An illustration of assumption
Campus Times
December 12, 1997
For once in this lifetime, can we all look beyond race, color, sex,
age, etc. and see humans for humans and talented athletes for who they are,
not what race he or she is.
American professional sports showcases the best possible athletes the
United States has to offer. Millions of young children who play sports get
filtered down to thousands of young men and women, who represent and play
for his or her respected professional sport.
And why do these millions of players get narrowed down to a mere thousand
or so? For the same reason people get chosen as an executive vice president
for a major corporation; they are talented at what they do.
These players become the spotlight of the American eye and are under
the microscopes almost daily, of fans, media and each other. So without
any surprise, Sports Illustrated (SI) published an article
about the wonderful world of the professional athlete.
However this article, "What Ever Happened to the White Athlete?,"
was a big surprise. For an apparent boost in sales or lack of quality material,
the editors of SI slapped this sensationalized, seemingly unresearched
story on the cover. And finally, with the aid of some very sophisticated
graphs and pie charts, the "special report" was complete.
But what was lacking from S.L. Price's report was any indication of
this issue's starting point. Did Price really need to raise the question
about where the white athlete went? No, he did not, and even worse, he could
not find any sport the white athlete does not participate in. But Price
could not find the white athlete. Maybe he needs help looking for some.
The beginning of my search for where to find the white athlete begins
right where it started: in Price's story.
Aside from only showing overwhelming statistics about how many black
athletes represent the National Basketball Association (NBA) and the National
Football League (NFL), Price tells us that African Americans only account
for 13 percent of the Major League Baseball population.
But his counter argument for that is the black athlete has won 42 percent
of the MVP awards, so the black athlete is responsible for the bulk of the
offense. Now is this a fact of talent or of ethnicity? Obviously the former
is the reason behind the black athlete's success.
If I can remember correctly, Jackie Robinson was said to have broken
the color barrier in 1947, making any arguments for ethnic differences irrelevant
because we are all humans and are all competing athletes. So this is a question
of one athlete being a step faster, a little stronger, a little better than
another, not black compared to white.
In the story, Price says that blacks "are hungrier, harder-working
and perhaps physiologically superior" over the white athlete, who is
"dropping out of the athletic mainstream."
Where can these figures, reasons, statistics be found? How can a person
come to such conclusions on such shaky ground? One word: assumption.
Price has built a strong case against the existence of the white athlete
in his article by ignoring such sports as golf, tennis, hockey, etc. And
what he does to cover his close-minded story is to say the white athletes
are going to other sports to "pursue success elsewhere."
So not only has he drawn a line between Americans, but he also has divided
the sports world.
The last time I can remember watching a hockey game, million-dollar
athletes skated around the ice rink, while millions of fans, minus Price
of course, watched with passion. And to add a statistic to Price's in depth
report, the sport with the puck is dominated by the white athlete.
Price and the rest of the SI reporters and editors give the impression
that they do not cover every aspect of the professional sports world as
their magazine claims to do. Instead the editors dig up stories that have
been buried for nearly 20 years.
Greg MacDonald, a sophomore communications major, is editorial assistant
of the Campus Times. He can be reached by e-mail at gmacdona@ulv.edu.
