Society and Team Sports

I think I’m going to do my project on the greater unifying quality of team sports by interviewing both participators and observers. Looking at example such as the Ivorian football team in the last world cup, the 1995 South African rugby team, and Jackie Robinson’s assimilation into professional baseball amongst other historically relevant events, I’ve decided that the social landscape of team sports is often indicative of what is to come in a given society. I’d like to figure out why that is. Why is it that as a country we cheered for African American athletes before we accepted an entire race into our population?