Week 5/Day 4 Black in Sport

 Week 5/Day 4 Blacks in Sports

I)                    Black coaches are more experienced, more capable, and produce better results -more likely to lead teams to the playoffs

II)                  Racism =a belief that race is a fundamental determinant of human traits and capacities and that racial differences produce an inherent superiority of a particular race

a.      Behavior that reflects this belief or the systemic oppression of a racial group to social, economic, and political advantage.

III) The NFL is racist when it comes to hiring coaches

a.      Engages in systemic oppression of a racial group which benefits another

b.      Fosters a belief that white coaches are inherently superior to their black counterparts

c.      This is based on research, not belief

IV)                Excluded years before 1989 because they were obviously racist

V)                  Did not count those already employed as of 1989

VI)                Did not include those who were interim head coaches

VII)              Examined 20 black coaches and 132 white coaches of the NFL since 1989

Where did all these white guys come from

1.      People of color constitute less than 12 % of new hires

2.      Thirteen NFL teams, nearly half of the league’s 32 franchisers (Bills, commanders, Cowboys, Falcons, Giants, Jaguars, Panthers, Patriots, Rams, Ravens, Seahawks, Saints, and Titans) have never hired a black head coach

3.      Part of this is because 14% of head coaches are related to former or current NFL coaches

4.      Over 1/3^rd are family members of current former or coaches in the NFL

5.      This is related to the fact that 98% of general managers hired since 1989 have been white

6.      8 percent of white men leading teams over the last decade have never coached at any position in the NFL

a.      Never happened for a Black Coach

b.      9 out of 10 white coaches have never played in the league

c.      Most of the Black coaches are former players

7.      84 % of offensive and defensive coordinators are white men, the second-highest ranking coach on a team

8.      It’s not what you know but who you know.  Being the best worker does not mean that you will be promoted to team leader

Black Meritocracy, White Mediocrity

1.      Black coaches are better than white coaches

a.      Won about 7.75ngames per year, while white coaches win about 7.71

b.      Average tenure of Black coaches is 4.5 years, more than a full season shorter than white head coaches =5.68 years

2.      Black coaches make it to the playoffs with nearly 40% of them, while white coaches make little more than 35%.

3.      Only 17 coaches with a winning record have been fired, 5 of which were blacks.

4.      25% of black coaches fired with winning records

5.      97% of white coaches won more than 8 games and kept in their position.

What about the Rooney rule

a)      Supposed to fix this problem.  Named after owner Dan Rooney in 2003, it required every team with a head coach vacancy to interview at least one diverse candidate

b)      Before it began, 13 percent of new head coaches were Black; after the rule, it is below 12 %.

c)      And the average tenure has also gone down

d) So even though owners have tripled club membership, yes, there has been an increase in the number of Black coaches, and the coaching staff is even whiter than before.

The Other Side

1. Not a single Black NFL coach on any level did not cite racism as the main reason why the NFL’s leadership is so white.

2.      each year, 1,2000 Black men  as players provide 8 billion in revenues

a.      of the 32 NFL teams, only 2 are minorities, none are black, it has never had a black owner in its 102-year history.

3.      The only way these numbers do not demonstrate racism is to determine that Blacks ARE INCOMPETENT AND DO NOT HAVE THE CAPACITY TO LEAD A TEAM

4.      Or do you believe that whites are inherently superior coaches

5.      But the data needs to demonstrate this.

 

II. The NFL’s Racist “Race Norming” Is an Afterlife of Slavery

1. Statistical manipulation led to Black players being underpaid in concussion settlements, demonstrating that American football is racist.

2.      There is a pervasive belief that blacks are more likely to be the object of racist, homophobic and misogynistic language.

3.      The defense of those using such only demonstrates how hypocritical their perspectives are.

4.      In 2021, the NFL announced that it would discontinue the use of race norming

a.      Practice of assuming a lower baseline of cognitive abilities in black players not a result of concussion-related injuries

b.      Black former professional football players, led by former Pittsburgh Steelers Kevin Henry and Najeh Davenport have argued that race norming interfered with their ability to receive fair compensation and benefits form the settlement

c.      Black retirees are overrepresented in the number of former players with impaired health having risked their minds and bodies to play this American sport

d.      They received limited compensation they rightfully deserved.

5.      In 2013 NFL settled for $765 million after 4,500 retired players brought concussion-related lawsuits against the league

a.      18000 former players were eligible to receive a settlement

                                                              i. For such things as dementia, Alzheimer's disease, Parkinson’s disease, and chronic traumatic encephalopathy.

6.      Black players soon found that they had more difficulties accessing these funds because the NFL required cognitive tests that were adjusted for race

a.      Black players were automatically assumed (through a statistical manipulation called race norming) to have started off with cognitive functioning than White former players

b. Therefore, though black and white former players had the same raw scores after the battery of cognitive tests was given, Black players were presumed to have suffered less impairment and, therefore, qualified for less compensation.

7.      Football is the most profitable and popular professional sport league in the United States,

a.      Yet there are a lot of Anti-Black, racist, and discriminatory practices that have been identified over the decades

8.      Race norming depends on a belief that race is binary, a biological concept therefore the differences in black bodies and minds are not only real but quantifiable

9.      The reality is that race norming is a form of scientific racism

10.  The reality is the average NFL career averages only 2.66 years.

11. The NFL spent over $500 million on injuries in 2019

a.      But whose bodies, injuries, and health matter most

12.  Race norming legitimizes unequal distribution of resources to most of their players

13. An anti-black practice that allowed it to keep millions of dollars that were due to these black players.

14.  Race norming goes back to Thomas Jefferson’s idea that differences in pulmonary function between black enslaved and white people were rooted in his beliefs that black enslaved people had lower long capacity than whites

a.      This was used to develop what they called race correction in spirometers -an apparatus still used to measure respiratory disease today

15.  In nephrology, eGFR, another race-normed test, the gold standard for measuring kindy function ..measures creatin and adjusts for gender, age, and race

a.      Has led to scientists determining that black people's muscle mass was higher than white people's, which then leads to higher kidney function

b.      But race is neither biological nor genetic -the muscle mass of living humans cannot be measured feasibly in clinics, according to nephrologists, but takes more sophisticated equipment

c. Calls to halt these practices in lung and kidney functions have resulted in lower financial compensation because they link them to biology/genetics and not health or cognitive impairments.

d. These have led to differential outcomes and treatment associated with COVID-19 for Black patients, Black maternal health crises and higher rates of pregnancy-related deaths, higher misdiagnosis of diseases like amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS_ in black patients, and the list goes on.

e.      Lou Gerig disease is not being studied to see if it is also targeting black players.  As 70 % of Black players and nearly 73% of nonwhite, only two black men and 11 whites have come forward with this disease

f.        The issues are the environment, bias, structural inequities, and misdiagnosis, which lead to these lopsided outcomes and ratios.   

III. We Won’t Shut up and Dribble a short history of black athletic protests.

1.      George Floyd's murder spurred protest in all 50 states, but also among athletes at all levels.

2.      Not only professional athletes but college athletes led protests in their towns; even coaches who are typically nonpolitical joined the Black Lives Matter movement.

3.      This is not the first time athletes have confronted the politics of race.

The Rise of Jim Crow Sports

1.      Three plus decades after the Civil War -between 1875-1902, eleven African jockeys led by Isaac Murphy won the Kentucky Derby.

2.      Even with his success, white horse owners began demanding white jockeys exclusively

a.      Black riders were also excluded from the union

b.      In 1900, Ney York attempted to exclude black competitors

3.      Other sports soon followed

a.      Professional baseball, initially integrated, forced the last black PLAYER TO QUIT IN 1889 -Moses Fleetwood Walker

4.      At the time, No other profession has the color line been drawn more rigidly than in baseball

5.      When the NFL was formed in 1920, it fielded integrated teams

6.      But by 1933, football became all-white

7. In boxing, Jack Johnson held the heavyweight title from 1908-1915.

a.      But he had to play outside of the country because American sports had locked out black fighters.

b.      Johnson, therefore, had to go to Australia to fight Tommy Burns, who offered a purse of $30,000 ($900,000 in today's money) to win in 14 rounds.

c.      Johnson was a flamboyant dresser who refused to abide by the racial codes, becoming the Black menace in the eyes of the white sporting public

d.      In 1912, he was arrested and prosecuted for violating the Man Act -transporting a woman across state lines to for prostitution

                                                              i.      Oh..the woman was his white wife

                                                             ii.      He finally lost his title overseas in 1915.

III. Black Sporting Institutions

1. HBCUs developed various men's and women’s sports to celebrate Black community traditions and their unique athletic culture.

2. Rube Foster, in 1920, started the Negro National League, comprised of Black baseball players.

a. Before this, they would just ravel the countries without a league, with an erratic schedule

b. After a series of false starts, the Negro National League and the Negro American League were founded in -1937. They developed highly successful leagues from those shut out of major league baseball.

3.      Similar to this, black players founded the American Tennis Association in 1920 with 14 clubs in eight states and Washington, D.C.

Black Athletes on the International Stage

1.      The Modern Olympics began in 1896. George Coleman Poage, in the St. Louis 1904 games, became the first African American to win a medal.

a.      The 1932 games returned to the US and were hosted in Los Angeles.

                                                              i.      6 African American men made the team -sprinters Ralph Metcalfe and Eddie Tolan and broad jumper Eddie Gordon

1.      Tolan and Metcalf finished first and second in the 100-meter

2.      Gordon brought home the gold in broad jumping

                                                             ii.      While the press gave high praise to Tolan and Metcalf, few mentioned the segregation they faced off the track

                                                           iii.      Black women were prevented from participating completely

b.      We all know of the Nazi Games of 1936 -where Joe Louis beat the German Max Schmeling

2.      The Nazis intended the Games to demonstrate German superiority

3.      But 18 black athletes, along with the first black women -Stokes and Picket -destroyed the notion of Aryan supremacy.

4.      But America was still hostile as they returned home

5.      Metcalfe was able to find employment, but Owens was reduced to racing against animals, and Mack Robinson became a street sweeper.

6. in 1938, Joe Lewis defeated James Braddock -becoming the first Black heavyweight champion since Jack Johnson.

7.      Joe Lous would not only lead athletes, but he also volunteered to serve in World War II.

a.      Black Athletes were heavily involved in the Double V campaign victory abroad and at home.

IV. Civil rights and the Revolt of black Athletes

8.      In 1968, Jackie Robinson was inducted into the BASEBALL Hall of Fame; ML King noted his accomplishment in desegregating Major League Baseball and his activism

a.      Robinson constantly exposed hypocrisy in northern school systems

b.      He pushed for open access to the ballot and voting

c.      He participated in sit-ins before sit-ins and freedom rides were a thing, according to MKL.

d.      Robinson opened the door to other sports, as in 1946 Kenny Washington and Woody Strode re-integrated NFL

e.      Alice Coachman became first Black woman to win the gold in high jump at 1948 Olympics

f.        Althea Gibson broke the USLTA’s color line in 1950, winning Wimbledon in 1957

9. Although brown v. Board of Education (1954) provided a legal mechanism for desegregating college student bodies, integration of professional sports pushed southern college teams after 1961 to begin to desegregate their athletic programs.

10.  Off the field, athletes began following Robinsons' example -Bill Russell, center for the NBA Boston Celtics, in 1961 declared that he would no longer accept Jim Crow accommodations when traveling with the team

a.      Russell also led civil rights rallies in Boston, organized basketball camps during SCC’s 1964 Freedom Summer campaign in Mississippi

11.  In mid-1960 Jim Brown, the star of football, declared racial discrimination unacceptable to him and lal black people

a. The black Players American Football League boycotted the 196 All-Star Games held in New Orleans because of discriminatory treatment.

12.  The Black Power movement -we see Cassious Clay, winner of the gold in the 1960 Olympics in Rome

a. In 1961, after joining the NOI, he became Muhammad Ali and refused to be inducted into the AMY during the Vietnam War 1966.

b.       

13.  Who can forget the now iconic raised fist as John Carlos and Tommie Smith, as Lee Evans wore a black beret and raised fist after winning the 400 meters.

14.  But the protest was not without costs

a.      Carlos and Smith were kicked out of the Olympics

b.      Struggled to find work upon returning home

c.      Jackie Robinson died of a heart attack in 1972, at the age of 53 due to stress.

15.  College coaches were given more power to control players who protested through one-year renewal scholarship agreements by the NCAA in 1973

16.  Protesting black athletes on and off the field were punished personally and professionally.

17.  Athletes such as O.J. Simpson, who were non-confrontational, were richly rewarded with the 100,000 1975 Hertz Rental spokesperson.

18.  Few black athletes matched the apolitical attitude more than Michael Jordon

a. Nonconfrontational, he became rich selling sneakers and Gatorade and being a non-activist.

19.  Alternatively, when Mahmoud Abdul Rauf refused to stand for the National anthem in 1996, protesting racism, he found little money in endorsements.

20.  Venus and Serena, in the 200s, burst onto the scene, they endured racist and sexist comments about their body, and demeanor.

a. During the 2001 Masters held in Indian Wells, fans shouted the N-word at Serena. She and Venus never boycotted Indian Wells for 14 years.

VI. The Trayvon generation

 

1. When 17-year-old Trayvon Martin was killed by George Zimmerman on the night of the 2012 NBA All-Star Game, star athletes such as Lebron James and Dwayne Wade wore hoodies to demonstrate their outrage.

2.      There was not much of a protest following Trayvon’s nationally

3.      But the aftermath of George Zimmerman’s acquittal in 2013 sparked the hashtag #BlackLivesMatter

a. Then, the Murder of Michale Brown in 2014 outside of Stl Louis led to the transformation of the slogan into the Black Lives Matter Movement.

4. WNBA players wore Black Lives Matter shirts in 2016 after the murder of Philando Castle in St.  Paul

5.      League fined teams and players

6.      Off-duty police walked out of the Minnesota Lynx game after the team came out in Black Lives Matter shirts

7. Quarterback Colin Kaepernick, frustrated with a wave of police violence in 2016, with the shootings of Alton Sterling, Philando Castle, and Charles Kinsey, as well as the acquittal of police involved in the death of Freddie Gray, staged his now famous protest by kneeling during the national anthem.

8. By the summer of 2020, black Lives Matter had been stenciled on the floor in both the WNBA and NBA .. players chose slogans such as Say Her Name, I Can't Breath, and Equality, now adding their jerseys.

9.      WNBA players, after being berated by US Senator Kelly Loeffler, chastised black players for their Support of Black Lives Matter -they intern began urging Georgia voters to support Raphael Warnock to take the seat -he did in a historic victory, becoming the first African American senator from Georgia

10. Milwaukee Bucks decided to protest the shooting of Jacob Blake by police in Kenosha, Wisconsin, by deciding not to play the playoff game.

11.  Thus culminating over a century of Athletes protesting.