Ugly on the diamonds: An examination of white privilege in youth baseball

This paper adopts critical race theory as a framework to expose elements of racism embedded within the seemingly "color-blind" policies of little league baseball. It attempts to uncover the hidden subtext of race in a popular children's sport in America. Inspired by interviews conducted with the African-American founders of a grassroots baseball league for neighborhood children, the story focuses on the experiences the founders encountered with little league baseball that prompted them to create "a league of their own." Policies and practices related to player selection, travel/transportation to games, isolation of minority players, spectator behavior, and coaching/role modeling are shown to privilege white children while disadvantaging children of color.