Nowadays, when we look at our National Football League or our National Basketball Association, it is noticeable that the majority of these athletes are athletes of color. Diversity in athletics evidently outnumbers diversity in education, research, business, and even medicine. For example, just today, ex Penn State player Saquon Barkley was announced as the 2018 NFL Rookie of the Year. Furthermore, according to an article, the Pepsi NFL Rookie of the Year has been awarded to a black player for the past 10 years. However, according to another article, no black scientist has ever won a Nobel Prize. Is this because of the intense diversity in athletics but not in the sciences? Possibly.
According to Burnard (2018), “Most people fail to realize that the majority of the athletes that they root for at the top of their lungs, would not have even been able to step foot on the field. Why? A vast number of the student-athletes at Penn State and other NCAA Division I universities across the country are of African-American descent, and the acceptance of these black student-athletes only initiated a few decades ago. Stemming from their roots in slavery, African-Americans were highly discriminated against, but now, their overwhelming representation in Division I athletics around the nation proves their newfound acceptance. This idea has promoted the shift from a time in which African-Americans were abused and exploited, to a time where they seem to be worshipped amongst society in their athletic pursuits.”
However, based on previous research by Burnard (2018), according to research by “Upthegrove (1999), “a majority of the black athletes are only used for their athletic abilities and very few graduate from college”. Burnard (2018) further claims that “regardless, a shift is evident in this prior skepticism in black integration and allowing African-Americans to participate in college athletics.” She also found that based on “African Americans in College Sports (2000)” “although African-Americans only account for 13% of the United States population, they account for 50.2% of Division I football athletes, 58.2% of Division I basketball athletes, and over 25% of Division I track athletes” (Burnard, 2018).
Additionally, Burnard (2018) asserts that “the apparent reason for the wide influx of African-Americans in athletics is because according to research published by “Sailes (1996)” it is “one of the few allowable and available opportunities for success in a perceived racist and oppressive society” (Burnard, 2018). Burnard writes, “this is ultimately a response to centuries of oppression; lack of opportunities and the continuous burden of discrimination has resulted in the lack of African-American success in higher education and higher achieving careers.” “According to “Byrd (2018)”, only 4% of all practicing physicians are African-American, and according to “White (2017)” less than 2% of Fortune 500 company CEO’s are African-American” (Burnard, 2018). Burnard (2018) continues “This lack of representation of blacks in more lucrative occupations is in large part due to the lack of opportunity given to them, stemming from the 1600s when slavery was initiated. Though segregation was outlawed, the separation and discrimination of blacks still occurs to this very day. Blacks make up a larger percentage of members in a lower socioeconomic status and a lower percentage of college-educated people.” Burnard (2018) also found that the study by “Sailes (1996) wrote that “approximately one-third of African-Americans live at or below the poverty level”. Based on the article and research by “Sailes (1996)” Burnard (2018) writes, “these claims help to facilitate the idea that the reason why there is such an overrepresentation of African-Americans in collegiate athletics is that sports are viewed as one of the only ways for them to escape the burdensome economic statuses that they stem from.”
Burnard (2018) concludes that “though on the surface there seems to be some progression since the building of the United States on the backs of African-Americans, the bigger picture seems to question this ideology. After a long fight through slavery and vicious discrimination, African-Americans were able to claim equal rights with their white counterparts. However, although there has been a shift in the integration of blacks in college athletics, it is evident that the exploitation of this ethnic group has simply shifted from on the plantation field to on the football field. Put simply, African-Americans are expected to hustle on the field, and only on the field; but their education and opinions are viewed as unnecessary amongst the rest of society. Colin Kaepernick, a prior quarterback in the NFL for the San Francisco 49ers, was fired earlier this year after kneeling during the National Anthem at one of their games. He did such in protest of police brutality and in the promotion of the Black Lives Matter movement. Frankly, Colin Kaepernick was fired because he is a black man who decided to do more than just throw the ball; he had an opinion and dared to share it with the world. However, Kaepernick is only one of many black athletes who has been reprimanded for doing more than exerting their physical abilities. In February, a Fox News anchor told Lebron James to “shut up and dribble” on live television after he discussed politics in one of his interviews. This is just one more example of the expectation of African-Americans to fulfill their duties in their designated sports, but to keep their thoughts and opinions out of the social realm. Though there has been a shift of acceptance of blacks in intercollegiate and professional sports, the promotion of black excellence outside of athletics seems to still be a struggle in the 21st century.”
References:
Burnard, M. (2018). Black Representation in Collegiate Sports. Unpublished essay, Pennsylvania State University
Byrd, Ayana. “STUDY: Increasing Number of Black Doctors Could Save Black Men’s Lives.” Colorlines, 10 Sept. 2018, www.colorlines.com/articles/study-increasing-number-black-doctors-could-save-black-mens-lives.
Sailes, Gary A. “Betting against the Odds: An Overview of Black Sports Participation.” Journal of African American Men, vol. 2, no. 2/3, 1996, pp. 11–22. JSTOR, JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/41819302.
Upthegrove, Tanya R., et al. “Big Money Collegiate Sports: Racial Concentration, Contradictory Pressures, and Academic Performance.” Social Science Quarterly, vol. 80, no. 4, 1999, pp. 718–737. JSTOR, JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/42864402.
White, Gillian B. “There Are Currently 4 Black CEOs in the Fortune 500.” The Atlantic, Atlantic Media Company, 26 Oct. 2017, www.theatlantic.com/business/archive/2017/10/black-ceos-fortune-500/543960/.