Remembering Jackie Robinson: Racial Equality in Sports
BY BENJAMIN COMPALL
If Jackie Robinson were alive today, I wonder how he would feel about the current racial state of sports. Surely, as the first African American professional baseball player, he would feel great pride in seeing how far things have come.
As Americans, we love these “first-ever” narratives- and Robinson’s holds a particularly strong appeal. It is not hard to see why: his story involves the politics of oppression, unparalleled athletic prowess, and an individual overcoming nearly impossible odds. It is a uniquely American tale. These types of narratives also act as informal metrics for societal progress, showing us just how far race relations have advanced. Yet as inspiring as Robinson’s story is, we should recognize that the current demographics of sports are not entirely laudable. In fact, they indicate persistent societal inequalities, residue from the America Mr. Robinson called home.
Ostensibly, progress has been immense. Today, more than 75 percent of players in the NBA identify as black, as do more than two thirds of those in the NFL. While this certainly indicates progress of one sort, it also raises important questions. What accounts for this athletic ascendance? The answer seems to be that…it’s complicated. However, many Americans opt for a simpler answer, frequently concluding that African Americans are simply athletically superior. Widespread and long-lasting stereotypes of black males as exceptionally fast and strong undoubtedly inform these views. What does the science say? Again, it’s complicated. However many recent scientific findings have established that the genetic basis for race is tenuous, perhaps non-existent. Moreover, while many people intend to extol African American athletes with these stereotypes, their efforts actually amount to tacit bigotry. As Harry Edwards, Professor of Sociology at UC Berkeley, points out, “What really is being said in a kind of underhanded way is that blacks are closer to beasts and animals in terms of their genetic and physical and anatomical make up.” Racism, in many ways, still characterizes our perception of black athletes.
Historical parallels abound. During the first half of the 20th century, for example, Jewish people possessed apparent dominion over professional sports. According to a recent Huffington Post article, in the 1940s many Americans colloquially branded professional basketball as “JewBall” due to the prevalence of Jewish athletes. In fact, the first person to ever score a basket in an NBA game was Ossie Schectman, a Jewish New York Knickerbockers player (another “first-ever” story). Many of Schectman’s teammates were Jewish as well. Just like today, a large part of the American public relied on stereotypes to explain this phenomenon. In an NY Daily News article in 1930, reporter Paul Gallico wrote: “[basketball] places a premium on an alert, scheming mind, flashy trickiness, artful dodging, and general smart alecness.” Anti-Semitic rhetoric sought to explain a phenomenon that was largely environmental. During that time, many Jewish Americans, often recent immigrants, lived in inner cities. Basketball was a potential way out of poverty. More importantly, it was a way to keep kids off the streets. Many synagogues and Jewish organizations, on a local level, established a myriad of youth basketball leagues. This situation sounds eerily familiar.
It is no secret that modern America remains grossly segregated. According to PBS, approximately 70 percent of African Americans reside in inner cities. As was the case in the 1920s-40s for many Jewish people, sports provide today’s inner city youth with potential economic prosperity. With immense inequities in education, many kids see sports as either the most feasible “way out”, or the only way they will be able to afford this country’s exorbitantly expensive colleges. These inequities seep into many other facets of American life (evidenced by the presence of both race-based achievement gaps and wage gaps). This is, in turn, reflected in the demographics of pro sports. Despite the fact that the vast majority of NBA players are black, 98 percent of team owners are white males. In the entire NBA, there is only one black team owner: Michael Jordan (does that make him the Jackie Robinson of owners?). Is this not indicative of pervasive societal inequality? The same is true of the NFL, where 97 percent of team owners are white men, as are 90 percent of general managers and head coaches. With so many African American players, who are experts at their respective sports, wouldn’t one expect that a larger percentage would become coaches?
Which makes me wonder about Jackie Robinson. In his time, the ability for African Americans to play professional sports represented huge societal progress. Today, the fact that such a large percentage of African Americans are professional athletes represents just the opposite: it indicates that widespread inequities persist in our country. “First-evers” are important, but only when their presence leads to more opportunity and greater equality. They are important when the system changes in their wake, not when they are an exception to a rule. Michael Jordan owning the Bobcats is an exception to the rule. Today, society needs game-changers not on the field, but on the sidelines, in the manager’s box, and outside of the arena altogether. Then the demographics of sports might represent a more egalitarian nation.