Race is a touchy subject. The pretense of any argument about it is kind of a Catch-22. If you're white you're not allowed to comment or your opinion is of no value, which means only the minority groups get to discuss it. How are we supposed to move forward when only one group gets any say? I'm pretty sure that's how we got here in the first place. 40 Million Dollar Slaves by William C. Rhoden is a book about the black athlete and all the problems they still face today. To properly discuss the book I guess I should start by saying I'm white and that, I feel, the only way we are going to improve race relations in this country is to find a way to allow all sides to have a valid opinion. Maybe that is something that can only come with time, the more removed me become from slavery and Jim Crow laws, the more we will be able to except the view of the other color. Maybe, because I'm white and because we aren't more then a generation removed from the Civil Rights Movement, my opinions on this book aren't valid. Those of you who know me probably know validity has never stopped me before.
I've always thought that professional sports has done a great disservice to the black community in this country. Our society tells young black kids the only chance they have to make something of themselves, the only way to get out of the ghetto, is to either become a rapper or play professional sports. The message has become, accomplish one of those two things and you will make tons of money and be a success. I can't help but think of the old saying, "Give a man a fish and he eats for a day. Teach a man to fish and he eats for life." Kids spend one year in collage and then jump right to pro levels so as not to miss out on a pay day because success seems to be measured by how much one makes. Shouldn't the message be, to be a success you need to get an education. If sports gets you into college, use it, if you want to go on and have a pro career, do it, but get the education first. You may make millions by being a professional athlete, but by getting an education and having skills for when your sports days are over you become a bigger help to your community.
I picked up 40 Million Dollar Slaves hoping that this topic would be discussed. I hoped someone from the black community might express some of the same fears and disservices that I saw and felt. And to some degree Rhoden did. He talks through most of the book of the importance of community and how athletics seems to pull black children from that community. He talks about the "Conveyor Belt" system that pushes kids from a very early age towards professional sports and molds them into a product. Even with all that addressed, I couldn't help but feel Rhoden missed the point, that his own thoughts on race relations caused him to focus on issues of his own design and not the greater issues at hand.
As the title suggests, the central theme of the book is that even though we are centuries removed from slavery in this country the black athlete is essentially a 40 million dollar slave. Rhoden feels that since there is only one black owner in all of sports (at the time of the books writing it was Charlotte Bobcats owner Robert Johnson who has since sold majority interest to Michael Jordan) black athletes must still bend to the whim of their white owners much like slaves. I hate to point this out to Mr. Rhoden, but most of this country whether black, white, yellow or red, is in the same predicament and none of them make 40 million dollars doing so. I am much more a slave to a white master then anyone in professional sports. At least 40 million dollars gives you the chance to accomplish financial freedom. I don't have that option. I will be working for "The Man" for the rest of my life and the color of my skin has nothing to do with it. Professional athletes are nothing like slaves other then in some thin analogy that insults the hard working majority of the country. Mr. Rhoden might argue that athletes just have favored slave status, much like how house slaves were looked at in the past, but once again I say in this day and age, color has nothing to do with it. If the black athlete is a slave, so is the white one. To make it a racial issue is an unfair analysis of what is going on in the country.
Another problem I have with Rhoden's book is his discussion of swagger. He holds up "style" as a desirable black trait, a sign of ones blackness, that the white man to this day tries to snuff out. His example is Willie Mays, whose undeniable style on a baseball field has made him one of the greatest ballplayers of all time. The white institutions that run sports tend to see displays of black style, like those displayed by Mays, as threatening and try to put in rules to keep the black athlete and his style down. I can't deny that black athletes have added style and entertainment to the world of sports. Athletes like Mays and Ali and Doctor J have made sports that much more exciting and interesting to watch. But if Rhoden's major point is that black athlete's are pulled from their community and are forced to turn their back of the people and places that make them black, why would you hold up this idea of style, an idea that at it's very nature separates one from everyone else? I don't see how you mention players like Mays but ignore the Hank Aarons or Bill Russelss or Magic Johnsons who may have showed less "style" on the playing field but took great pains to help and stay connected to the very community you don't want future athletes to turn their backs on. The natural progression, in my mind, of Willie Mays is Terrell Owens and Ron Artest. Players that are far to concerned with their own celebrity to worry about others. I wish Rhoden focused more on players who have tried to make a difference in their community instead of holding up athletes as a paradigm of blackness who aren't doing the community any good.
This book was first published in 2006. I find it interesting that one of the subjects he talks about is the Fab 5, five high school basketball players who decided to take control of the college recruitment process and all go to the same school. Rhoden applauds the idea of the players taking control of the system and the potential such a action has of black athletes gaining some control of their own destinies. It makes me wonder... Did Lebron James and Dwyane Wade read this book? If so, they got it all wrong. Rhoden says although the Fab 5 had a great idea they messed up their choice in colleges. If they truly wanted to gain some power for the black community they would have gone to a black college, like Grambling or Alcorn, instead of white Michigan. Lebron and Wade made the same mistake. Don't confuse their intentions. Whether they read the book or not, their choice had nothing to do with black power and everything to do with having fun with the Miami night life. I'm sure Rhoden himself would say the two superstars had a chance to make a statement, they could have pushed for the black owned Charlotte team to sign them. Potentially setting up the first championship held by a black owner (even if the owner already has 6 trophies). But seriously, have you been to a bar in Charlotte?
There were many theories brought up by Rhoden that I found dead on. Some of them probably more controversial then the ones I didn't agree with, like the idea that Jackie Robinson's integration in Major League Baseball set back black athletes by destroying the Negro leagues. But I couldn't help walking away from the book feeling he had gotten it all slightly wrong. That the major points he was trying to make were misguided. I certainly recommend other pick it up and give it a read, it's well written and argued and if nothing else should spark discussion, but I can't say I agree with its message as a whole.
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