Date of Completion
2024
Document Type
Honors College Thesis
Department
Sociology
Thesis Type
Honors College, College of Arts and Science Honors
First Advisor
Eleanor Miller
Keywords
Race, Racism, Football
Abstract
Ideas of biological differences between people of different racial groups have existed in the United States for centuries, either as popular belief or pseudo-scientific fact. These supposed biological differences have evolved over time as they incorporated new anecdotes and stereotypes. Today, the impact of these supposed biological differences can be found in sports through racial stacking. Stacking is a phenomenon whereby players of a certain racial group are more likely than players of other racial groups to play a certain position. This thesis investigates stacking in the National Football League, using both content analysis of football commentary and an experimental survey given to students at the University of Vermont who are members of men’s sports teams. This project aims to contribute to the growing body of work focused on race in the sociology of sport.
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 License.
Recommended Citation
Leaf, Evan, "Historical Racism and Professional Football" (2024). UVM Patrick Leahy Honors College Senior Theses. 649.
https://scholarworks.uvm.edu/hcoltheses/649