Racism & Black Advancement in Sports

The book is also the story of how little has changed since Jackie Robinson took that courageous step. America has made many promises to its people. The promise of racial equality is one that has been broken time and time again. Some commentators have said that time is running out, that it is five minutes to midnight.

Lapchick's discouraging words were written in 1984, and the author seems to be more pessimistic than necessary because of a series of terrible examples of racism he witnessed and experienced personally. This is not to minimize the importance of discovering and rooting out every demonstration of illegal and immoral racism in pro sports wherever possible. However, great strides have been made to bring greater justice to African Americans in pro sports, and such strides need to be acknowledged. The fight against specific racism in pro sports is not over, but certainly a number of important battles have been won.

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le, blacks' success in pro sports was inevitably limited severely. Of course, the roots of stereotyping and bias against African Americans in sports are to be found in the institution of slavery which began in the 17th century. Blacks were seen not only as tools of the economic system, to be exploited without regard to justice, morality or humanity, but as targets of hatred and abuse of every imaginable sort. Although there may have been some good white men who sought to use their power to bring about greater equality for blacks in sports, the entrance of blacks into professional sports in the 20th century was primarily the result of rich white men seeing the economic advantages in such a development. Branch Rickey of the Los Angeles Dodgers might have truly sought justice for blacks in sports, but he certainly also recognized that having a masterful athlete such as Jackie Robinson on his team was going to win games and draw more fans who would spend more money and increase corporate profits. The bias against blacks did not end with the entrance of a few black athletes in sports in the decades after World War II. Of course, individual black athletes such as Joe Louis achieved fame and wealth earlier in the century, but tea
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Approximate Word count = 3564
Approximate Pages = 14 (250 words per page)

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