Sociology

Synopsis
Discrimination is part and parcel of the Olympic movement, accredited not only to the color of ones skin, but also their respective nationality. The populace of various countries the world over is constituted by a multiplicity of races, and differences of opinion occur between such divergent groupings of people.

In the present context, people can be said to be of dissimilar tongue, whilst living in furcated regions of a country, thus, their corresponding access to sporting facilities may significantly differ (Broadus, 2001).

Also, the inceptions of the said racial conflict within a country often reek of political underpinnings, and over the years, such have subsequently resulted to prevalence of problems in the sporting arena, as exemplified by the case of colored or black sports athletes and or performers (BOCOG, 2005).

Against this backdrop, this essay will seek to point out reasons for the preponderance of such issues in the Olympic campaign, whilst attempting to present a set of recommendations to address the same.

A set of epitomes and or theories will be employed in the process of analyzing the upshot in hand, including, at a glance, cultural hegemony (Gramscis theory), which hints at the ruling and or dominance of a culturally-diverse society by one of its social classes, constructivism, which postulates that humans construct personal comprehension of the world around them by way of reflecting on experiences, and the sociologist theories (Donnelly, 1999) that actively seek to explore physical activity and sport from a socio-cultural perspective.

Discussion
An appreciable construct is that the study of hegemony, under the umbrella of Gramscis work, led off in the 1970s, whereby British and European Marxists rediscovered and interpreted the Italian commies (Antonio Gramsci) writings hegemony was proposed as a suitable replacement for older excogitations of class supremacy, wherein weak states relied on the coercion as a means of control maintenance. An appendix in this connection is that most states all over the world tend to rule through hegemony, in that the ruled in a particular nation are swayed to follow their rulers after being won over to discern a happenstance of their individual concerns with those of the decreeing elite (Broadus, 2001).

In this light, it can be said that hegemony clarifies the subtleties and complexnesses in both realms of subordination and domination, albeit more often than not, it has been used to lionize the ethnical liberty of the overtopped.

Also worth mentioning is that this school of thought actually links athleticism and the related doctrines of evenhandedness to a variety of societal norms, thus popularizing socio-economic interventionism. Furthermore, the Gramscian concept has been found to largely emphasize a give-and-take ideology whimseys of racial athleticism are explicated through interaction between ideologies and ways of thinking about humans and racial groupings as a whole, effectively giving rise to a common sense conception which goes on to explore the parallelism between the presentation of myth, science, fact and opinion (Papanikos, 2004).

In the same breath, it can be said that the claims of this theory to both moral authenticity and logical cogency are strengthened by the mobilization of accusative scientific method, coupled with subjective plural multi-culturalist values within racial strenuosity. The other side of the argumentative divide however argues that the presentment of a biological basis of race and wholeness of cultural divergence, especially within a blueprint of science principles and intuition, is sufficient recipe for serving racial athleticism as a herculean common-sense approximation that cannot be disassembled by counter-presentation of mutually-exclusive facts (BOCOG, 2005.

The sociological school of thought however, is quick to point out the vitality of sport as a component of the lives of many (people), where some engage in the same as a career of choice, while others consider such as investment ventures, where they commit their money and time. Other scholars have gone on record as stating that race is in fact a logical basis of sociological analytical thinking, since social entities acknowledge its existence and proceed to organize their lives in a myriad of exclusionary praxises, using it as the main frame of reference.

Additionally, there are a number of outcomes  both primary and secondary  that can be attached to the express participation of young people and children alike in the variety of co-curricular sport and physical education. Noteworthy is the fact that such endeavors make significant headway into the avenue of societal inclusion, not forgetting the gradual development of the social capital arena.
Studies are indicative of the fact that participation in these activities yield a sort of double-edged sword, whereby on the one hand, further research is necessitated by instances of disaffection, truancy, crime reduction and cognitive and academic development, while on the other, a positive relationship is discerned, attributed to participation in these activities, for instance, mental and physical health.
Along the same line, it ought to be recognized that qualitative, empirical research needs to be carried out in order to work towards transforming the benefits of participation in sporting activities, from the perspective of the society as a whole and the young generation in particular, from just a pipe dream into actual reality.

To boot, the theory of constructivism can also be referenced in the endeavor of assigning explanation to the prevalence of race and ethnicity in the current scenario (Olympic Games). This can be done by firstly acknowledging that people manufacture personal comprehension and related noesis of the world via the process of going through experiences and reflecting on the same upon chancing something new, the rational human being tends to reconcile the same with erstwhile ideas and experiences, altering beliefs or discarding such new information as beside the point (Hall, 2010).
Quite specifically, the constructivism is built upon a set of different guiding principles, amongst which are that learning is a continuous search for meaning, originating from the pertinent issues around which the learner(s) attempt to construct significance. In addition, the overlying models employed by learners to perceive the world, and the corresponding assumptions made to support the same, are all factored in whilst attempting to fathom the processes in play.

Constructivism also has a lot to do with not only understanding wholes, but also, the parts that make up the synergistic components of the system in this way, the overall learning process is based on basal concepts, rather than disjunct facts.

In addition, it ought to be acknowledged that after being exposed to the learning process, an individual is then expected to decipher meanings at a personal level, as opposed to memorizing appropriate answers or regurgitating those of others.

Recommendations
First off, the television coverage of the Olympic Games ought to provide racially-unbiased treatment of all participating athletes for instance, showing racially-mixed groups of athletes at the opening ceremonies, as was the case in the 1992 Barcelona Olympic Games, accompanied by voice-over deliberations into culture and race (Hall, 2010).

Producers should ensure that they select interviewees from a diverse cross-section of ethnic backgrounds, while supernumerary care ought to be taken to avoid the instances of prejudicial treatment of minority jocks, producing an equilibrated multi-cultural aura (Broadus, 2001).
Additionally, the implied issue of how to adequately address the treatment of race and ethnicity during such television broadcasts should be accorded utmost importance. Also, the predominant racial stereotyping of Black athletes should be kept in check.

Closely related to the plight of the Black athlete is that of the Asian depictions have a lot to do with unimaginative descriptions of the said Asians as stoical conservatives not prone to eliciting any form of feeling, and whose only concern is success. Another discriminated grouping is that of Hispanic descent such athletes, for example one Pablo Morales (Cuban), was the main feature in the Barcelona Olympic Games (Hall, 2010).

Studies reveal that Blacks, Asians and Hispanics are all underrepresented in terms of being given the berths in broadcast images, relative to their corresponding populations, for instance, in the United States. The light at the end of the proverbial tunnel however illuminates the observation that the 1994 Olympic Winter Games witnessed a turnaround in the topical issue, whereby two basal commentators were an Asian-American and an African-American.

Last but not least, a nationalistic bias should be combated, so as to curb the underlying notion of the predominant we versus them scenarios.  A case in point is the tendency of commentators in earlier editions of the Olympic Games to refer to athletes from Communist and or former Communist countries in a manner suggestive of their being machine-like, unemotional, and inhuman cheaters. In sharp demarcation, United States athletes were conversely featured as humane, lovesome and fair individuals (Hall, 2010).

Thus, in a nutshell, it can be said that unfeigned empowerment of ethnic and racial minorities in the domains of sports media should be made to draw upon individual production, journalistic  and management skills, signed off with their athletic abilities (Sabo, 1995).
As an add-on, it is worth appreciating that the notion of nationalism might be here to stay, underscored by the mere fact that competitors engage each other in the Olympic Games by virtue of their individual nationalities, as they represent their countries (BOCOG, 2005 in the various competitions.

Television programming should also be pegged on the principle of fair treatment, whereby the media appeals to a large cross-section of national, ethnic and racial groups. A point of note here is that in modern-day, multiculturalism is evolving to bearing both ethical and pragmatic value, as opposed to the earlier state of affairs (Broadus, 2001).