletics involve all types of individuals with an obvious Paralympic athletics conducted exclusively for the disabled. However, disassembling the social vulnerability facing the disabled with reduced resources, accessibility issues, and acceptability in the sports arena is troubling (Lox, Ginis, & Petruzzello, 2014).
The perception of the populace for the different sportspeople is mostly prejudiced with an incessant overbearing attitude in the treatment of the athletes. For example, black athletes have increased over the American population in professional sports with a biased portrayal in the media (Tyler Eastman, 2001; Lox, Ginis, & Petruzell, 2014). The media presents the blacks as naturally gifted while the white counterparts intensively practice and apply their intelligence to achieve professional success. Ultimately, the production procedures, sportsperson profiling, program arrangement, and studio broadcasting has a tinge of bias despite the reduced overt racism in the modern world (Mwaniki, 2017).
Misleading generalizations on the inadequate number of female couches in most sports tend to highlight most of the aggressive sports events as more masculine while allowing favoritism to the males in sports (Spaaij et al., 2015). Partiality and game media preconception present male participants more often while overlooking female sportspersons, teams, and games. The marginalization of either gender in sports is directly tied to the normative social prejudice in the social life mainly preeminent due to the media prejudice (Lox et al., 2014). Men are viewed as professionals, while female participants are primarily considered as engaging in sports for fun save a few talented females. Cooky, Messner, and Musto concluded in their research that televised women's sports coverage is notably low, and the general media implies that sports are for men (2015).
The disabled cannot compete favorably with the healthy contestants. Despite few receiving national recognition at states level, many disabled sportspersons are disregarded, and sports seem to be for a select group (Cooky, Messner, & Musto, 2015). The obese and overweight receive an equal share of discrimination and exclusion from participating in sports due to their un-athletic appearance. Lox, Martin, and Putruzzello note that sport activity reduces with age being more pronounced in women than men (2014). Marginalized minorities and low-income class social groups are generally inactive. Girls are naturally expected to perform more miserably than men in games like soccer, thereby attracting lesser following on feminine sports by both the global community and social media (Grappendorf & Burton, 2017).
The proposed method of operation can focus on heightening the awareness of cultural literacy in sports to avoid traditional bias propagated by the media. Gender bias promulgated by the media can be handled by addressing the understanding and perception of games from a neutral scope rather than a partial one. Stereotyping incites self-fulfilling predictions for the discriminated groups evoking response tactics (Mwaniki, 2017). The opinion that blacks are naturally talented in comparison to the whites invites discrimination in training and enrolment. White sportspersons can train to gain professional dexterity while blacks have to be skilled for them to be conscripted (Brown & Stone, 2016). Creating awareness of the existing stereotypes in sports would help in balancing the treatment to any individual irrespective of race, tribe, or ethnicity.
Increasing both black and women game announcers especially in significant games would reduce traditional stereotyping while increasing gender parity and racial sensitivity (Cunningham, 2019). Media coverage must address the issue by adopting a more neutral position with no favoritism to any group in the sports for equal chances. Games should not be domineered by one gender, race, or even age of athletes. Social sensitization, therefore, would increase respect for each group, increasing racial diversity acceptance as well as gender parity. Awarene
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