The Role of Sport in the Black Community

Abstract

“Athletics is to the Black community what technology is to the Japanese and what oil is to the Arabs. We're allowing that commodity to be exploited… We really need to turn it around … if those schools cannot do for us what we need done, i.e., provide an education for the next generation, then we should be looking to steer clear of those institutions.” (Charles Farrell, Director, Rainbow Coalition for Fairness in Athletics) While many observers would not agree with Farrell's claim that schools are responsible for the low graduation rate of African American student athletes, most would agree that sport is a precious commodity to the black community. The message from most of the media identifies sport as a way for anyone who has talent and is willing to work hard to improve his or her station in life. Nearly every article written about African American athletes by sports magazines (e.g., Sports Illustrated, Sport, etc.) points to the athletes' rise from the ghetto, drug-infested neighborhoods, etc., as evidence of sport's ability to elevate one's status. And, of course, they also include the obligatory comparison of the athlete who made it to all of his or her friends who did not make it — those with or without athletic talent. Still, there are others who dismiss the idea that sport is a route to social mobility for African Americans (Edwards 1973; Curry and Jiobu 1984; Eitzen and Sage 1993; Coakley 1994; Leonard 1997), and it is not unusual to find that sport sociology books and occasional magazine or newspaper articles and vignettes detail the long odds one faces when trying to make a career of sport. Has sport ever been the escalator that the above essays tout? What has the meaning of sport been to the black community? This paper examines some crucial athletic events in American sport and their impact on the black community. It then comments on the media's role in creating / maintaining sport's status in the black community.