Social Interaction and Perceived Racism on Collegiate Football Teams
Past studies have presented equivocal views on the social interaction and perceived racism between racial groups on multi-racial sport teams. The present study examines in-depth analysis of transcribed interviews of both Black and White team members. The method, common labeled DRI (description, reduction, interpretation), is an extension of Merleau-Ponty's works on the phenomenological understanding of human interaction in the social world. Specifically, "life experience" interviews are examined for an understanding of how aspects of lived reality are experienced by members of a shared culture. The analysis is termed semiotic in that the basis of study is communication exchange (the interview) between the culture members and the reflexive interviewer. The results indicated that very little social interaction between Blacks and Whites occur during and away from team-related activities. Also perceived racism was found to exist in the communication/interaction between Blacks and Whites on this multi-racial athletic team.
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