Sports, certainly, have had a huge impact on our culture. Some of us even use sports as an excuse to get our family together to spend quality time together, whether they're just getting together for fun or engaging in meaningful conversation full of fervent passion discussing plays spectacular, athletes and coaches. However, as people talk about the multitude of positive traits that sport is associated with, one must be informed of the abundance of problems that sport faces; the issues that prevent sport from being what we want it to be – free of malicious intent and more along the lines of peaceful collaboration perpetuated by genuine equality; come together to proclaim our love for the game. Inequality, for example, is an issue that hinders this peaceful collaboration. In this essay, I intend to explore two types of inequalities associated with sports: race and gender. Take a look at an excerpt from Maya Angelou's autobiography titled "I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings." The mood was one of apprehension, everyone in a local general store sat anxiously following a boxing match. Angelou writes with such clarity to make us understand how important it was that Joe Louis won: “My race groaned. It was our people who were falling. It was another lynching, yet another black man hung from a tree. Another woman ambushed and raped. A black boy whipped and mutilated. It was about dogs tracking a man running through slimy swamps. She was a white woman who slapped her servant because she forgot” (486). Here we come to the most powerful part of his story; making these comparisons to why sports, at that particular moment, mattered so much to black culture. Therefore, if Joe Louis lost, it would mean ...... middle of paper ...... ultimately encompass - A peaceful collaboration where everyone can come out and share their love for what they do. Angelou and Maratta share a connection to the inequalities that have existed in sports and still prevail today. We have come a long way in providing opportunities to the individual; free from discrimination, but to achieve this peaceful collaboration between men and women, black or white, we still have a long way to go. Work cited Angelou, Maya. “World Champion”. They say/I say. Ed. Gerald Graff, Cathy Birkenstein, Russell Durst. New York: Norton, 2012. 484-488. Print.Maratta, Sam. “Move over boys, make room in the crease. » They say/I say. Ed. Gerald Graff, Cathy Birkenstein, Russell Durst. New York: Norton, 2012. 537-543. Print.Rodriguez, Ana. “Female athletes still face inequalities.” The daily sundial. Web.