Heike Graf 140 about racist attitudes in sports and also about racism in sports journalism. As guests, they have invited two journalists who have addressed this issue on several occasions and contribute with deeper insights from journalistic and scholarly studies in this field, but also with personal experiences. To make it more hands-on for the audience, they show what racist attributions in sports journalism look like such as “white players are level-headed and intelligent” and “black play- ers are good runners but hotheaded”. According to the hosts, black players are often reduced to physical virtues, which has a colonial history. The hosts also dig deeper into the history of biological racism, which had the aim to justify so-called racial superiority, and make clear that the myth of “races” has caused much suffering and created social damage over the centuries. They also explain to the audience that this attitude is harmful to soccer itself when failing to take advantage of all the players’ competencies. They broaden the discussion by refer- ring to the absence of political criticism within sports journal- ism at all. The only political statements made are with respect to hooliganism and right-wing extremism, but everyday racism is rarely addressed. They conclude that knowledge about rac- ist attitudes and attributions are lacking among the sports officials and sports journalists. The participants agree that “rac- ism in soccer is deeply rooted”. Here, the participants refer to the homogenous groups of journalists as well as sport officials lacking cultural diversity. “Black bodies play for white ones but are not allowed to be involved in decisions” as one of the guests claims. By consciously or unconsciously excluding other ethnic groups from certain professional roles, different perspectives do not come to light. This is, as they see it, the reason for the lack of understanding of racist attributions as well as an unawareness of history. The lack of diversity among journalists is further debated in a later episode (9.2.21, diversity in media). At the end of the podcast, they offer ideas on how to fight racism. One important measure is to increase knowledge in society. There- fore, as a form of self-promotion, they offer courses in favor of becoming aware of racist thinking. This episode is also provided with a range of related links to other podcasts, books, and media articles about this issue.
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