Once upon a time it was rare to see an African American playing a sport. Dating back to segregation, the process of integration was a long and hard one. Slowly, African Americans were thought to be seen as much more than 3/5ths of a person and more like an American. Even though they were allowed to drink from the same water fountains, attend the same schools and dine in the same restaurants some institutions were much slower to change. One in particular the institution of sports, both recreationally and professionally. African Americans like Jackie Robinson were given opportunities to play on professional teams where they were not only the only black but in most cases the only minority. Race and sports in today’s time are quite different. It is not rare to see a number of minorities on sports teams and also being the stars of those teams.
In class, we had a thorough discussion about the book Friday Night Lights. One of the most interesting situations that occurred in the book involved the African American player Boobie. Boobie, a very good African American football player on the high school’s team and unexpectedly was injured and was more than likely not going to continue to play. Boobie’s contribution to the football team allowed the citizens of Odessa County to look at him as a “black” person and not label him a “nigger”. It is safe to say all other African American students who attended the school were labeled as “niggers” just because of the color of their skin. But since Boobie assisted the team in football wins (which was the main focus of the citizens) he was considered an equal and treated with much more respect. The town wanted to win and they felt they needed Boobie to do just that. African American student-athletes were not focused on and no one cared about their plans after high school, it was as if they were invisible whenever they were off the field.
In today’s time it is the total opposite. First, African Americans are the face of the National Basketball Association (NBA). They are no longer worried about how people label them, they are paid equally if not more than white players and they keep their respect once they leave the court. Second, African American NBA players like Michael Jordan, Carmello Anthony, Dwayne Wade, Kobe Bryant, Derrick Rose, LeBron James, Shaquille O’Neal (just to name a few) make a huge societal impact off the court as well as on the court. They all have or had endorsements for their own shoe or clothing line. They are the faces of products like Gatorade and Powerade. Finally, most of them have created non-profit organizations to benefit in-need communities. For example, Carmello Anthony travels to Puerto Rico every year and re-constructs damaged public basketball courts and makes them brand new for the people in that community. Whites are no longer the star of the show. There are plenty good white NBA players like Pau Gasol, Jason Kidd and Steve Nash (to name a few) but we don’t see their faces on commercials, we don’t hear about their clothing lines and no one is standing in line to buy a pair of their shoes. The fear African Americans had in the past about not being accepted by society is long gone now.
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