It is difficult to conceive of what modern sports would look like divorced from its relationship to race. Sports have always been politically, socially, and racially charged. In fact, when we think of these considerations in regard to the African American athlete, the social and cultural impact is easy to trace.
Consider the very public intersections of race and sports in the 1936 Olympics when Jesse Owens won gold in Hitler’s Germany and when, ironically, Owens lived under the weight of segregation in the U.S. Or the photograph of John Carlos and Tommie Smith at the 1968 Olympics when the two raised their fists in a black power salute and were summarily stripped of their medals and banned from Olympic competition for life. What do we learn from the race-laden experiences of Jack Johnson, Jackie Robinson or Muhammad Ali? What does the image of Michael Jordan and the young white boy who wants “to be like Mike” teach us, even while we are reminded that ‘white men can’t jump’?
When race and sex enter the cultural mix, the confluence of sexism and racism make it even more difficult. It is almost impossible to recover the names of the two African American women who competed alongside Owens in the 1936 Olympics. Today, the female athlete is less likely to be forgotten than to be impacted by America’s focus on “beauty.” Athletes from Althea Gibson to the Williams sisters have achieved greatness while being criticized about their hair styles and their “Amazonian” bodies.
When African American athletes face legal challenges, the double standard is even more telling. Race and gender combined to make Marion Jones one of only a few athletes to be sentenced to jail for steroid use, unlike her male and non-Black counterparts. Race also contributes, in part, to what is perceived to be the criminalization of African American athletes in contrast to our willingness to forgive Michael Phelps or Lance Armstrong.
Yet, where is the line between public expectations and the African American athlete’s private dreams and disappointments drawn?
This question is especially relevant when we consider the African American athlete in collegiate sports. Most college-level athletes involved in basketball and football, the two highest revenue sports, are African American. Yet, there is a staggering absence of African American head coaches in these two high-profile sports. This is important given the complex social, racial, and economic factors that impact these students. As athletes and scholars, they are most at risk for academic suspension, for being targeted socially, and for being forced into or away from majors so that they remain eligible to play. African American collegiate athletes risk becoming victims of the very economy that is fueled by their labor.
Professional sports, after all, is an industry where owners have a captive workforce until the workers earn their status as free agents. Given the fact that the professional sports culture to which the African American student athlete aspires is still framed in the language of slavery and capitalism, the uncomfortable alliance between race and sports is likely to linger.
